[Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs – press release]  Following the Episcopal Church Executive Council meeting in Chicago, IL, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and UTO President Barbara Schafer have issued a joint statement.

The Episcopal Church is deeply grateful for the faithful witness of the United Thank Offering over nearly 125 years, and desires to see the recent challenges healed and resolved.  To that end, the United Thank Offering leadership, the DFMS leadership, and the Executive Council are committed to clarifying individual and mutual responsibilities, working relationships, and opportunities for building up the effectiveness of God’s mission, of which the United Thank Offering is an important ministry.

We are committed to the full flourishing of the ministry of the United Thank Offering, and have already begun to engage the work necessary to ensure that this ministry of thankfulness will bless the world for many years to come.

The Executive Council has affirmed the United Thank Offering’s Grant Focus and Criteria for 2014, and together we have all begun to engage the work noted above.  We ask your prayers of thankfulness for the ministry of the United Thank Offering, for the leadership and ministry of women which has been its foundation, and for the flourishing of this ministry for many years to come.

We urge thankful Episcopalians to continue filling their Blue Boxes, gathering these offerings, and praying for the healing of God’s broken world. 

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

Barbara Schafer
President
United Thank Offering