Pledge your support even if you’re not a member

Pastor Kristin Hutson talking to members of a visiting group of volunteers from Michigan. Photo: Gerald Farinas.

Edgewater Presbyterian Church is a vibrant and welcoming community of faith—serving our surrounding neighborhoods for almost 130 years.

While we continue to ask our members for financial support, we also want to let people know that you don’t have to be a member of our church to make a pledge.

“Each pledge is more than for just a church. This community strives to do more for others than for itself.”

—Sustainable Solutions for Sacred Spaces Committee

Our building does not just house one of the oldest Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations in Chicago. It is also the home of various arts and humanities programs and social service organizations, too.

Some of our tenants are not Christian—but we share in their missions, visions, and objectives to help make our communities better and serve people in need.

A couple of our groups like Humanity Relief are led by devoted Muslim community organizers with passions for helping immigrants—especially recent asylum seekers.

One group led by local entrepreneurs, Nepalese Aid, has helped make our building a home for senior programming for Nepali neighbors—some of whom are Hindu.

Another group, Edgewater Mutual Aid, has made our front steps a place to get fresh food for neighbors who are food-insecure; and help those in need collect funds so they don’t get their electricity or phone turned off, not go too long without necessary medications, or miss a needed rent payment.

Some of their volunteers don’t believe what we believe, but this space has become an important place for the people they serve.

“Why is pledging funds to Edgewater Presbyterian Church important? Because we want to continue making this building relevant to the people in our surrounding neighborhoods.”

—Building Committee

While pledges are foundational to help our church continue its mission and ministries and pay for our pastor, preachers, and musicians, pledges also help sustain the building itself.

Quite simply, old buildings cost money to operate.

It can be frustrating when a boiler stops working, or an elevator gets stuck between floors, or when the roof over the kitchen starts to leak after a thunderstorm.

Energy costs are at a premium, and so are various supplies to keep our rooms and hallways clean.

Your pledge will not enrich any person or groups of persons in our church.

Frankly, your pledge will help keep the ship afloat.

This ship is special.

It has places to sail to—the lighthouses of civil and social justice, piers of the underclothed needing to be clothed, docks of hungry needing to be fed, and shores of people in want of care, love, dignity, pride, and respect.

How can you pledge funds to our building?

There are a few different ways to give funds to Edgewater Presbyterian Church:

• Online. You can give online through the church's website—anytime you want for any amount you can.

• By mail. You can mail a signed letter pledging an amount you plan to give—monthly or for the 2024 fiscal year. You can give by mailing a check to Edgewater Presbyterian Church, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60660, at your convenience.

• In person. You can speak with our pastor or office administrator to receive a pledge form.

All donations to Edgewater Presbyterian Church are tax-deductible within the limits set by the IRS tax code.

Whether you are a member of Edgewater Presbyterian Church or a friend of the congregation, or someone who just wants to see the building survive into the future, your pledge is important.

Thank you.