Evangelism
Church Work, 1885. Edited by Mary (Emery) Twing, each monthly magazine issue featured a sermon, personal interest stories, mission updates, and helpful articles for starting parish women’s groups.
Whether they were preparing the altar for services or teaching Sunday School class, the women’s work was underpinned by a unifying call to evangelism and a desire to serve the Episcopal faith. Like their male counterparts, women of the Church used their social networks to effect change in their communities while spreading the Gospel.
The publication, Church Work, edited by Mary Emery Twing of the Woman's Auxiliary, published from 1885-1889, as a networking and informational hub for women workers, shows the breadth of “women's work” within The Episcopal Church. This monthly magazine covered every aspect of a woman’s life in the Church, from practical details of faith-filled household management to demystifying complex theological questions. Each issue began with a printed sermon on an aspect of the Christian woman’s life from a prominent male churchman. The sermon was often followed by personal interest stories, accomplishments of diocesan chapters of the Woman’s Auxiliary, papers read at conferences of Churchwomen, or reports on the successes and setbacks of their mission projects. Issues also included articles about the new Girls’ Friendly Society, the Order of the Daughters of the King, religious orders for women, and the recently-resurrected Order of Deaconesses.
Though it was published by the Woman's Auxiliary, Church Work was intended primarily as a space for women workers to share their knowledge and expertise, championing the central premise that the real work of touching lives through faith took place at the parish and local level. Of particular interest was the regular “How to Begin” column, which offered practical advice for any woman who wished to start a parish program of nearly any sort. “How to Begin” topics ranged from “How to Begin a Church Hospital” to “How to Begin a Singing School,” with other helpful articles and advice for starting country sewing schools, Mother's Meetings, day nurseries for children of working mothers, and local chapters of the Woman's Auxiliary. Each column provided a clear template for any woman to work from and gave women actionable steps toward becoming faith leaders in their local communities.
Fundraising for parishes and missions included the whole family. In this undated photo, children in Fairbanks, Alaska pose with their money boxes, ready for collection.
Rev. Glen Wilcox and his wife Joan learning to use the radio telephone transmitter as part of the Missionary Communication Service in Anvik, Alaska, 1957.
Pointers for Leaders of Women’s Work in the Church, a newsletter for women church workers, was published from 1941-1943.