wfn.org | Christmas offering spreads 'Joy to the World' from campus to

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Note #6248 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

convalescent home
2-November-2000
00387

Christmas offering spreads 'Joy to the World' from campus to convalescent
home

2000 campaign expected to reach goal of $5.5 million

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Duane Johns, a man with a mission to serve God, his
church and his people has answered the call to leadership, but not without
the help of the Christmas Joy Offering.

	Through the National Ministries Division (NMD), the offering helps support
students like Johns at the eight racial-ethnic schools and colleges of the
Presbyterian Church (USA) by helping compensate the amount of tuition he
must pay.

	"It comes in pretty handy," said Johns, who enrolled this fall at Cook
College and Theological School in Tempe, Ariz. "It makes me feel great."

	The 66-year-old annual offering, whose organizers hope to raise $5.5
million this year with the theme Joy to the World, also provides funds with
which the denomination's Board of Pensions (BOP) offers financial assistance
to active and retired church workers.

	A 31-year-old Pima Native American, Johns was raised worshiping at Vah-ki
Presbyterian Church located on the Gila River Reservation, 35 miles south of
Tempe. But the 103-year-old congregation is in trouble. The church is
struggling to survive and is without leadership.

	Johns has answered the call by enrolling at Cook, which has served Native
Americans since its founding. He plans one day soon to lead his church as a
lay leader.

	"I want to see our church survive," said Johns. "I want to raise my
children in the church. I want to be a pastor. We need leaders who
understand Christianity. We need educated pastors in our reservation
churches. We must bring the youth of our tribe back into the church."

	A full-time student, employee and husband with children, Johns has the
emotional support of Vah-ki Presbyterian Church, the academic support of
Cook College and the financial support of Presbyterian churches throughout
the country who are supporting the college with gifts to the Christmas Joy
Offering.

	On Dec. 24, the traditional day for congregational participation in the
campaign, Presbyterians nationwide will have an opportunity to make a
difference. The holiday offering netted $5.3 million last year. The
offering's coordinator is confident that this year's offering will exceed
that total.

	"We're very optimistic at this point," said Stevie Finn, associate for
interpretation with the denomination's Congregational Ministries Division.
"We're seeing the Christmas Joy Offering receipts increase."

	Funds are raised by receiving offerings from church members and selling
stained-glass ornaments, a feature that debuted two years ago. The
three-inch Christmas Joy Offering Stars are priced at $3. Bulletin covers
with art depicting the Joy to the World campaign theme for 2000 are
available free of charge. A Joy to the World poster, two bulletin inserts in
Korean and offering envelopes in Korean are available for the first time for
Korean members and congregations.

	Finn said pledge booklets promoting the program, complete with order forms,
a history of the event and activities for children, were mailed last month.
More than 16,000 were shipped to Christian educators, congregations,
churches, synods and presbyteries. Additional packets are available on
request.

	Ornaments and covers (in packages of 50) may be ordered by calling the
Presbyterian Distribution Service at 1-800-524-2612, or through the
offering's official World Wide Web site at www.cjo.pcusa.org.

                         How it works

	The Christmas Joy Offering is one of four special annual offerings
designated by PC(USA)'s General Assembly to give congregations a direct
means of supporting specific causes.

	Receipts from the offering are distributed equally to the Board of Pensions
(BOP) for assistance programs, and the NMD for support of the Presbyterian
racial-ethnic schools and colleges.

	BOP's assistance programs offer help to both retired and active church
workers and their families. These programs supplement the individual's
regular benefits in cases of extraordinary need.

	Income supplements are available to retired church workers and their
spouses when their total income drops below a minimum level established by
BOP.

	Shared grants are provided for eligible church workers or surviving spouses
in an emergency or special financial need. BOP and the employing church,
organization or presbytery share in funding these grants.

	Last year, through Christmas Joy Offering funds, BOP assisted more than 500
church workers, mostly retired.

	"It's a wonderful way in which the church can help those who have served
the church through the years and enable them to meet their needs often in
later life, after they've retired," Peter Sime, manager of BOP's Assistance
and Retirement Housing program, told the Presbyterian News Service last
year. "It really is the ministry of the church and the spirit of what Christ
has called us to do for one another and exemplifies the community nature of
the church."

	The Presbyterian Church has long supported minority education by founding
and funding racial-ethnic schools. Christmas Joy Offering funds are used for
basic operating costs and allow schools to provide a greater number of
scholarships.

	"It supports institutions that are somewhat fragile," said Duncan Ferguson,
coordinator for the denomination's Office of Higher Education. "While it's
not a huge proportion of their budgets, it is a critical portion in that
they are sufficiently close to the line in terms of their budgeting. The
amount that we do give them makes it possible for them to sustain their
mission. It is a very critical piece."

	This year's campaign ends Feb. 1. Donations received after that will go to
the 2001 offering.

                           History

	The Christmas Joy Offering dates to 1933, when the former Presbyterian
Church in the United States (PCUS) launched the program to supplement
inadequate retirement and supplemental medical insurance for former
ministers, missionaries and church workers and their families.

	In the former United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America
(UPCUSA), a Christmas offering called "the White Gift" was first collected
in 1960. The receipts were used for general mission and world relief. In
1964 the name was changed to the Christmas Offering and the receipts went to
improve health and welfare of children. That emphasis continued until 1973,
when the offering was used to support former church employees with
inadequate pensions. Minority education was added in 1974, nursing and
home-care assistance in 1979.

	In 1987 the offering was renamed the Christmas Joy Offering. In 1991, the
203rd General Assembly revised the distribution of funds to the current
formula -- 50 percent to BOP and 50 percent to the Presbyterian
racial-ethnic schools and colleges.

	The eight schools supported by the Christmas Joy Offering are Barber-Scotia
College, Concord, N.C.; Cook College and Theological School, Tempe, Ariz.;
Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tenn.; Mary Holmes College, West Point, Miss.;
Menaul School, Albuquerque, N.M.; Presbyterian Pan American School,
Kingsville, Texas; Sheldon Jackson College, Sitka, Alaska; and Stillman
College, Tuscaloosa, Ala.

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