LAKELAND — More than $40,000 was awarded last month to 23 Florida Conference churches and church-related ministries by the Church and Society ministry team.

The grants, which ranged from $600 to $2,500, were given to ministries involved in service to "the powerless, voiceless and sometimes forgotten members of society," according to Carol Sue Hutchinson, director of the Conference Council on Ministries Discipleship and Church and Society offices.

"Church and Society’s ministry is to the powerless people who are looking to someone for help, who feel helpless in the society in which we live," she said.

Recipients of the grants included Miami Urban Ministries, Jim Russo One Way Prison Ministry, CROS (Christians Reaching Out for Society) Ministries, Hillsborough House of Hope and others.

Money for the grants came from Church and Society’s annual budget, which is funded through connectional giving, and the Peace with Justice Special Sunday offerings.

Peace with Justice Sunday is one of six denomination-wide Sundays on which a special offering is collected. Half of each year’s Peace with Justice offering remains in the conference. The other half is sent to the General Board of Church and Society.