Presbyterian Women of Philadelphia

Interested in the Synod of the Trinity 2025 Mission Project? Click Here!2025 Project

Presbyterian Women and the Synod of the Trinity

Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery (PWP) exists to build community, affirm women’s calls to leadership and serve as a link between Presbyterian Women in the Congregation and Presbyterian Women in the Synod. At the most basic level, every PWP group:

Women of the Synod of the Trinity 2024

Elects its own leadership — the coordinating team
Plans and implements a yearly program and determines its own budget
Participates in PW programming, such as use of the Horizons Bible study, celebration giving and mission interpretation
Supports the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) worldwide through education, interpretation, global awareness and financial and material gifts
Develops the leadership abilities of women
Preserves historical records of PW
Maintains connections with PW at other governing body levels
Benefits from the services of the PW leadership network
Encourages support of PW’s affiliations

The programming for a Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery group depends on the level on involvement the group has committed to. Some PWP groups are very active with multiple projects; others meet once or twice a year for projects that are particularly important. Check with your PW in the Congregation to find out what your PW in the Presbytery is doing.

The Well – a Project of The Welcome Church

2025 PW Synod Mission Project

The Well, located in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania, currently refers to the whole community of support for women who are experiencing homelessness, which is a part of The Welcome Church.

In 2016, The Welcome Church founded an overnight shelter for women called The Well, when it became apparent that there were few places where women felt safe going inside for the night. Grounded in the relationships that The Welcome Church had with the women, The Well had two amazing successes in the first two winter seasons: the women, who had been labeled “shelter resistant,” were consistently coming in, and after the second season, most moved into permanent housing.

Unfortunately, the building and congregation (Christ’s Presbyterian Church) housing The Well had to close in 2024, and the City of Philadelphia, in the midst of budget cuts, stopped funding for this shelter. The Welcome Church continues to look for a new location for the shelter, for which the city will provide funding as a winter shelter this year. We have redefined The Well as the whole community of women, which gathers in different places, both inside and outside, offering mutual support.

Funds given by Presbyterian Women will enable the meeting of two monthly women's groups, organizing among the community of our women, an overnight retreat for 12 women, and support for an indoor shelter for women who are experiencing chronic street homelessness, grounded in the relationships of The Welcome Church with the women.

Please contact me directly if you have any questions regarding this worthy mission.

Suzanne Herger

Mission Coordinator Synod of the Trinity PW

267-471-0832 / Suzanne.herger@verizon.net

Welcome Church Clergy Team

The Reverend Violet Cucciniello Little – Pastor, Mission Developer

Violet is a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) who first began The Welcome Center and later The Welcome Church after meeting women who were washing up and changing clothes in train station restrooms. Ordained in 1992, Pastor Little has served in urban ministry since her ordination. Pastor Little is also a trained psychotherapist with a small private practice in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia.

The Reverend Schaunel Steinnagel – Co-Pastor, The Welcome Church

Schaunel, formerly serving as the Hunger Action Enabler for the Presbytery of Philadelphia, comes to the Welcome Church with a passion and belief that with the proper use of our resources, we can end hunger. Here Schaunel is pictured with a King's cake, walking us into the season of Lent. A graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York, Schaunel has worked on several programs with people experiencing homelessness.

Download the Welcome Church Resource Guide

In 2024, homelessness in Philadelphia increased for the third consecutive year.
Among people experiencing street homelessness, women are outnumbered by men three to four times to one.
Philadelphia's Office of Homeless Services has condemned the 2024 Homeless Encampment Supreme Court Ruling (Grant's Pass vs. Johnson), which claims that punishing people for being homeless and sleeping outside is not in violation of the 8th Amendment, even when there are not adequate shelter beds for the unhoused population.

2025 Contributions from PWs in the Synod of the Trinity should be sent from PWs in the Congregation to their PW in the Presbytery Treasurer by December 1, 2025.

PW in the Presbytery Treasurers should send final contributions to:

PW in the Synod Treasurer

Doreen Stiffler

99 Cedar Drive, Kittanning, PA 16201

by December 15th 2025.