History of One Great Hour of Sharing

Immediately following World War II, U.S. Protestant churches made appeals for relief and reconstruction in areas devastated by the war, primarily Europe and Asia. In 1949, the leaders of several denominations formed a committee to organize an appeal for support of the separate campaigns of their churches. Their joint statement in support of this effort remains remarkably contemporary:

"This nationwide, united effort by America’s Christians has an importance far beyond the practical goal of fund-raising. For this great joint program will not only strengthen the vitally important relief and rehabilitation work of the churches overseas, but it will also prove to all the world how great is the power generated when Christians unite in a common cause."

A program called One Great Hour was broadcast on the evening of Saturday, March 26, 1949, over major networks and many independent stations. The script was written under the direction of playwright Robert Sherwood. The cast included some of the foremost dramatic and musical talents of the time, such as Gregory Peck and Ida Lupino; President Harry Truman brought greetings. The broadcast closed with a request that listeners attend their local church the following morning and make a sacrificial contribution. No exact measure of receipts was possible, but it was estimated that more than 75,000 churches participated.

The next year, the offering was repeated, using the name “One Great Hour of Sharing” for the first time. By 1954, the goal for all giving to One Great Hour of Sharing was $8 million. At times, One Great Hour of Sharing was coordinated with the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Fund Appeal for Overseas Aid and the Jewish Passover Appeal. Free time and space were donated to this joint appeal through the Advertising Council.

From the beginning, this has been an ecumenical effort. As denominations changed and merged, One Great Hour of Sharing has varied from eight to twenty-nine participating communions. Currently the One Great Hour of Sharing committee officially comprises nine Christian denominations: American Baptist Churches USA, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Church of the Brethren, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, and The United Methodist Church. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) calls its offering Week of Compassion. 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.