Prepare for the 2010 Peacemaking Offering and World Communion Sunday

The 2010 Peacemaking Offering packet was available in late May and was sent to all PC(USA) churches. If your church has a standing order, your order would have been delivered by now. The Peacemaking Offering was created in 1980 to support the efforts of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to live out a deeper commitment to peacemaking as part of our faithfulness to God. It is one of four special offerings designated by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s General Assembly. Most churches receive the Offering on World Communion Sunday, the first Sunday in October, which this year is October 3. We encourage churches to use whatever Sunday works best for them. Each congregation is encouraged to retain 25 percent of the Offering it receives to use for local ministries of peacemaking within the church and its community. Twenty-five percent is used by presbyteries and synods, and 50 percent is used by the general Assembly ministries through the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. In accordance with the action of the 217th General Assembly (2006), we encourage congregations to consider directing a portion or all of their 25 percent of the Peacemaking Offering as a faithful Christian response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Now is the time to plan and promote the Offering and your congregation’s celebration of World Communion Sunday!