About the Christmas Joy Offering

What Child Is This?

In this season when we celebrate the child born in Bethlehem, we also realize that the birth of Jesus ushered in a new realm of God’s love at work in the world. This love causes us to recognize the image of God imbedded in all humankind. It compels us to reach out with charity, justice, and grace. We seek to honor every child of God. This, too, is how we celebrate the child born on that first Christmas day.

Presbyterians can respond to that love at Christmas by giving generously to the Christmas Joy Offering. The Offering helps students at racial ethnic schools and colleges develop their gifts and find their calling to serve God through serving their community. At the same time, the Offering helps families of both active and retired church workers to meet unexpected needs. As we celebrate Jesus’ love in our lives this Christmas, our gifts bear joyful witness to the power of that boundless love that changes lives.

What Is the Christmas Joy Offering?

For more than 70 years, Presbyterians have given generously at Christmas to support the unmet needs of families who have devoted their lives to the mission of the PC(USA). Today this Offering is shared equally by the Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions, which provides critical assistance to Presbyterian church workers and their families, and Presbyterian-affiliated racial ethnic schools and colleges, which enable students to develop their gifts and find their calling. The Offering dates back to the 1930s, when the former Presbyterian Church in the United States began an offering to supplement inadequate retirement income and provide supplemental medical insurance for former ministers, missionaries, church workers, and their families.

Although its roots trace back many years, this special offering remains just as essential today. Equally important to the financial help provided is the spiritual benefit received. Again and again, the individuals and families helped by the Offering say that as crucial as the financial assistance is, what really sustains them is the knowledge that the church is standing with them in their time of need.

Lifting Up the Assistance Program

At some point in their lives, many ministers, other church workers, and their families need help beyond what the Benefits Plan and personal resources can provide. Some need relatively limited, yet critical, assistance—to afford a hearing aid, for instance, to continue a ministry. Others may need more substantial, ongoing support—to help make ends meet during retirement, for example, after a lifetime of ministering for modest pay. The Christmas Joy Offering recognizes the faithfulness of current and retired church workers through its gifts to the Assistance Program, which in turn helps these individuals and families through difficult times by providing shared, emergency, and other types of grants.

The Assistance Program depends entirely on gifts and bequests, including half of the Christmas Joy Offering. Last year, the Offering funded more than 800 grants to individuals and families.

Furthering Racial Ethnic Education

The Presbyterian Church has long promoted education by establishing and supporting racial ethnic schools and colleges. Christmas Joy Offering funds provide scholarships to deserving students as well as help with basic operating costs. These institutions develop leaders in the church and in society, and they enable students to discover and pursue their professional goals.