Val Murphy Offering
To honor Val’s dedication and contributions to Christian education, we invite event participants to contribute to the Val Murphy Offering at the 2023 APCE Annual Event. Val’s love for nurturing disciples lives on through your Annual Event donations: in the scholarship recipients who experience the Annual Event; in the local mission project (see information about the 2023 local mission project); and in the continued mission of APCE’s diversity initiatives, to build a more just and equitable organization and influence the faith communities we serve.
The Annual Event offering – the Val Murphy Offering – is shared between a local mission project (25%) and scholarships (75%).
E. Valeria Murphy was a pioneer for minorities in Christian education. Val brought a dedication to her ministry that was recognized by APCE when she received the first ever LIFE Achievement award. Her love of Christian education inspired APCE to establish the APCE scholarship program in her honor in 1988.
Val Murphy loved the Annual Event, and she attended every year from its early days in a former version of APCE to the 1987 APCE Annual Event. Those who knew and loved Val Murphy were inspired just to be in her presence.
An additional photo of Val from her college days and more information about Val Murphy can be found on the DePauw University website.
This year’s Local Mission Offering will support the work of First Light. First Light was born in the basement of First Presbyterian Church in Birmingham in 1983 and is now housed in the refurbished Granada Hotel, allowing for a more expansive ministry.
The mission of First Light is to work with homeless women and their children to create hospitality in a safe and nurturing community, to encourage them to maintain dignity, to find hope, to seek opportunity, and to grow spiritually, thereby achieving their full potential.
For more information, visit First Light’s website, www.firstlightshelter.org.