Each year, the Synod of the Trinity provides Small Church Leadership Development funds for its presbyteries so they can distribute the funds to their smaller congregations that are looking to provide training for their clergy and lay leadership. In 2025, the Synod distributed more than $22,000 to its presbyteries, money that was divided up based on the number of “small” churches in each presbytery. A church with a membership of 100 or less is considered a “small church” for this program.
What follows is a recap of how the Synod’s presbyteries used their SCLD funds.
CARLISLE
We again used the funds to help our small churches with their Zoom fees. I suppose the added bonus this year is one of our pastors used the accounts for his DMin project. He is experimenting with live-streaming worship to several churches at once with local lay folk doing some of the worship leadership such as prayers of the people, offering and announcements. He is evaluating the spiritual dimension of engaging in that kind of worship.
DONEGAL
We are happy to report for 2025 we continued to apply the SCLD Fund donation from the Synod to a number of grants through our Engaging Our Mission Committee (EOM) so that we can say the grants are in partnership with the Synod.
During 2025, these are some of the grants and financial support that were distributed:
- Hosting SEYCO Nursery School – Keeping Children Safe: Grant to Stewartstown Presbyterian Church to upgrade necessary security to permit the church to launch a new nursery to serve their community, including lower income families.
- EPC Cares for Kids: Grant to Eastminster Presbyterian Church Program to help fund preparing bags of non-perishable food for children of economically challenged families, supplying them with food for the weekend, until they get back to school Monday and again receive the meals provided by the schools.
- Fight Hunger Fall Fest: Grant to Wrightsville Presbyterian Church to help fund a community festival linking those experiencing food insecurity with community-based resources and programs, including volunteer recruitment.
- Safety/Security Upgrade: Grant to Eastminster Presbyterian Church to provide security camera upgrades after a direct incursion threatening the pastor and putting the preschool at risk.
- Resources to Evaluate a Missional Future: Grant to First, Phoenixville to provide infrastructure to explore possibilities for leveraging part of the church building into low-income housing.
- Gold Award 2026: Lock in to Leadership: Grant to Slate Ridge Presbyterian Church to fund a leadership development lock-in for Girls Scouts, including arena rental.
- Three Churches – One Mission (Rise Against Hunger): Grant to Doe Run, Unionville and Bethany, Mendenhall churches to partner on a Rise Against Hunger meal packing event.
- Fall Food Festival to end Food Insecurity: Grant to Trinity Presbyterian Church to help fund a fall festival for the community to raise awareness about the massively expanded food pantry/food insecurity ministry hosted by Trinity and which needs over 70 volunteers and donations of food and $$$.
- Robes and Stoles for Newly Commissioned CRE Pastor: Grant to fund a robe and stoles for Ruling Elder Amy Wade, upon her commissioning as the CRE pastor of Doe Run Presbyterian Church.
We are most grateful for the Synod funds and our continued collaborative support of these amazing ministries in our congregations and as a presbytery.
HUNTINGDON
The Committee on Presbytery Life in Huntingdon Presbytery voted to use the available funds in our Small Church Development Fund to provide scholarships to children from our small churches who are interested in attending Krislund, our church camp, in the summer of 2026.
The young folks in our pews are the future leaders of our churches, but at this time in their lives, many of them lack the financial support to attend church camp. We strongly believe that a camp experience at Krislund has the potential to plant the seeds or provide the opportunities to help them grow as Christians and leaders in our small churches. The funds will be sent to Krislund, and Mary D’Ambrosia, secretary at Krislund, will manage the distribution through the system that Krislund has in place for discerning individual need and receipt of scholarships.
THANK YOU so much for this opportunity to serve those less privileged. We really appreciate this generous gift from the Synod of the Trinity!
KISKIMINETAS
The funds we received for Small Church Leadership Development allowed us to bring in the Rev. Dr. Graham Standish from Samaritan Counseling Center to offer a one-day workshop on small church ministry and development. It was open to all our congregations and pastors. We did have a number of folks attend the gathering, hosted at one of our churches. The feedback we received was incredibly positive, and folks were able to take their learnings back to their sessions and congregations.
We appreciate the grant money we received, which helped aid us in our efforts to improve the education and training events for our pastors, lay leaders and small congregations.
LACKAWANNA
Lackawanna used our small church leadership grant to book the Jazz Vespers for an event. The Jazz Vespers are a group dedicated to bringing the word of God through jazz music, and blended song and sermon for an inspiring evening at one of our church leadership events.
PHILADELPHIA
The Presbytery of Philadelphia was very appreciative to receive the Small Church Leadership Development Grant again in 2025. We allocated these funds evenly between two congregations: Anchor Presbyterian Church and Podowon Presbyterian Church. Both congregations were appreciative of the Synod’s vision for leadership development and to be awarded these funds.
Anchor utilized these funds to resource their pastor’s leadership development. This is a congregation that, after a several-year-long pastoral search, connected with a recent seminary graduate, who was still under care but had not completed the ordination requirements. Over the past year, Meg Neill (Candidate under care) has led this congregation under the supervision of a nearby pastor.
This has been a season of discernment, developing her gifts and skills for pastoral leadership. These funds have gone towards supporting this partnership. We are thrilled to share that she is going to be examined for ordination this April and then ordained & installed to this congregation.
Podowon Presbyterian Church is one of our thriving immigrant congregations led by the Rev. Byungil Kim. As they continue to grow, they’ve experienced the challenges of being a community made up of first, second and third generation immigrants. As they explored ways to strengthen their inter-generational leadership, they realized they needed to find ways to step out of their traditional structures to create space for deeper relationship building.
This past summer, the congregation applied to the presbytery for a “Great Ends Grant” under our “Leadership Development” focus. They requested around $5,000 for a series of events and a retreat aimed at bridging these generational divides and received our maximum of $3,000.
With the Synod’s grant, we’ve been able to close the funding gap for this project. We are thankful for the Synod of the Trinity’s partnership and investment in our smaller congregations.
PITTSBURGH
Pittsburgh Presbytery is deeply grateful to the Synod for its continued support through the small church Leadership Development Grant, which has been truly instrumental in equipping and renewing our ministry leaders throughout 2025. This past year, these vital funds were deployed to provide micro-grants directly to our pastors, enabling their participation in transformative educational workshops, seminars and missional outreach initiatives, including profound experiences like the Montreat “Discovering Renewal” conference.
Additionally, the grant was utilized to underwrite the financial obligations for lodging at our annual men’s retreat, fostering spiritual growth and essential community connections among our members. We are profoundly thankful to have these resources available to sharpen our pastoral leadership and strengthen our congregations, and we hope to continue this essential work in the future.
WASHINGTON
Washington Presbytery utilized the funds received in 2025 through expenditures that fell into two areas:
- Pastoral Care & Renewal: We hosted a Christmas gathering for our pastors and their spouses, providing lunch and enrichment activities designed to nourish and refresh them spiritually.
- PILP Mortgage Payoff: We also used a portion of the funds to pay off outstanding PILP mortgage grants for our smaller churches.
As we continue to restructure, we are gaining a clearer picture of all available funds and how they should best be utilized. Going forward, we are committed to being more proactive in directing these resources to the appropriate ministry groups in a timely manner. Thank you so much for your continued support.