gift Archives

Giving generously in their golden years

Posted July 22nd, 2021

Behind the admittedly corny saying that graces many a collectable coffee mug, “Ministers never retire, but are simply put out to pastor,” there lies a grain of truth — retiring church workers face some very real challenges. Or so the Rev. Dennis Davenport and his Christian educator wife, Emma Sue, recently discovered.

A restorative Sabbath

Posted August 20th, 2020

In this pandemic era, we have found ourselves walking on unknown paths, searching for something familiar and finding our souls to be weary. Tim Clarkson, a hospice chaplain and supply pastor at Union Hill Presbyterian Church in Denville, New Jersey, shares his story in this article that first appeared in the Presbytery of Newton newsletter. It runs here with permission of the author.

99-member congregation makes $12K gift through the Presbyterian Giving Catalog

Posted July 23rd, 2019

Sherrill’s Ford Presbyterian Church has a tenacious grip on the good that a sure-footed creature can bring to impoverished communities overseas. This 99-member congregation in rural North Carolina collected $12,104 for 68 pairs of goats this spring through the Presbyterian Giving Catalog. Every March the congregation observes “Goat Month” and highlights how goats improve people’s lives in the developing world.

North Carolina woman leaves $2 million bequest to PDA and SDOP

Posted May 9th, 2017

While sorting through the papers of her late cousin Matilda Cartledge, Rebecca McClure found a couple of sentences in her recently-deceased relative’s handwriting that she says reflect Cartledge’s values. The unattributed sentences, which are a quote from President Franklin Roosevelt’s second inaugural address, read: ‘The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide for those who have too little.’

Joy! ‘I’ve never received anything like this’

Posted December 12th, 2016

The letters with an individual check of $50 from Stewartsville Presbyterian Church, written out to every teaching elder in the Presbytery of Newton, came in the mail this May.