Special Mission Offerings

  As part of Our Church’s Wider Mission, the United Church of Christ has four special mission offerings that Mayflower will collect this year.  The Board of Deacons has approved collection of these offerings for 2007.  At the end of the year, they will analyze overall gifts and decide whether to continue making the offerings a permanent part of our ministry.  We have already participated in the first offering, One Great Hour of Sharing.  In March, you generously gave over $3,000 that will be administered by Wider Church Ministries.  Those monies have gone to support international programs in health, education and agricultural development, emergency relief, refugee ministries and both international and domestic disaster response.

    On June 24th, we will participate in the Strengthen the Church Offering.  These monies support leadership for new and revitalizing congregations, programs for youth and young adults and leadership development for the whole church.  One half of the monies collected from this offering will go directly to the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference of the United Church of Christ. 

    The third offering, Neighbors in Need, will be in October.  Neighbors in Need supports ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, including the Council for American Indian Ministries (CAIM), justice and advocacy, and direct service projects supported by Justice and Witness Ministries.  Some of these monies are dispersed through a grant process, and area projects have been supported by this fund. 

    The Christmas Fund is the final offering and is usually received the Sunday before Christmas.  It helps provide pension and health premium supplementation to low-income retired church workers, emergency assistance to clergy families in need, and Christmas checks to hundreds of annuitants, as administered by the Pension Boards. 

    These offerings provide us with a closer connection to our larger church and to the powerful ministries of the United Church of Christ.  They provide you with an opportunity to give in a variety of ways to a source you can trust.  The funds go to a variety of areas, allowing you to give to missions that you feel driven to support.  Please participate as you are able.  For more information about these offerings, you may visit:  http://www.ucc.org/ocwm

   

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