ACTS/VIM, our largest and longest running endowed granting fund, reached a notable milestone this past spring when it surpassed $7.5 million in grants awarded since its inception.
Diocesan Convention established the ACTS/VIM Fund (A Commitment To Serve / Ventures in Mission) in 1979. The Diocese of Newark committed to a capital campaign as a part of The Episcopal Church’s Ventures in Mission campaign championed by then-Presiding Bishop John Allin. Our diocese’s goal was the cited most ambitious of all diocesan initiatives carried out during that time frame.
Of the $6 million pledged and received from congregations and individual donors, approximately 25% was given back to The Episcopal Church’s Ventures in Mission fund, and another portion established other, smaller diocesan funds, including the Rath Scholarship for children of clergy. The remaining funds were used to establish the ACTS/VIM endowment, which generates interest income to support the annual grant cycle.
For 45 years, the ACTS/VIM Fund has provided funding for many varied projects and ministries among our congregations and diocesan-wide initiatives, from food pantries, sheltering the unhoused, art programs, ministry to the elderly, ESL, Vacation Bible Schools and after-school programs. ACTS/VIM has been a critical source of income for many diocesan and inter-church collaborative ministries, including the Prison Ministry, Episcopal Jersey City, and North Porch.
It has provided important seed money for other organizations launched by the diocese or our congregations that have since stepped out on their own – including the Apostles’ House, the Youth Consultation Service, the Newark School of Theology, and most recently, All the Way Up.
To quote Bishop John Shelby Spong from his address to the 1979 Special Convention in which this diocese took on the capital campaign to fund ACTS/VIM “…I look beyond fund raising, and I see a diocese of revitalized churches, bearing a more effective witness to this Lord. I see a spirit of venturesomeness being born. I see our church in Christ’s name reaching out in new ways to young people, elderly people, urban people, dying people. I see us as a church saying we care because God cares. We love because God loves. With that vision, I invite you to see in the decision today a privilege not a burden, a hope not a fear. We will act because God calls us to act, for we are the body of Christ – alive, witnessing, serving in our generation.”
The Diocese of Newark, through the ACTS/VIM Fund, has been following through on this calling for more than a generation, and will continue to do so for generations to come.
The 12-member ACTS/VIM Board is made up of clergy and laity that are elected at Diocesan Convention or appointed by the bishop. The application deadline is March 1st each year, and applicants can request up to $20,000 to fund program proposals which address one or more of the following:
- Connect congregational development and community outreach.
- Promote inclusivity and welcoming of outsiders (or program beneficiaries) into the Episcopal Church.
- Foster and broaden clergy and lay leadership in the congregation.
- Demonstrate responsible stewardship of resources.
- Offer creative vision for the church’s witness and presence in the community.
- Promote collaboration and cooperation.
- Provide initial resources for new endeavors (seed money), which might otherwise be difficult to fund.
Funding decisions are made by the full Board and ratified by Diocesan Council.
