Episcopal Church Foundation announces six 2026 ECF Fellows
New York, NY – July 16, 2026 – The Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF) is pleased to announce the six individuals named 2026 ECF Fellows. This group reflects the diversity and vitality of The Episcopal Church today, uniting emerging lay and ordained leaders whose ministries, scholarship, and leadership are poised to strengthen congregations and communities across the Church.
Since 1964, the ECF Fellowship Partners Program, the Foundation’s longest-standing initiative, has supported emerging lay and clergy leaders whose research and ministry help Episcopal communities navigate change. Each year, Fellows receive financial support, mentorship, and a peer network, and they bring their work into congregations, dioceses, and institutions across the Church.
This year, ECF is proud to introduce a Pilot Lay Leadership track alongside its established Ministry and Academic tracks. The Foundation launched this pilot to learn directly from lay leaders about their needs and how best to support their growth and development. With the addition of the Pilot Lay Leadership track, the Fellowship Partners Program now offers a more comprehensive framework to strengthen ordained and lay leadership within The Episcopal Church.
“The launch of the Pilot Lay Leadership track marks an important milestone for our Fellowship Partners Program and the Foundation’s broader mission,” said Dail St. Claire, President and CEO, Episcopal Church Foundation. “We recognize the vital, everyday leadership laypeople provide in congregations, schools, and communities. Founded in 1949 as a lay-led organization to strengthen The Episcopal Church, the Foundation has invested in scholars and ministry innovators since 1964. Their work has helped the church navigate change.”
“The Episcopal Church Foundation is one of the best-kept secrets in our beloved denomination,” added Jamie Martin-Currie, Interim Director, ECF Fellowship Partners Program. “The innovative lay leaders selected for this pilot have brought forward ideas we had not considered during the program’s development. Through their participation, we have already learned a great deal about what lay leaders seek and how the Foundation can best support their growth and ministry.
The 2026 ECF Fellows
Academic Track
The Rev. Joseph D.C. Ananias is a doctoral candidate in theology at Duke Divinity School and a priest associate at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Living with ALS, he is writing a dissertation on a Trinitarian theology of divine healing and the church’s healing prayer practice, seeking a vision of healing that embraces both the possibility of miracles and the dignity and witness of people living with illness and disability.
The Rev. Hailey McKeefry Delmas directs The Deacons Formation Collaborative at Bexley Seabury in Chicago, Illinois. The program provides theological education and formation for deacons throughout The Episcopal Church. Pursuing a doctoral program is part of her Prophetic Leadership. She is exploring how the church’s theology of the diaconate can better align with deacons’ lived realities, contributing to a more cohesive and expansive understanding of ministry for both lay and ordained leaders.
Ministry Track
The Rev. Peter Levenstrong is an Associate Rector at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, California, and creator of Living Stories Sermons, a collaborative preaching practice. His project, High-Tech Backstage, High-Touch Frontstage, provides AI literacy training for church leaders, combining practical tools with theological reflection to ensure that technology supports, rather than replaces, the embodied, relational heart of worship and pastoral care.
Pilot Lay Leadership Track
Eva Cecilia McCoy is a senior at Hunter College in New York, New York, expected to graduate in December 2026 with a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and a minor in English. She recently completed her first extended Clinical Pastoral Education unit at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and is discerning a call to board-certified chaplaincy, deepening her spiritual care skills across diverse clinical settings.
Emily Rebecca Halbert serves as Director of Children’s and Youth Choirs at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where she leads multiple choirs from pre-K through high school and develops community music initiatives. A professional conductor and mezzo-soprano, she is pursuing a program of formation to deepen her engagement with the Episcopal musical tradition and to help her bring that heritage to twenty-first-century families with creativity and excellence.
Elmer Romero is an Episcopal educator, journalist, photographer, and community activist from Trinity Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. With over twenty years of experience working with migrant and refugee communities, he is pursuing a master’s degree in Migrant Pastoral Care in El Salvador, integrating theological study with grassroots organizing to foster a dignified, compassionate ministry for migrants and day laborers.
Applications for the 2027 ECF Fellowship will open in November 2026.
---
About the Episcopal Church Foundation
The Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF) helps build, revitalize, and transform Episcopal faith communities by providing resources in finance, formation, and leadership. Established in 1949 as an independent, lay-led foundation with a self-directed endowment, ECF serves Episcopal churches, dioceses, schools, and related faith-based organizations.
---
Contact:
Kendall Martin, Senior Director of Communications and Grant Writing
Episcopal Church Foundation
[E] [email protected] [O] 929-522-9164