Readings:
Preface of a Saint (2)
[Common of a Missionary]
[For the Ministry]
[For the Mission of the Church]
PRAYER (traditional
language)
God of all creation, who dost call us to make disciples of all nations and to proclaim thy mercy and love: Grant that we, after the example of thy servant Julia Chester Emery, might have vision and courage in proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ, our light and our salvation, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
PRAYER (contemporary
language)
God of all creation, who calls us 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, might 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. Amen.
Lessons and collects revised in Lesser Feasts & Fasts 2018.
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JULIA CHESTER EMERY,
LAY LEADER AND MISSIONARY (9 JAN 1922)
Julia Emery is a 1994 addition to the Episcopal Calendar.
Her father was a New England sea captain. Two of her
brothers became priests. One sister, Helen, cared for
another sister who was ill, and made a project of providing
hospitality in her New York City home for missionaries on
leave. Another sister, Mary, was National Secretary of the
Women's Auxiliary of the Board of Missions for its first
four years, from 1872 to 1876. At this point, Julia
took over, and was National Secretary of the Auxiliary for
forty years, from 1876 to 1916.
She visited every diocese in the United States, co-ordinating and encouraging work in support of missions. She traveled to London as a delegate to the Pan-Anglican Congress. She traveled to Japan, inland China, Hong Kong, and the Philippines to advance missionary work there, and to be able to report on it to the Episcopal women in the United States.
It was Julia who invented the United Thank Offering (UTO). This works (or used to work -- my political instincts tell me that not everyone today would be comfortable with the original arrangement) by giving each woman a small box with a slit in the top (a cardboard piggy bank), and encouraging her to drop a small contribution into it whenever she feels thankful about something. Once a year, the women of the parish present these at the Sunday service, and the money is sent to national headquarters to be used for missions.
by James Kiefer