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Click here to check out the latest news from The PWSnews! Spring 2025 issue.
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2025 PW Synod Regional Gatherings
Please click on the link above for the PWSnews! for all your regional gathering information and to download registration forms for each region.
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The Well – a Project of The Welcome Church is Selected as the 2025 PW Synod Mission Project
The Well, located in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania, currently refers to the whole community of support for women who are experiencing homelessness, which is a part of The Welcome Church.
In 2016, The Welcome Church founded an overnight shelter for women called The Well, when it became apparent that there were few places where women felt safe going inside for the night. Grounded in the relationships that The Welcome Church had with the women, The Well had two amazing successes in the first two winter seasons: the women, who had been labeled “shelter resistant,” were consistently coming in, and after the second season, most moved into permanent housing. The Welcome Church developed a relationship with Bethesda Project, and the City of Philadelphia began paying Bethesda Project to cover staffing for The Well, as a year-round shelter, in November 2017.
Unfortunately, the building and congregation (Christ’s Presbyterian Church) housing The Well had to close in 2024, and the City of Philadelphia, in the midst of budget cuts, stopped funding for this shelter. But The Welcome Church maintains strong relationships with the women! The pastors meet and check in with women who are on the streets with few resources. The Welcome Church holds two women’s group meetings each month. The women keep in touch with one another.
The Welcome Church continues to look for a new location for the shelter, for which the City will provide funding as a winter shelter this year. We have redefined The Well as the whole community of women, which gathers in different places, both inside and outside, offering mutual support.
For more information, check out information on The Welcome Church website by clicking here.
2025 Contributions from PWs in the Synod of the Trinity should be sent from PWs in the Congregation to their PW in the Presbytery Treasurer by Dec. 1, 2025. PW in the Presbytery Treasurers should send final contributions to PW in the Synod Treasurer, Doreen Stiffler, 99 Cedar Drive, Kittanning, PA 16201 by Dec. 15, 2025.
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PWS Racial Equity Dialogue (RED) Team – Team Update
The RED (Racial Equity Dialogue) Team had its first meeting via zoom on Feb. 15 at 10 a.m. It’s not too late to join the team! Contact Karen Haas (Lake Erie PW Moderator 814-397-1619) if you are interested in participating. In particular we are looking for volunteers from the following presbyteries: Donegal, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Northumberland and Pittsburgh.
During Black History Month in February, PW Churchwide sent out an email asking,” How will you or your PW group observe this celebration?” The article suggested that you consider taking the 8-Day Racial Equity Education Challenge, information on which can be found by clicking here.
However, if your time is limited, we recommend that you do the day 3 challenge: watch the 17-minute TED Talk by Baratunde Thurston on “How to Deconstruct Racism, One Headline at a Time.” It is from 2019 and a lot has happened since then, but we think you will enjoy this talk and find it thought provoking. Video is available by clicking here.
How ever you chose to commemorate Black History Month, let this be a time to celebrate the African Americans that enrich our communities, our churches, our country and our world.
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PDF version of the Presbyterian Women’s Administrative Team available by clicking here.
