Current Projects

Adopt-A-Seminary Program

Worldwide

The Adopt-A-Seminary Program was founded in 1986 to provide theological books and other print resources to schools, seminaries, and churches in less-affluent countries. To date, we have provided more than $5 million worth of materials to recipients in over 250 countries. We have sent shipments as large as 14,000 books to Venezuela and as small as a single Bible to a young student in Uganda.

Clergy in the United States often have more books on the shelves of their offices than many seminaries in Africa and other parts of the developing world have in their entire libraries. While American clergy are sinking in a sea of books and journals, tens of thousands of Christian leaders in other parts of the world are thirsting for reading material. If the Church is to continue its healthy growth in many corners of the world, we must put good Christian books into the hands of those who need them. For every $100 SPCK/USA receives for its Adopt-A-Seminary program, we are able to send $1,000 worth of books to these fellow Christians.

Since it began in 1986, Adopt-A-Seminary has served more than 250 seminaries and other centers of Christian learning, from all Christian traditions and in more than 60 countries. The books we send are given to SPCK/USA by theological publishers, American seminary libraries, authors, churches, retired clergy and their widows, and other individuals. As the books pour into Sewanee, they are sorted, packed, and sent on their way to a new life thousands of miles away.

If you are interested in supporting this program financially or by donating your library, please contact SPCK/USA.

The Lillian Vallely School

Idaho, USA

Matriarchs of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe in Idaho established the Lillian Vallely School in January of 1998 with the goal of preserving their culture for their children. The Lillian Vallely School believes that every person is a unique creation of God whose unique potential and individual needs must be respected. The Shoshone-Bannock people have a beautiful and valuable heritage, and their children are best educated in an environment formed by their tribe’s traditions and sensitivities. The Lillian Vallely is determined to fulfill their elders’ dream of seeing their grandchildren and great-grandchildren excel academically, secure in the faith and values of their Christian tradition. The school believes this dream will be fulfilled through the Episcopal Church schools’ heritage of academic excellence and religious instruction that respects Catholic, Protestant, and other traditions. The school provides its services to the students and their families at no cost to insure that no one will be turned away for lack of economic resources. However, families are required to contribute time to the school. SPCK/USA has supported the development of the library at the Lillian Vallely Indian School.

Summer Camp for Children

Episcopal Diocese of Cuba

Can you imagine the children in your Vacation Bible School without crayons, pens, pencils, food, and even shoes?

Cuba is 90 miles from the United States mainland, yet it is thousands of miles away from the resources many of us take for granted: sewing needles and thread, pins, pencils, crayons, pens, vitamins, aspirin and other medicine, altar candles, and shoes for the children. The children of Cuba are joyous and well cared for by their parents, but they still suffer the hardships even the poorest child in our country doesn’t know. Despite the lack of essentials, rationing, and hunger, the spirit of the Episcopal Church in Cuba is soaring.

SPCK/USA is continually committed to providing funds for a summer camp for the children in the Episcopal Diocese of Cuba. Each year, sixty or more children will spend four days in Havana in a theme-focused, Vacation Bible School setting. During the camp there will be crafts, fellowship, and Bible study. Without the support of generous donors through SPCK/USA, this summer camp would cease to continue.

Training of Lay Leaders and Seminarians

St. Tikhon’s Theological Academy, Moscow

As an ongoing project, SPCK/USA assists St. Tikhon’s Theological Academy and its publications department to reprint books destroyed during the Communist regime, supports the training of seminarians and lay professionals at St. Tikhon’s ($600 per student annually), and helps with the costs of printing and mailing course materials to 800 correspondence students ($50 per student annually).

Today, thousands of churches, seized by the Communists after the Bolshevik Revolution, have been returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and reopened. Crowds are flocking to them. The greatest challenge now facing Christians is a desperate shortage of religious leaders. For nearly 80 years, the Communists forbade training anything but a trickle of priests. Times have changed, and now there is a flood of qualified candidates for ordination, but little money with which to train them. Inflation and a poor economy have put impossible financial pressures on the Church’s two largest seminaries, which are in St. Petersburg and Moscow. This has forced them to turn away qualified candidates sent by dioceses all over the country.

Through SPCK/USA, donors have been able to sponsor many seminarians by providing the funds to support annual education, room and board, and a modest stipend for each student. These donations have made such a positive difference in the lives of future clergy in Russia. In November of 2002, St. Tikhon’s celebrated its 10th “Jubilee anniversary” and published a book about the history of the institution. The aid and encouragement received from members of SPCK/USA are included as a bright spot in St. Tikhon’s past, present, and future.

Hymnals for Congregations

Episcopal Diocese of Northern Luzon, Philippines

A plea issued by the Rt. Rev. Ignacio Soliba of the Philippines put SPCK/USA into action. Bishop Soliba wrote that many congregations in his diocese had only one Hymnal with which to worship in music and song. Most of the churches in the diocese use the 1940 Hymnal, and these were difficult to find and afford in the Philippines. SPCK/USA along with the diligent assistance of Christ Church, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, was able to collect and send Bishop Soliba thousands of 1940 Hymnals. Many Episcopal churches in the United States had several boxes of these Hymnals collecting dust in basements or storage facilities, and they sent these precious books to Christ Church to be shipped to Bishop Soliba. About a recent shipment he wrote,

“Thank you very much for the Hymnals you sent us. The fortunate recipient is St. Luke the Physician Aide Parish in Minagbag, Quezon, Isabela in the Diocese of Northern Luzon. It was a Christmas and New Year’s gift to them. Previously, the congregation had only one copy of the Hymnal, and with the Hymnals you sent the congregation sang the Christmas hymns and carols with gusto!”

¡SPCK Español! Misionero Hispano Program

Episcopal Church in the United States

In the spring of 2001, six Episcopal bishops gathered to focus on Hispanic ministry in the Church. The result of their meeting was the “Atlanta Manifesto,” the bishops’ call to action for Hispanic Ministry–Un Llamado a la Acción. An earlier call by the Church to seriously address Hispanic Ministry was issued in 1979. Hispanic Ministry has grown in many parts of our church; yet, our response to the demographic growth has been sporadic. The 2000 census indicated the presence of some 35 million Hispanics in our midst. Projections show that by the year 2050 our country will have a population of 80 million.

The Misionero Hispano program helps prepare clergy to address the growing opportunity for mission and ministry in our midst. In the past we provided first-class priests for our Hispanic congregations by calling priests from Latin American countries. However, we now realize that it is in many ways unreasonable and objectionable to expect our partners overseas to supply the North American Church with Hispanic clergy. The SPCK Misionero Hispano program is designed to work both with seminarians and with clergy “in the field,” offering a comprehensive approach to what we find unfolding before the Church.

The new Hispanic immigration is a true gift from God…sent to revive, increase, enrich, uplift and bless all peoples in this United States and in the Episcopal Church…” –The National Hispanic Missioner