| Julia Chester Emery (January 9th) was the most prominent figure in the Episcopal Church’s missionary work for forty years. In 1876, when she was only 24 years old, she became Secretary of the Woman’s Auxiliary of the Episcopal Church’s Board of Missions. At the time, this role was the highest position of leadership allowed for women in the Church. Her youth notwithstanding, Emery’s faith, courage, spirit of adventure, and ability to inspire others combined to commend her for such responsibility, and she became one of the most respected and influential leaders in all of the Church.
As W.A. Secretary, Emery helped the Episcopal Church to recognize and act on its call to proclaim the Gospel both at home and overseas. In 1908, she served as a delegate to the Pan-Anglican Congress in London and from there she traveled around the world, visiting missions in remote areas of China, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Hawaii. She then toured every diocese on the Pacific Coast of the USA before returning to New York. The difficulties, hardships, and dangers of such travels were no match for her optimism and energy. In her leadership, Emery visited every diocese within the USA to encourage and expand the work of the Woman’s Auxiliary. Her work established a network of Woman’s Auxiliary branches that exercised a powerful voice to emphasize educational programs, bring the Church’s ministry to social issues, and develop roles of leadership for women.
One of her last efforts prior to her retirement in 1916 was the creation of the United Thank Offering. Julia Chester Emery died in 1922, having led the Auxiliary for 40 of its first 50 years and seeing it recognized as the single greatest agency to further the Church’s missionary work. |
