Presbyterian Mission Agency

Plan your gift to the 2017 Mission Pledge, PW’s annual fund

The 2017 Mission Pledge packet is now available for download! This resource has all the information you need to plan your giving and encourage others to give to Presbyterian Women’s Mission Pledge (annual fund) in 2017. It will be mailing in late July to congregations, Celebration Giving Representatives and moderators and treasurers of Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery and Synod.

Download the 2017 Mission Pledge packet.

With stories and charts about what your gifts to the Mission Pledge makes possible, the Mission Pledge packet also includes a letter from PW's Churchwide moderator, Carol Winkler, a checklist/timeline for promoting giving and pledge forms. Plan to use these materials with your PW in the congregation in August and September. If you do not have a PW in the Congregation, you can still support Presbyterian Women by giving to the Mission Pledge online and remaining active in your presbytery, synod or churchwide.

Thank you for your generous support of Presbyterian Women!

Join a PW mission tour of Ferncliff

Consider joining a hands-on mission tour of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) Center, Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center, October 24–28, 2016. You will tour the facility, which is related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Presbytery of Arkansas; assemble Gifts of the Heart kits; receive PDA disaster response training; and visit the Heifer Project’s headquarters and Clinton Library. Participation is limited to 20, so apply soon!

The application (due no later than September 24) includes a full itinerary and cost information. Download the application. Contact Kathy Reeves, PW’s associate for mission, at 502/569-5402 or by email for additional information.

Think you know Presbyterian Women?

A new series of light-hearted and happily serious posters help show the range of what it means to be Presbyterian Women. Download these posters and share them widely—in newsletters, on bulletin boards, anywhere that you can share all that PW is and does. View the posters.

And, this wildly popular series inspired Mary Cook Jorgenson to write a skit about all that Presbyterian Women does and is. Download the skit.

Create (or fund) clean-up buckets for flood response

Spring and summer has brought heavy rains and flooding to Texas and West Virginia. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance invites Presbyterian Women to join in the response to these affected areas. Clean-up buckets, made up of a bucket full of cleaning products, are in short supply. Presbyterian Women who live close to Ferncliff's warehouse in Arkansas are welcome to deliver the buckets there. While shipping the buckets is cost prohibitive, women not near Ferncliff may donate money to the response. Learn more about the buckets and PDA's response.  

A new website for Presbyterian Women

Work is underway to create a new and improved website for Presbyterian Women. The new site will merge content from Presbyterian Women's website (these pages!), the Horizons Magazine and Bible study website and the Gathering website. It will launch fall of 2016. A condensed version of the Horizons website will be available during this redesign. Click on the "Horizons magazine and Bible study" link in the left-hand navigation of this site.

Thank you to the hundreds who answered survey questions to help us create the best site possible. And thank you for your patience!

Give to the 2016 Thank Offering

Your gifts to the 2015 Thank Offering made it possible in 2016 for 22 life-changing ministries to help at-risk youth, ensure safe housing for low-income families, supplement meals for hungry schoolchildren, and more. Grants given in 2016 from the 2015 offering totaled over $500,000. Recipients include the following:

• Family to Family Furniture Bank
• Exploit No More
• Backpack Blessings, Inc.
• Harambee Chicago
• The Gilead House
• and 17 others

Learn more about the recipients by clicking here. Resources to promote the Thank Offering are in the mail to all PC(USA) congregations, attn: PW/Women's Group. If your group does not receive the materials, download free materials online. Order placemats, bulletin inserts and coin boxes from the Church Store. Or give on line to the 2016 Thank Offering by clicking here. Help us reach the $900,000 goal in 2016 so more ministries can receive our support in 2017.

Get the latest news from Presbyterian Women

The third-quarter newsletter is now available! Read highlights of GA222 related to PW, learn about Courageous Conversations and how your congregation can become a Courageous Congregation, get information about Who Is Jesus? Bible study resources, get ideas for your holiday store, and much more. Each quarter, learn about the worthwhile and exciting work of Presbyterian Women by downloading and reading PW's quarterly newsletter for leaders. You'll be in the know about all the latest leadership and mission opportunities, new resources, giving opportunities, peace and justice programs, special events, offerings and much more!

Download

Where we’ve been, where we’re going

During the 2015 Churchwide Gathering in Minneapolis 2012–2015 PW Churchwide Moderator Mary Cook Jorgenson and PW Executive Director Susan Jackson Dowd led two sections of a workshop on the history, current work and future of Presbyterian Women. The presentation includes specifics on many of PW’s programs and ministries and information about the PC(USA), including the change in the number of synods and how women can stay engaged in PW if their church leaves the PC(USA). Download the presentation.

Remembering six decades of pioneering women

This year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of women as teaching elders in the Presbyterian Church. Last year was the 110th anniversary of women as deacons and the 85th anniversary of women as ruling elders. Read an article by Rhashell Hunter (director of Racial Ethnic & Women's Ministries) celebrating these milestones in women's ministry.

National task group responds to PW groups in churches seeking dismissal from the PC(USA)

Voting representatives to the 2012 PW Business Meeting in Orlando, Florida, recommended that a task group be formed to create a statement regarding PW in churches seeking dismissal from the PC(USA). National moderator Mary Cook Jorgenson appointed PW members and leaders Carol Winkler, Marilynn Collins, Esperanza Guajardo, Dolly Patterson and Carolyn Sprinkle to the task group. PC(USA) legal counsel April Davenport and then-PW program coordinator Ann Ferguson staffed the group. Read more.