Reformed Church. Women's Missionary Society (1887-1938)

Collection

Identifier: Ref. RG 1992.001

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Ths Women's Missionary Society collection consist of minutes and reports from the triennial sessions, minutes of cabinet meetings, remittance sheets and other financial records, prayer calendars, and miscellaneous publications produced for the use of Synodical and Classical Societies. Mrs. Yockey wrote a history of the Society, and another history was written at the time of its fiftieth anniversary. Synodical and Classical records May be found in REF 1993.01 Additional items added to the collection from Heidelberg College (Accession #2007.020).

Dates

Creation: 0000 - 0000

Biographical / Historical

The Women's Missionary Society of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in the United States was begun in 1887 as the women's organization of the Reformed Church. It functioned primarily as a mission-related body especially designed for the participation of women and children. The Women's Missionary Society was officially organized on June 2, 1887, at Grace Reformed Church, Akron, Ohio, with 25 women present representing five synods. Most of the credit for the formation of the Society goes to Elvira S. Yockey of Xenia, Ohio, the wife of the pastor of the Reformed Church there and a woman of great faith, courage, vision and leadership skills. She started a woman's mission group in her local church, and others, even on the Classical and Synodical levels, soon sprang up. It was Mrs. Yockey who presented the cause of woman's work in the church to the 1887 General Synod, which voted an offering for the project and permitted the women to raise money for the support of missionaries and to create a program of mission education for women and children. During the fifty years of the Society's existence, it raised more than $2,000,000. The Society expanded rapidly, and Synodical and Classical Societies were formed. Local churches also had Woman's Missionary Societies. They clearly filled a need and permitted women a strong voice and an organization of their own for the first time in the Reformed Church. The object of the Society was "to aid in the advancement of the work of Christian missions in home and foreign lands, with a view especially to the enlightenment and elevation of women to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." The women elected their own officers but worked cooperatively with the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church. By 1891 they had begun "The Women's Journal", which continued until 1909, when it became part of the "Outlook of Missions". National triennial conventions were held, and the work of the Society was organized into departments. By 1934, the women of the society were in conversation with the Evangelical Women's Union of the Evangelical Synod of North America. The two groups merged in 1939 to form the Women's Guild of the Evangelical and Reformed Church.