This book - Centro de Estudos Anglicanos

SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGES 95tional level, Mary Abbot Emery helped organize a major new agency that theGeneral Convention officially established in 1871: the Woman’s Auxiliary to theBoard of Missions of the Episcopal Church. This voluntary association of churchwomenrecruited missionaries, trained teachers, and raised funds through a regularsystem of giving. Despite some limitations—auxiliary leaders were not permittedeither to serve on the Board of Missions itself or to exercise full administrativecontrol over their organization—the auxiliary offered Episcopal women a centralizedorganization to support their involvement in religious work outside theirhomes. 40The leadership provided by four members of the Emery family had a majorimpact on the achievements of the auxiliary throughout its first 45 years. MaryAbbot Emery, who served as general secretary from 1872 to 1876, accomplisheda great deal in a relatively brief period. For example, she was successful in unitingseveral local missionary organizations run by women (e.g., the Indian Aid Associationof Baltimore, the Dakota League of Massachusetts, and the HartfordBureau of Relief) into a cohesive national structure. She also developed a systemfor the distribution of missionary boxes containing clothing, books, medical supplies,and other materials needed by workers in the field, and she worked out afund-raising plan that provided support not only for missionary clergy but alsofor the many girls’ secondary schools that were opened in the West at that time.And through her extensive correspondence, she bolstered the morale of missionariesby sending them numerous letters of sympathy and encouragement. 41In 1876 Mary Emery resigned from her position with the auxiliary when shemarried A.T. Twing, the secretary for domestic missions of the Episcopal Church.She was succeeded by her younger sister, Julia Chester Emery, who led the organizationfor the next 40 years. Two other sisters, Susan Lavinia Emery andMargaret Theresa Emery, also assisted in the auxiliary’s work—the former aseditor of a children’s magazine about missions, the latter as coordinator of themissionary box program. When her husband died in 1882, Mary Emery Twingagain assumed a role in the organization. Serving as “honorary secretary” until1901, she focused on developing and publicizing vocational opportunities forwomen in the church. While maintaining a veneer of submissiveness that did notovertly threaten the male hierarchy of their denomination, the Emery sisters wereable to extend considerably the formal influence of women within the officialcircles of the Episcopal Church. 42 As Julia Emery emphasized in her 1916 reportto the Board of Missions, women were eager to be enlisted to work “under theirrectors and Bishops and the organized authorities of the Church.” For thosewomen, the auxiliary was not simply a bureaucratic organization but “a reminder,a co-operator, and a vehicle” through which they could engage themselves instrengthening the general missionary efforts of their church. 43At the end of the nineteenth century, several other women’s organizations werefounded that complemented the work of the auxiliary. For example, with theencouragement of Julia Emery, the 1889 General Convention established the