Expecting miracles: a short history of ECSF

In the late 1980’s Bishop William Grant Black commissioned a task force to design a free-standing charity in response to the need for more resources for social justice work in the Diocese of Southern Ohio. Using a $10,000 grant from the United Thank Offering to research charities across the Episcopal Church, they recommended that our ECSF focus its mission on equipping the ministry of local congregations, rather than on providing social services directly. The theology of this is that every Christian is called to respond to human need, making the local congregation vital to living out this part of the Gospel.

Previously, the diocese had funded human services ministry with a line item in the operating budget, which comes primarily from assessments on congregations and which is always constrained by the need to fund many other kinds of ministry. Because the new fund was able to receive freewill donations from individuals as well as churches, its founders envisioned that it would grow to be able to do far more to support social justice work than the previous system.

Following the election of Bishop Herbert Thompson in 1988 (pictured at left), ECSF became a key piece of his vision to equip Episcopalians in this diocese to proclaim the Gospel with more daring and joy. The new foundation was chartered in the State of Ohio in 1991, with Dr. Bob Kell of Columbus serving as the first president. Many of the diocese’s most dedicated social justice leaders have served on its board, grants committee, and staff in the ensuing years. Start-up funds came from the diocesan budget, the William Cooper Procter Fund, and Bishop Thompson’s Vision Covenant Capital Campaign.

In 1999, Diocesan trustee Chet Cavaliere and ECSF treasurer John Harris proposed an endowment for ECSF in memory of Bishop Roger Blanchard, fifth Bishop of Southern Ohio, (pictured at right) loved and honored throughout the Episcopal Church for his courageous leadership in social justice from the 1960’s until his death. Led by ECSF trustees the Rev. Ron Stenning, Canon Gordon Price, and board president Tom Kirkpatrick, the endowment drive laid the groundwork for ECSF to become self-sustaining as diocesan and Procter funding tapered. Thanks to generous founding gifts from many people and churches, plus an extraordinary grant of more than $540,000 from the Trustees of the Diocese in 2006, the Blanchard Endowment is now worth over $1 million, and generates more than $50,000 a year to support ECSF’s work.

Since 2005, ECSF’s grants budget has come entirely from the endowment and annual giving. In 2006, 75% of the congregations of the diocese and almost 500 individuals contributed to ECSF, lifting the annual campaign total above $100,000 for the first time in our history. Thanks to this rapidly growing support, the annual grants budget has grown from $52,400 in 2004 to $123,365 in 2007.

In 2004, ECSF’s staff and trustees launched a major program of technical assistance. Since then we have organized or co-sponsored 18 workshops, retreats, and conferences on topics ranging from urban needs to Appalachian ministry plus scores of free consultations to individual churches. Every day we connect people who are working on the same issues, fostering new partnerships among Episcopal churches, other denominations, non-profits, business, and state and local government. Read through this website for a taste of the creativity, knowledge, passion, and prayer at work across this diocese, and tap into it yourself! Together, we can do so much more than in isolation, by living into our call to be the Body of Christ in Southern Ohio.

Our logo comes from the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. Reported in all four Gospels, this story starts with the pragmatic disciples counseling Jesus to withdraw from a hungry crowd. “There is no need to turn them away,” he said. “Give them something to eat yourselves. (Matt14:16). They complied, against all reason, then witnessed 5,000 people be fully nourished from a pocketful of food.

As the Gospel song says, We expect a miracle, every day. God will make a way, out of no way.