PW's Gathering Quest continues!
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January 5, 2024
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 7 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
Susan Skoglund
2024 CWG Volunteers Team ChairHappy New Year,
PW Sisters!
Here we are at the start of a new year and almost a quarter of the way through the 21st Century. Even better, we are only 7 months away from the Churchwide Gathering in St. Louis. The theme for the Gathering is “Do Everything in Love.” I remember well the Planning team considering the various scriptures recommended by the Board to guide us. We wanted to emphasize action; 1 Corinthians 16:13–14 fulfilled that priority.
In unpacking the scripture, I found that agape love embodies my interpretation of the theme beautifully. Agape is a Greek word that emphasizes love shown through seeking the highest good for all. We often express agape love as working for the common good.
How do we accomplish this? It is much easier to love family, friends, and those who think like we do. It is not so easy to love those who hold opposing views and seem to stand in the way of our goals and ideals. When I want to get past these differences I start with baby steps.
I try hard to avoid dividing my world into us and them. When I represented PW at the Tumekutana Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, a mission co-worker from South Africa shared a great piece of advice with those attending from many different countries. She said that when we speak to each other, it is helpful to say, “Those of us who believe this” and “Those of us who believe that,” always keeping everyone in the “us” category. That conference was over a decade ago and I still draw on that advice frequently.
What if we draw our circle wide enough to embrace the world with love, and accept that we are all in this together? Can we do this? May it be so.
Silent Auction
Want to build up PW’s Annual Mission Fund (the Mission Pledge) while putting to good use your creative skills or gifts? If so, consider participating in PW’s Silent Auction! Click here for details (and a form). To donate an item or a basket of items to the auction, please contact Mary Jorgenson at mcjorgies@gmail.com).
Gathering Spotlight
Patricia Tull, author of the 2024–2025 PW/Horizons Bible study Let Justice Roll Down: God’s Call to Care for Neighbors and All Creation, describes her call for creation justice in this way: “When I first learned of the climate crisis, I wondered how a biblical scholar with few practical skills could help and found my purpose in learning about ecology and teaching people of faith what I could. Such is not everyone’s skillset or desire, but each of us has something to do with all our hearts.” Trisha will help us as we explore, with all our hearts, the 2024–2025 PW/Horizons Bible study and God’s call to care for our neighbors and for creation.
Patricia K. Tull
2024-2025 PW/Horizons Bible Study author
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 $431.20 saved toward your Gathering expenses. There are 216 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 Bonnie Mullen.
Thanks for sharing, Bonnie!
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. This is the 6th email in a series and the following is your 6th 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: Where was the last in-person Gathering?
- Bonus Question: Who made the gorgeous backdrop that decorated the stage?
A Little Gathering Fun!
Ways of Inviting
Whether the 2024 CWG will be your first or fifth, convincing others to attend and perhaps share your car or accommodations should be a top priority for 2024! Besides, what could top several days of being in the company of Presbyterian Women?
A sample announcement, an invitation letter, and a list of “top ten ways” to promote the Gathering are available to help you promote the Gathering. And do visit the Gathering web pages for puzzles and videos and other important CWG things.
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.
