Cultivating Enough in the Care of Clergy

A New Initiative

The Leadership of the Presbytery of Philadelphia has been awarded a Thriving in Ministry Grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. This five year, $1 million grant to invest increased energies, efforts, and personnel to expand our Ministry and Leadership Incubator through the research, development, and launch of this new venture, Cultivating Enough in the Care of Clergy. The strategic goal of our pilot initiative is to empower, nurture, and serve our pastoral leaders in ministry contexts that have unique challenges and opportunities: church (re)planters, congregations in communities of color, and small churches. Stay tuned for more details in 2021.

Research and Planning Team

Our Research and Planning team for our Cultivating Enough initiative funded by Thriving in Ministry Planning Grant of Lilly Endowment:

Larissa Kwong Abazia, Program Director

Rev. Larissa Kwong Abazia is a pastor, speaker, writer and consultant. She is the Vice Moderator of the 221st General Assembly and currently serves on the General Assembly Committee on Representation. She is also a founding member of the Collective Foundation, a non-profit organization researching the fundraising practices of Christian communities of color. Larissa has served churches in Chicago, Queens (NY), and throughout New Jersey. Her call to ministry has centered on racial and gender justice, exploring the call to beloved community.

Rev. Sarah Colwill, Program Support

Rev. Sarah Colwill has served as a minister in the Presbytery of Philadelphia since 2003.  She currently is the pastor at Church on the Mall in Plymouth Meeting.  Prior to her work there, she ran a campus ministry at Drexel University in Philadelphia, and spent nine years as the associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Springfield (Flourtown).  Rev. Colwill and Church on the Mall are currently working to spark a new worshiping community in Conshohocken, Church on the Bend.