Blessed are the peacemakers …
The General Assembly’s adoption of Peacemaking: The Believers’ Calling, which called for an emphasis on peacemaking, paved the way for this offering, which seeks to promote the Peace of Christ across the PC(USA). Individual congregations are encouraged to utilize a large portion of this offering to sustain their local peacemaking ministries.
When is the Peacemaking Offering Received?
The Peacemaking Offering is traditionally received on World Communion Sunday. However, you can help sustain the important PC(USA) ministries and programs that are supported by the Peacemaking Offering by making an online gift during the Season of Peace or at any time throughout the year.
A Season of Peace
A Season of Peace is a 4-week pilgrimage designed to deepen the pursuit of peace in congregations, small groups, families, and for individuals. Through daily peace reflections, family activities, Bible studies, youth activities, an exciting intergenerational Peace Fair, and other on-line resources, A Season of Peace will engage your imagination and offer opportunities for you to live more fully into your calling as a peacemaker. It is for the curious and the jaded; the beginner and the experienced peace seeker. Spend a new season with Jesus, the peacemaker, and see if this might become your way of being authentically Christian in the world.
For further information and resources please visit the Season of Peace website
Discover the IMPACT of Giving
Now available as a free download in the Apple App Store, Impact 365 provides daily stories and images from the places around the world where your gifts to the Special Offerings are making an impact in the lives of others.
GIVE online to support PC(USA) efforts to promote Peacemaking.
PROMOTE the Peacemaking Offering in your church with downloadable resources and artwork.
LEARN how your gift is used to impact the world through stories from all over the PC(USA).
Comments
-
Hi Gordon, Your impression is correct. It would completely restructure the peacemaking program, as the Offering is the sole source of funding for the peacemaking program: staff, resources, etc. I assure you this is a concern for many of us and we are working to raise our concerns. Feel free to email if you would like some details about what is in process to raise awareness about the implications of this change. One Great Hour of Sharing and other justice entities are also working on this. Although the report was certainly with good intent, I suspect that this part of the recommendation will have an enormously negative impact on the peacemaking offering: short and long term.
-
Members of Peace Advocates are also concerned about the timing of the Peacemaking Offering. Will it be taken in October in 2012? If this special offering is moved to be part of One Great Hour of Sharing, we feel it will diminish in its identity. Our small group reviews the monies received by the Presbytery of Carlisle and then recommends where the funds should be distributed by the Mission Committee. We also give a Peacemaking Award of $500 to a group or person doing peacemaking within our presbytery. Almost half of the 52 churches within our presbytery have collected this special offering in the past. We are concerned that this number will be lower if it is no longer a special offering independent of other offerings.
-
Mr. Shull, As members of staff, we cannot provide that sort of input since the business is still pending before the General Assembly. We do, however, ensure that any and all comments/questions are routed to the chair, Rev. Karl Travis, and vice-chair, Rev. Sarah Butter, of the Special Offerings Advisory Task Force. They welcome correspondence with folks who have questions.
-
What are the implications/consequences for the Peacemaking Offering and the National Peacemaking Program of the recent GMAC announcement about a World Mission Offering replacing the Peacemaking Offering? . . . I get the impression that the GMAC proposal seriously amends the initial "Believers Calling" resolution adopted by the General Assembly in 1980 or so.