The Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA) is a community of ministries

• Seeking and voicing God’s shalom
• Proclaiming the inclusive Gospel of justice and mercy
• Sharing in Christ’s work of compassion and love and
• Witnessing the Spirit’s prophetic activity in church and world.

PHEWA is a ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Peace and Justice Ministries. Although we are a 501(c) 3 membership organization, we serve the entire church. Meet our staff and Board of Directors.

PHEWA encourages the church to be responsive to the needs of the excluded and suffering by providing programmatic, organizational and technical assistance to Presbyterians working for justice. PHEWA is organized around ten mission networks:

1. Presbyterians for Addiction Action (PAA)
2. Presbyterian Association for Community Transformation (PACT)
3. Presbyterians Against Domestic Violence Network (PADVN)
4. Presbyterian AIDS Network (PAN)
5. Presbyterians Affirming Reproductive Options (PARO)
6. Presbyterian Association of Specialized Pastoral Ministries (PASPM)
7. Presbyterian Child Advocacy Network (PCAN)
8. Presbyterians for Disability Concerns (PDC)
9. Presbyterian Health Network (PHN)
10. Presbyterian Serious Mental Illness Network (PSMIN)

Members of the various networks are volunteers who give thousands of hours working with individuals, congregations and middle governing bodies.

At a PHEWA Social Justice Conference, a participant said, as he surveyed the crowd, “I’ve never seen a gathering that looked more like the kingdom of God.” What he saw was a gathering where all persons were invited, accepted and honored. PHEWA is the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at its most faithful!

• We carry out work that is mandated by the General Assembly.
• We consult with individuals, congregations and middle governing bodies to help them as they seek to bring justice to persons who are often marginalized by the church and society.
• We identify leadership with expertise for use church wide in the areas of our network ministries.
• We provide leadership development and a Leadership Development Event.
• We host a Biennial Social Justice Conference and other training events.
• We develop and/or partner in the development of resources.
• We monitor, support and advocate for ministries of justice within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The early years…

The roots of the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA) stretch deep into Presbyterian soil. Our beginning and heritage can be traced back to the men and women who conceived of and served in our denomination’s earliest national social welfare ministries.

When our denomination’s Committee of Mission was established by the General Assembly in 1800, most of this nation was a frontier and only New York and Philadelphia were ranked as metropolitan mission areas. Before long the Committee of Mission spanned the continent and by 1873 California saw the beginnings of community work when the Donaldina Cameron House, a ministry to rescue young Chinese girls from slavery, was started in San Francisco. [Read more]