The tradition was begun in 1933 by Hugh Thomson Kerr who ministered in the Shadyside Presbyterian Church.
According to Presbyterian Outlook: Davitt S. Bell (the late Clerk of Session and church historian at Shadyside) recalled that Dr. Kerr first conceived the notion of World Communion Sunday during his year as moderator of the General Assembly (1930).
Dr. Donald Craig Kerr, who is pastor emeritus of the Roland Park Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, was sixteen in 1933.
He has related that World Communion Sunday grew out of the Division of Stewardship at Shadyside.
[2]It was then adopted throughout the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1936[1] and subsequently spread to other denominations.