What is World Communion Sunday? Read the excerpt below (from the UMC web page) and consider a gift during communion service at church tomorrow.
World Communion Sunday is one of the six churchwide Special Sundays of The United Methodist Church. The World Communion Sunday offering provides scholarships for U.S. (racial- and ethnic-minority) and international students. Students who receive scholarships study in a wide variety of fields: family pastoral care, Christian-Muslim relations, clinical psychology, peace and governance, crop production, law, health, rural development and more.
World Communion Sunday is a time to be in communion with Christians all over the world and to enable us to "press on toward the goal" of serving God in life-changing ministries.
Offering proceeds provide scholarships for international and United States (racial- and ethnic-minority) graduate students and scholarships for racial and ethnic minority persons seeking second careers in church-related vocations.
• Half of the offering provides Crusade Scholarships for international and U.S. racial- and ethnic-minority graduate students through the World Communion Scholarship Program. Crusade Scholars represent more than 25 countries.
• Thirty-five percent supports Ethnic Scholarships for undergraduate students.
• Fifteen percent funds Ethnic In-Service Training Program scholarships for racial- and ethnic-minority persons seeking second careers in church-related vocations.
Originally a Presbyterian observance, World-side Communion Sunday was established in 1940 by the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America as a global, interdenominational event. Prompted by the impact of World War II, the Methodist Church received an offering on this Sunday for the Fellowship of Suffering and Service.
In 1971, the United Methodist Church changed the name of the observance to World Communion Sunday and redistributed the offering to support the Crusade Scholarship Program (begun in 1944), the Ethnic Minority Scholarship Program and the Division of Chaplains and Related Ministries.
In 1980, Chaplains and Related Ministries was moved to World Service funding, but the World Communion Sunday offering continued to assist racial- and ethnic-minority students pursuing various avenues of ministry.
