Two Seminary of the Southwest Master in Divinity seniors were awarded Episcopal Evangelism Society (EES) Grants for the 2023-2024 grant cycle. The grants were awarded to Liam Barr, candidate for holy orders from the Diocese of North Carolina, and the Rev. Anthony Suggs-Perea, transitional deacon from the Diocese of Colorado.
A total of five grants were awarded for this grant cycle and “they represent a wide scope of engagement with church members and the communities beyond their churches,” EES shared. “The grant work will share the Good News of God’s redeeming love in Jesus, and will help form the grantees as twenty-first century evangelists.”
Liam’s project will focus on immigration and faith. He plans to develop a four-session video curriculum on this topic which will educate non-immigrants about the immigration process, empower non-immigrants to develop relationships with immigrants, and create a real sense of empathy and connection between these groups.
“I am elated to receive an Episcopal Evangelism Society grant to develop my project, Immigration and Faith: A Video Curriculum,” Liam shares. “In my time at Seminary of the Southwest, I have been invited to be a part of several immigrant communities. Through my church placement at Proyecto Santiago Episcopal Church and involvement with Casa Marianella, Austin’s primary immigration shelter, I have been continually blessed and transformed by the witnesses of the lives of immigrants and asylum seekers. With the support of the EES and SSW, I hope to extend this blessing into the wider church.”
Anthony’s project will be to create and foster a bicycle-based intentional community in Austin, Texas. He plans to engage in spiritual practices around racism and creation care in this community and has partnered with the Yellow Bike Project, a local nonprofit community bike shop.
Anthony shares, “I’m honored to have EES’s support as I form a small community of people to explore cycling as spiritual practice together. It is my hope that this process will increase our sense of community and offer tangible ways for each of us to engage with cycling as an embodied spiritual practice that improves our relationships with God, each other, our communities, and creation.”
Since 2007, EES has awarded Seminary of the Southwest students, faculty, and staff 23 grants. Projects have ranged from multicultural ministry, global partnerships and mission trips, pastoral care for veterans, video game chaplaincy, and agrarian ministries. You can read more about past Southwest EES grant recipients and their projects on the EES archives webpage.
