Missions
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has, in the past, been a leading United States denomination in mission work, and many hospitals, clinics, colleges and universities worldwide trace their origins to the pioneering work of Presbyterian missionaries who founded them more than a century ago.
Currently, despite having more than 2 million members, the church supports less than 215 missionaries abroad annually. This may be represented more starkly by the fact that, as of the proposed missionary goals of 2009, missionaries as a function of total church membership represent less than %0.008. It should be noted that many churches sponsor missionaries abroad at the session level, and these are not included in official statistics.
A vital part of the world mission emphasis of the denomination is building and maintaining relationships with Presbyterian, Reformed and other churches around the world, even if this is not usually considered missions.
The PC(USA) is a leader in disaster assistance relief and also participates in or relates to work in other countries through ecumenical relationships, in what is usually considered not missions, but deaconship.
Read more about this topic: The Service For The Lord's Day
Famous quotes containing the word missions:
“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind.... Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to.”
—Joseph Heller (b. 1923)