HungerProgram News |
One Great
Hour of
Sharing
The One Great Hour of Sharing offering is one of the four churchwide special offerings taken throughout the Presbyterian Church (USA). It is usually taken during Lent, especially on Palm Sunday and Easter.
This year marks the 61th anniversary of the first One Great Hour of Sharing, begun as American Christians recognized the need to respond to the worldwide devastation caused by World War II. In March 1949, a national broadcast on a Saturday evening asked Americans to give generously the next moring in their churches. A remarkable assembly of national leaders and celebrities gave their efforts to the broadcast, and more than 75,000 churches responded the next day.
By 1954, the One Great Hour of Sharing goal was already $8 million. Over the years the offering has been an ecumenical effort with as many as twenty-nine denominations particiapting. Today, the One Great Hour of Sharing committee is composed of nine Christian denominations.
While each denomination allocates its gifts differently, all use their funds for ministries of disaster relief, refugee assistance, and development aid, and each denomination does a significant portion of those ministries through Church World Service. Today, projects supported by One Great Hour of Sharing are under way in more than one hundred countries, including the United States and Canada. In recent years Presbyterians have given about $10 million annually, and the other denominations together have received a similar amount.
But receipts to the offering have been declining in recent years causing the programs it supports to scale back support for their humanitarian programs. This year we need to stop that decline, and step up our support.
When it comes to Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday when most churches collect the One Great Hour of Sharing, let there be no mistake about our commitment to feed the poor and help the afflicted. Let’s encourage every person in our churches step up and support the One Great Hour of Sharing.
Hour of
Sharing
The One Great Hour of Sharing offering is one of the four churchwide special offerings taken throughout the Presbyterian Church (USA). It is usually taken during Lent, especially on Palm Sunday and Easter.
This year marks the 61th anniversary of the first One Great Hour of Sharing, begun as American Christians recognized the need to respond to the worldwide devastation caused by World War II. In March 1949, a national broadcast on a Saturday evening asked Americans to give generously the next moring in their churches. A remarkable assembly of national leaders and celebrities gave their efforts to the broadcast, and more than 75,000 churches responded the next day.
By 1954, the One Great Hour of Sharing goal was already $8 million. Over the years the offering has been an ecumenical effort with as many as twenty-nine denominations particiapting. Today, the One Great Hour of Sharing committee is composed of nine Christian denominations.
While each denomination allocates its gifts differently, all use their funds for ministries of disaster relief, refugee assistance, and development aid, and each denomination does a significant portion of those ministries through Church World Service. Today, projects supported by One Great Hour of Sharing are under way in more than one hundred countries, including the United States and Canada. In recent years Presbyterians have given about $10 million annually, and the other denominations together have received a similar amount.
But receipts to the offering have been declining in recent years causing the programs it supports to scale back support for their humanitarian programs. This year we need to stop that decline, and step up our support.
When it comes to Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday when most churches collect the One Great Hour of Sharing, let there be no mistake about our commitment to feed the poor and help the afflicted. Let’s encourage every person in our churches step up and support the One Great Hour of Sharing.
Where Did the Money Go?
Each year the three program areas supported by the One Great Hour of Sharing funds distribute the monies to a wide variety of programs and projects.
Presbyerian Disaster Assistance has great demands on its funds that are usually very visible. But there are other programs supported as well by PDA's portion of the funds. Some include:
International Projects - A Food Security project in Congo, drought and famine relief in Kenya through partnership with ACT - Action by Churches Together, and Church World Service program for humanitarian assistance in Somalia and many other parts of the world.
National Repsonses - supports presbyteries responding to floods and other disasters within their regions, support of long-term recovery program with the West Virginia Ministry of Advocacy and Workcamps, and support for the national response team members who go onsite to disasters when needed.
Presbyterian Hunger Program also supports a very broad base of programs nationally and internationally including food development programs, water access programs, nutrition education, seed programs (Haiti), HAE Grants,fair food and justice issues and much more.
Self Development of People funds self determined partnerships all over the world enabling communities to support their community and its's residents, job training initiatives, interfaith groups, and community organizing programs to benefit the poor.
Download the Financial Reports on these programs at the PCUSA One Great Hour of Sharing website under the Grants link.