Part 4. ACCOMPLISHMENTS

5. The Woman’s Missionary Society

N 1887 Mrs. Ella L. MacGeary, the wife of a district elder in the Pittsburgh Conference, took to heart a criticism which she heard to the effect that Free Methodist women had too little to do for the church. When she found what good work was done for missions by the women of other denominations she determined to start a Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society in her own church. Encouraged by the Rev. T. B. Arnold, then the treasurer of the General Missionary Board, she drew up a Constitution and By-Laws and organized the first Free Methodist Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society at Verona, Pennsylvania, in 1889. A missionary society had already been formed among the students and faculty of Chesbrough Seminary in memory of Miss Mary E. Carpenter, who gave her life for Africa in i886, but this had no connection with the women’s society.

     Official recognition was given the new movement by the General Conference in 1890. The recommendation of the Committee on Missions was adopted as follows:

     “That the Missionary Board be authorized to organize a Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society auxiliary to the Board.”

     During the succeeding quadrennium many local societies were formed; a few conference societies first, among them Wisconsin, where there was not then a single local society, although some districts were organized. The new society, though strenuously opposed in some quarters, caught the imagination of the women of the church, who felt it a privilege to have something of their own to do in the church’s world-wide task. Actually the women were the first to bring that task definitely to the consciousness of the whole church.

     By 1894 the movement had made such progress that the Rev. J. G. Terrill, then the missiOnary secretary, himself called a meeting at the seat of the General Conference to form a general Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, “A central organization to unify the whole work.” The officers elected at that time gave it instant acceptance with the church, the first president being Mrs. Ellen Lois Roberts, the wife of the senior bishop and founder of the church.

     It is noteworthy that in general this was a young women’s movement. Miss Emma Freeland, later Mrs. Clark Shay, while a college girl at Wellesley caught the vision of such a movement among the women of her church and became one of its most enthusiastic promoters. Many others, then in their early thirties, were eager workers in the new society.

     From the first the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society was auxiliary to the General Missionary Board. This relationship implies loyalty on the one hand and appreciation on the other. Such has been the case in this organization. In 1898, when the general Woman’s Missionary Society had been in operation only four years, its total contribution to missionary funds amounted to $18,498.14. The funds of the board, which also showed a satisfactory increase, were augmented by this large amount. So impressed was the missionary secretary, then Rev. B. Winget, by this quite unexpected increase in the missionary funds that he said in his report to the General Conference of that year, “These societies, so vitally related to the foreign work, should be represented in the management of the missions in the foreign fields, and we recommend that the General Conference make arrangements for such representation.” And so it did. Three members were chosen by the quadrennial meeting of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society to serve on the General Missionary Board. The number was later increased to four, the president serving ex-officio in addition to the three elected representatives. In the reorganization of all boards in 1931 when the Board of Administration was set up provision was made for two representatives from the Woman’s Missionary Society who should serve as members of the Commission on Missions and also on the Board of Administration. The women’s society has never had to ask for such recognition. The church has deemed it not only fair but expedient to have such representation in its highest councils.

     The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society being auxiliary to the General Missionary Board, it was decided to turn over all funds raised for missions to the board, reserving only five cents of each dollar for promotional and special work. Expenses are incurred in every organization and bills must be paid from some source. It was thought that to have this small proportion set aside definitely for such purposes was better than to be continually under the necessity of using missionary funds to meet them. Not only has this small amount paid all office and promotional expenses, by far the larger part of all official service having been voluntary and unpaid through the years, but the women have had the joy of making many substantial gifts from this fund. They gave $4,000 for opening the mission in China; $1,000 to help build the Publishing House in Chicago; $2,000 towards buying a much-needed Rest Home for missionaries in India; more recently $1,000 towards opening a new field in Southern Rhodesia. So through the years the “Contingent Fund” has met these and many other urgent needs.

     Surprisingly it was the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society which inaugurated the home missionary work of the church. A vision of need, sacrificial giving, and long and urgent praying brought it into existence. Then, to avoid the embarrassment of administrative work, the women turned the whole enterprise over to the board but continued effective promotion. Such an interest had been created in the society that in 1925 a new charter was secured under the name of the Woman’s Missionary Society, and thenceforth it has concerned itself with home as well as with foreign missions.

     Since 1897 the society has had its own official organ, the Missionary Tidings, an attractive and informing magazine which now enjoys the largest circulation in its history, with a mailing list of more than 10,000o paid subscriptions.

     One of the most rewarding efforts of the Woman’s Missionary Society has been that of enlisting and training the children in missionary work. Out of this has grown a Junior Missionary Society of above 10,000 members, whose small gifts have financed many important projects. Beginning with the support of Miss Nellie A. Reed in Africa, who was long known as “the children’s missionary,” their gifts have grown until they now provide the allowances for all the children of our foreign missionaries.

     To the Woman’s Missionary Society also belongs the honor of having formed the first church-wide young people’s society. Enjoying the confidence of the church to a marked degree, the Woman’s Missionary Society was thus enabled to inaugurate a long-needed youth movement in the church and to place the missionary motive at the heart of it. After twelve years of successful pioneering in this field they turned the Young People’s Missionary Society over to the General Conference for its further direction and control.

     Not only has the Woman’s Missionary Society made large contributions in money, interest and personnel to the missionary work of the church, but it has enjoyed great spiritual prosperity in its continued emphasis upon prayer, sacrifice and personal service. It is an able, articulate section of the church’s life. Organized in every conference and now on several foreign fields, it offers an outlet for the consecrated energies and talents of a host of women, ably assisted by some thousands of men as honorary members. It has put more than three million dollars into the hands of the Commission on Missions for distribution to every corner of every field. Truly God has prospered the little vine planted in 1889.