CAMDEN – A special program designed to help congregations and their ministers find renewal is allowing a local pastor to work a few months in a New York shelter for homeless youth.

The Rev. Michael Gordon Rowe, rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, already is in New York, serving as a chaplain at Covenant House, according to Sydney Hall, chairwoman of the church’s sabbatical committee.

Covenant House is a shelter for homeless, runaway and at-risk youth. Rowe is expected to return next spring.

St. Thomas recently received a $36,000 grant from the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. that helps pay the minister’s living expenses during his sabbatical – something his salary would not have allowed.

Rowe’s contract includes time off periodically for rest, reflection and rejuvenation.

The Lilly grant is to not only support pastors’ sabbaticals, but to improve congregational life.

“We are finding that the most rewarding programs are those in which members of the congregation step up to the plate and take appropriate responsibility for leadership and ministry in the pastor’s absence, thereby finding themselves renewed in ways that were not at all expected,” said Craig Dykstra, a Lilly Endowment official.

This year, the foundation, funded by drug company Eli Lilly, awarded 120 grants in its clergy renewal program. There is no set model as to what constitutes an ideal renewal program, Dykstra said.

Hall said the process of applying for the grant provided lay leaders at St. Thomas with “the opportunity to think through and write out in a coherent way” what they would do while Rowe was gone. An interim pastor conducts services, but is not expected to perform all of the rector’s duties, she said.

“Our church is starting to grow,” Hall said. “Four years ago we had about 150 members, now we have 250. As we get bigger, lay people have to take on more responsibility. We see this as a good time – the time Father Michael is gone – as a good time to practice more laitization.”

The Rev. Daniel John Riggal of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Kennebunk was the only other minister in Maine to win a similar grant approval.

Any Christian congregation is eligible to apply for a clergy renewal program for any of its ordained pastors. The master of divinity degree is the basic minimum educational requirement.

Congregations can request up to $45,000 to support the renewal program. Of that amount, up to $15,000 may be used for congregational expenses.

The deadline for applications for the 2004 program is June 25. For information, call (317) 916-7302 or visit the program’s Web site at www.clergyrenewal.org.