PW's Gathering Quest continues!
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December 5, 2023
A Joyful Journey
Save the date for the 2024 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women!
Welcome to the Gathering Quest, a Joyful Journey to PW Community and Celebration
“Do everything in love,” based on 1 Cor. 16:13–14 (NIV), is the theme for the 2024 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women. (“Do everything in love” could be considered the foundation of our PW Purpose!) For the next 8 months, you will receive, in your inbox, a Gathering newsletter like this one! Each newsletter will provide content that matters—updates, a devotional reflection, promotional materials, answers to questions, and lots of fun—all about the CWG!
Presbyterian Women’s Churchwide Gathering (CWG) is celebrated every three years! In 2024, the CWG will be held in St. Louis, Missouri, August 8–11. Plenary and large-group sessions will be held at the America’s Center Convention Complex. Gathering attendees will receive a special conference rate for hotel rooms at the Marriott St. Louis Grand (across the street from the America’s Center), which will house other Gathering programming and opportunities (i.e., shopping and dining!). Save these dates, share these dates, and plan to joyfully join Presbyterian Women in an exciting, faith-filled time of renewal, connection, and fun. An online option will be available, as well, with a select menu of options. Gathering registration opens March 2024. FAQs are a click away!
Visit presbyterianwomen.org/gathering for full details. And don’t forget to share your enthusiasm for the Gathering on social media! #PWGathering #2024ChurchwideGathering
Reflections of Love
Kathy Reeves
2021–2024 National Moderator of PWDo Everything in Love
1 Corinthians 16:13–14
When I reflect on our Churchwide Gathering theme, “Do everything in love,” I think about my friend Barb. To me, Barb is an example of someone who does everything in love.
Barb is well known in our community as a person who can sense when someone else could use a comforting hug. She freely hands out “pocket angel” coins to others for encouragement. When people need to talk Barb listens. The license plate on Barb’s car even describes her loving approach to life; it simply reads HUGS.
During my recent move from my old house to my new cottage, Barb surprised me by reaching out at just the right time. She had heard that I was moving, and she texted me to ask if she could bring pizza for lunch. Barb was my first guest in my new home! Then, while I was settling in, she came to my rescue by helping me move my way-too-many clothes and shoes from my closets in my old home to my new home. When I asked her how I could return her generous kindness, her response was “Just pay in forward.”
The way Barb lives has made an impression on me. When I asked her for her permission to use her life as an illustration for this reflection, she responded by saying, “I love, because God is all about love!”
If more of us were like Barb, the world would be a kinder, more peaceful place.
Reserve Your Page in the Program Book!
Looking for a way to honor a friend, remember a mentor, or share (about a gathering, a ministry, a hope)? If so, consider—as an individual or a group—reserving a space advertisement in the 2024 CWG Program Book. And although prices for just about everything have increased, the prices of the program book ads remain unchanged from 2018:
- $250 for a full-page ad
- $150 for a half-page ad
- $100 for a quarter-page ad.
A Program Book Space Advertising Reservation Form (fancy name!) is available by visiting PW's Gathering Website — download the fillable PDF, complete, and return! Participation in this program helps with the printing costs associated with the Gathering Program Book and builds PW community!!
"Supported, Thankful, Loving"
This Quest lands in your inbox during the season of Advent, the season of waiting, praying, and pondering. Waiting, praying, and pondering may be part of your Gathering journey too. Barbara Brown of lovely Alaska shares her poem/skit The Gathering Is Coming! that puts into words the anticipation of the Churchwide Gathering, a time of community and the deepening of faith and faithful bonds with PWs near and far. Consider Barb’s poem/skit for a gathering or perhaps personal reflection—or both! Thank you, Barb, for taking the time to share your amazing gift of putting into words the promise of Gathering. Looking forward to seeing you in St. Louis!!
Poem/Skit written by Barbara Brown (Alaska)
Saving Challenge!
Save $2.80 a day for 12 months to put toward your Gathering expenses. Each email in the Gathering quest series will include a Churchwide Savings Calculator based on this challenge, so you can see where you are or how much to save to "catch up"!
If you began saving after the first Gathering email was sent on August 5, 2023, you should have at least $344.40 saved toward your Gathering expenses. There are 246 days until opening plenary, so let’s keep our piggybanks and Mason jars nourished with Gathering coins and bills!
Want to peek and see just how many days, hours, minutes and seconds? Visit presbyterianwomen.org/gathering to view the Countdown Clock to the 2024 Churchwide Gathering!
Gathering Promotional Materials
Bookmark the Churchwide Gathering promotional materials page, where you will find the map, videos, and lots more! The webpage will be updated with promotional items as they become available, so be sure to check back often! Be sure to check the 2024 PW Churchwide Gathering website for more information.
The Share Challenge winner for last month is Suzan Plautz.
Thanks for sharing, Suzan!
PW Share Challenge
The PW Share Challenge makes it easy for you to share these emails with others (and perhaps add your own sentence or two about the Gathering because, let’s face it, not every PW knows about the Gathering). Simply use the forward button, located on the bottom of this email. One randomly chosen person who forwards the email will receive a small token of appreciation and a bit of celebrity on the next email.
Trivia Challenge
We’re so excited that the 2024 Churchwide Gathering is going to be in-person that the Trivia Challenges for the next few issues of the Gathering Quest are about the last time the PW CWG was in-person. Write your answers on the Trivia Quest Answer Sheet and don’t forget to bring the answer sheet with you when you meet us in St. Louis. This is the 5th email in a series and the following is your 5th trivia question.
Download an answer sheet you can fill out and bring to the Gathering. Details about where and when to turn it in to come!
- Question: What was the theme of the last in-person Gathering?
- Bonus Question: What kind of flower was featured on the cover of the program book?
A Little Gathering Fun!
Ways to Be Presbyterian Women
Coming together in beloved community at the Churchwide Gathering brings together our myriad ways of living into God’s plan for our lives as Presbyterian Women. Want to learn more about members of your coordinating team or group while having fun? Then take a break and play the Ways to Be Presbyterian Women board game that will be anything but boring. The object of the game is not to “win” but to learn and have fun.
If you subscribe to Horizons magazine, this gameboard is printed on pages 22-23 of the September/October 2023 issue. Not a subscriber? Now is your chance! A buy-one-get-one-free offer is available!
Presbyterian Women’s Annual Mission Fund (the Mission Pledge) makes possible every mission, program and resource of PW. Give now to support Presbyterian Women’s witness in the world.
Presbyterian Women’s Build a Bouquet FUNdraiser celebrates individuals and ministries that help Presbyterian Women bloom in many spectacular ways! Honor that special person (or two or three!) who has played a significant role in your life—through nurture, friendship, support or care—with a virtual bouquet that will build Presbyterian Women’s Annual Fund, the soil from which every PW ministry grows. Bouquets given will bless thrice: funds received will support PW; will honor a friend; and virtual bouquets will be displayed at the 2024 PW Churchwide Gathering!
After you give online, you'll receive a link to several floral cards that can be downloaded or emailed as a symbol of your gift. Visit presbyterianwomen.org/bouquet to learn more.
