You may give your late contribution to the OGHS offering directly to Cathy in the church office.
One Great Hour of Sharing is the refugee, relief, and development offering of the United Church of Christ, transforming lives through health, education, agricultural, and emergency relief initiatives in 138 countries. OGHS funds enable the UCC to respond quickly to disasters and other urgent and unexpected needs as they arise.
Four ministries within the UCC respond to urgent and ongoing needs:
- National Disaster Ministries.
- Refugee Ministries
- Volunteer Ministries
- Global Ministries (with Disciples of Christ)
OGHS also supports three partner organizations, which concentrate on health and economic justice issues:
- IMA World Health focuses on improving the accessibility and quality of health care among people who need it most. When IMA launched in 1960, its primary mission was to procure medicines and supplies and to distribute them to needy clinics around the world. Today, IMA has grown to become one of the most respected and efficient international health care organizations, managing complex programs to fight disease and meet the health care needs of vulnerable and marginalized people.
- ECLOF International works to eradicate poverty and restore human dignity. ECLOF was founded in 1946 to provide financial support to churches throughout Europe to rebuild, renovate, or expand their premises, as well as to establish schooling and health facilities. In 1959, ECLOF expanded to Africa, Asia, and South America, shifting its work to from churches to microloans and development. Today, ECLOF has become the microfinance arm of the ecumenical family and reaches out to rural areas that traditionally have not benefited from microfinance. Their aim is expand tomorrow to even more isolated rural areas and poorer populations.
- Oiko Credit Microfinance provides funding to the microfinance sector, fair trade organizations, cooperatives and small to medium enterprises. The idea of Oikocredit started at a 1968 meeting of the World Council of Churches with young politically engaged church members, from a variety of denominations, calling for an ethical investment channel that supports peace and universal brotherhood. The goal from the start has been to promote social justice by providing credit to productive enterprises run by disadvantaged people. A worldwide cooperative and social investor, Oiko Credit Microfinance currently has total assets of € 763 million, with 849 partners, and 48,000 investors.
For almost 70 years, nine denominations in the U.S., united as one, have together been connecting people through the One Great Hour of Sharing offering. CUCC will be part of that system, collecting our OGHS offering on March 30.