What do my gifts to the Presbyterian One Great Hour of Sharing offering do?

Within the PC(USA), programs supported by One Great Hour of Sharing have evolved over the last half century along with our understanding of how best to stand with people in their suffering and offer an authentic witness to God’s healing love. Like our ecumenical partners, we focused our early efforts on those in acute need as a result of wars or natural disasters. Through the programs that have become Presbyterian Disaster Assistance we saw the importance of swift response with local grassroots partners who can get help quickly to the people who need it most; we also learned that staying with people as they begin to rebuild their lives is an important witness to God’s faithfulness. For both those people and those experiencing chronic poverty, hunger, or oppression, we learned that development ministries are an important component of our response and that to be done effectively, they must be carried out as a partnership with the people in need, not imposed from the outside. The Presbyterian Hunger Program and Self-Development of People were both created in the early 1970s to work in such partnerships with communities of people in need. Today each of these programs receives approximately one-third of the offering, except for about four percent that is used, currently through Presbyterian Hunger Program, to address homelessness and affordable housing. All three programs help people address the results of past injustice or misfortune by looking to the future with hope and creativity. Together they witness to the love that Jesus Christ has shared with all and that he asks us to share with one another.

Contributions to One Great Hour of Sharing make a difference in the lives of people. Whether they take the form of immediate relief to people experiencing a time of crisis or of partnerships with communities, focused on long-term solutions to chronic problems, those gifts are a powerful, tangible witness to the healing love of Christ for all people.

See the lists of projects each program supported in 2004 with your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing.