Home > Worship Resources > Festivals & Commemorations > Julia Chester Emery, Mission Supporter, 1922 (January 9)

About the Commemoration

Julia Chester Emery was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on September 24th, 1852. In 1876 she succeeded her sister, Mary, as Secretary of the Woman’s Auxiliary of the Board of Missions, which had been established by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church (Anglican) in 1871. During the forty years that she served as Secretary, Julia helped the church to recognize its call to proclaim the gospel both at home and overseas. Her faith, her courage, her spirit of adventure, and her ability to inspire others combined to make her a leader respected and valued by the whole church.

She visited every diocese and missionary district within the United States, encouraging and expanding the work of the Woman’s Auxiliary, and in 1908 she served as a delegate to the Pan-Anglican Congress in London. From there she traveled around the world, visiting missions in remote areas of China, in Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Hawaii, and then all the dioceses on the Pacific Coast before returning to New York. In spite of the fact that travel was not easy, she wrote that she went forth “with hope for enlargement of vision, opening up new occasions for service, acceptance of new tasks.”

Through her leadership a network of branches of the Woman’s Auxiliary was established which shared a vision of and a commitment to the church’s mission. An emphasis on educational programs, a growing recognition of social issues, development of leadership among women, and the creation of the United Thank Offering are a further part of the legacy Julia left to the church when she retired in 1916.

Emery died on January 9, 1922. The year before her death, the following appeared in the Spirit of Missions: “In all these enterprises of the church, no single agency has done so much in the last half-century to further the church’s mission as the Woman’s Auxiliary.” Much of that accomplishment was due to the creative spirit of its Secretary for forty of those fifty years, Julia Chester Emery.

Excerpts from Lesser Feasts and Fasts.

See also: Julia Chester Emery

Propers

God of all creation, you call us in Christ to make disciples of all nations and to proclaim your mercy and love: Grant that we, after the example of your servant Julia Chester Emery, may have vision and courage in proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our light and our salvation, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Readings: Romans 12:6–13; Psalm 67; Mark 10:42–45

Preface: Saint

Color: White