Dio and its partners have been the recipient of three significant grants this spring that will help it advance its mission and plan for a post-pandemic world:

The Lilly Endowment’s Pathways to Tomorrow Initiative

The Lilly Endowment’s Pathways to Tomorrow Initiative is a major initiative from a foundation that is a leading supporter of theological education. In three phases over the coming months, the Lilly Endowment intends to award over $80-million dollars to institutions accredited by the Association of Theological Schools. The Montreal School of Theology, of which Dio is an integral member, has so far received a Phase I grant of $50,000. This money will be spent on three major areas. First, MST and Dio will look to connect more deeply to our Montreal context, surveying the needs for theological education as the city emerges from the pandemic, and assessing our own place in this new landscape. Second, the money will be used to implement programs to support and enhance the increasing racial, ethnic, linguistic, and national diversity of our student body. Finally, the money will help with a process of  continued internal structural reform to streamline our organizations and maximize efficiency. 

Applications for Phases II and III of the Lilly initiative are due later this year and hold out the potential for substantial gifts to transform theological education. 

Anglican Foundation of Canada and United Church Foundation Grants

As part of the new strategic alliance between Dio and UTC, the two colleges are recipients of grants from the Anglican Foundation of Canada and the United Church Foundation to support a joint strategic planning process of the two colleges. This work is already underway and is tasked with producing a plan for the two colleges to form a single, united, sustainable theological college after the end of the strategic alliance in summer 2022. 

 We are grateful for the support from all these organizations for our ministry in Montreal.