CICW has awarded Vital 91ÁÔÆæ, Vital Preaching Grants for over 20 years to teacher-scholars and worshiping communities in 45+ states and provinces and across 40+ denominations and traditions—including Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, non-denominational, and other Protestant communities.


While worship styles and practices vary greatly across these traditions, the grant projects typically explore at least one of CICW’s ten core convictions related to worship. Explore the hundreds of projects we’ve funded across both streams of the program.

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Teacher-Scholar Technology 91ÁÔÆæ Leadership

Queen's College

Robert Neil Cooke

To develop a theology of technology and social media that leads to the development of liturgical skills in the local church context and of ways to utilize technology and social media to strengthen the public activities of the church.

Teacher-Scholar
St. John's, newfoundland and labrador
2022
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Teacher-Scholar 91ÁÔÆæ Practices

Samford University

Emily Andrews and Will Kynes

To learn from and with an ecumenical group of churches unfamiliar with the practice of corporate lament to gather the most important questions and pastoral concerns related to practicing corporate lament, and to develop practices for retrieving and employing lament in worship.

Teacher-Scholar
Birmingham, alabama
2022
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Teacher-Scholar Ecumenical Historical

Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies

Andrew Summerson

To bring together an ecumenical group of scholars to critically analyze early Christian liturgical poetry as prayer and pedagogy in order to give exposure to a significant and underdeveloped voice in contemporary Christianity.

Teacher-Scholar
Toronto, ontario
2022
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Teacher-Scholar Intercultural 91ÁÔÆæ Practices

Southern Methodist University

Marcell Silva Steuernagel

To engage in ethnographic research in collaboration with congregations in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex in order to promote integrative ecclesial environments that bridge the racial divide between White, Black, and Latinx constituencies.

Teacher-Scholar
Dallas, texas
2022
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Teacher-Scholar Accessibility Justice

The Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest

Brandon Crowley

To support and engage the public worship of African American congregations by creating a workbook that teaches pastors and local church leaders how to be more inclusive of Black women and LGBTQIA+ folx in their worship designs.

Teacher-Scholar
Austin, texas
2022
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Teacher-Scholar Formation Music

University of Notre Dame Folk Choir

J.J. Wright

To teach Christian communities how to see grace and mercy in loss and suffering by enabling young people to contemplate difficult questions as they rehearse and perform the newly composed Passion for the Innocents.

Teacher-Scholar
South Bend, indiana
2022
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Teacher-Scholar Public Witness 91ÁÔÆæ Resources

Villanova University

Wonchul Shin

To provide Asian and Asian-American worshiping communities with rich Pan-Asian theological resources for their public worship practice as a form of public witness that will proclaim the dignity of the Asian and Asian-American community and transform the culture of anti-Asian violence and racism.

Teacher-Scholar
Villanova, pennsylvania
2022
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Teacher-Scholar Historical 91ÁÔÆæ Leadership

Yale University

Melanie Ross

To research the worship music industry, Christian higher education, and congregational ministry, in order to explore the intersection of liturgy and economics, to provide a history of how worship became part of the commercial music and entertainment industry, and to understand the ways that congregations and Christian colleges that train future worship leaders have responded to this shift.

Teacher-Scholar
New Haven, connecticut
2022
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Teacher-Scholar Visual Arts

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS)

Rebecca Slough

To explore how the spatial and visual dimensions of congregational worship shape diverse Anabaptist communities, in order to create resources that facilitate culturally-informed reflection on visual arts in worship and to curate visual art resources for use in Anabaptist worship. 

Teacher-Scholar
Elkhart, indiana
2021
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Teacher-Scholar 91ÁÔÆæ Practices

Candler School of Theology

Antonio Alonso

To tell the story of the theological significance of ordinary material objects and the theological convictions they express, in order to encourage deeper attentiveness to the diverse materials through which we worship God.

Teacher-Scholar
Atlanta, georgia
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Trauma/Mental Health 91ÁÔÆæ Practices

Dallas International University

Beth Argot

To study the relationship between historical worship practices and arts and trauma healing practices in order to explore the potential for healing and increased wellbeing of worshipers within the context of public worship.

Teacher-Scholar
Dallas, texas
2021
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Teacher-Scholar 91ÁÔÆæ Leadership

Dordt University

Jeremy Perigo

To investigate emerging issues in liturgical theology through podcast and video interviews with scholars and practitioners, in order to empower local ministry leaders and churches to discern theologically and imagine liturgically the characteristics of Christian worship in their own context.

Teacher-Scholar
Sioux Center, iowa
2021
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