Starting from 2019, the FSPC will take over the tasks of “Protestant Solidarity in Switzerland” PSS, the governing body of the cantonal Protestant church aid organizations. The PSS association will be dissolved, and the PSS Conference of the FSPC will be established to replace it. During an information session on September 3, 2018, in Bern, the future course and objectives of the organization were discussed.
The PSS Conference’s mission is to provide interchurch aid. In cooperation with cantonal aid organizations and the FSPC member churches, it supports diaspora churches or churches in minority situations on a national and international scale, helping them to implement sustainable projects.
Among other tasks, the PSS Conference will be responsible for collecting the annual Reformation Offering. These funds are used to support financially weak churches with projects that are important to congregational life. The Reformation Offering is the oldest and also the only offering collected simultaneously in all Protestant Reformed churches in Switzerland. It is an important sign of Protestant solidarity.
In addition, the PSS will be responsible for the Confirmation Offering, which supports acts of solidarity by young people preparing for their confirmation ceremony. It is used to support youth projects in Europe.
The PSS was founded in Basel in 1842 by Guillaume Le Grand under the name of “Protestantisch-kirchlicher Hülfsverein.” Since 1897, the annual Reformation Offering has been collected on Reformation Sunday. In the seventies, then-FSPC President Walter Sigrist founded the umbrella organization “Association of Protestant Church Aid Organizations.” In 2007, the association was renamed “Protestant Solidarity in Switzerland.”