Triennial Meetings

Triennial Meeting Registration Table, 1952. Mirroring the structure of the General Convention, delegates representing chapters across the church gathered every three years.

By 1886, the structure of the Woman's Auxiliary had grown to mirror the General Convention, with diocesan secretaries and a Triennial Meeting of its own. Each diocesan chapter had its own annual meetings, with delegates representing the parishes, in the same way that the male-run Diocesan Councils met. Within this structure, the women conducted their business in parallel to the men, though they had no voice in the deliberations of General Convention, yet.

With the missionary enterprise of the church quickly expanding around the world during the late 19th century, it became clear that the Board of Missions did not possess the resources to support the work to which they were committed. As pivotal members of their local parishes and community leaders in their own right, the members of the Woman's Auxiliary recognized an opportunity to expand their work. By mirroring the structure and hierarchy of the male-led national Church, the Woman's Auxiliary positioned themselves to effect change world-wide.

To raise funds for the Board of Missions, the Auxiliary organized regular "specials," or small-scale fundraising drives, and also took a collection at the Triennial Meeting. When the sum offered at the 1886 meeting was revealed to be a paltry $82.71, Mrs. Ida Soule, a delegate from Pittsburgh, suggested that donations might be more generous if their destination was less vague and more ambitious. The Woman's Auxiliary announced two goals for 1889: to raise enough funds to build a church in Anvik, Alaska, and to support placing a woman missionary in Japan for a year.

The sum for 1889, publicly counted at the beginning of the Triennial Meeting by Julia Emery and Ida Soule, amounted to an improved, but still disappointing, $406.45. As the meeting continued, however, more donations came in and a final anonymous gift of $1,000 brought the total to $2,188.64. With this sum, the first two grants were made by what would later become the United Thank Offering: the church in Anvik was built, and Lisa Lovell was appointed missionary to Japan.

Photograph of the United Thank Offering ingathering in Honolulu published in "This is the United Thank Offering," c. 1955.

Woman’s Auxiliary United Thank Offering deposit certificate, 1925.

Thousands Share in the United Thank Offering of the Women of the Church, c. 1940.