Mrs. Sturges
Title
Mrs. Sturges
Subject
Mrs. Jonathan Chamberlain Sturges
Description
Women and their Boards of Missions
If anyone is familiar with My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Maria and I lived a large part of that in our wedding long before it became a motion picture) there is a scene in which Toula is talking to her mother about her father not wanting her to go to school (one of the few dissimilarities with Maria’s life). Her mother supports her going to college and replies that “The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants.”
The 19th century witnessed many women’s societies and associations for the support of church and missions. A prominent leader in this was our own David Abeel, the founder of the Amoy Mission in China when he called for “woman’s work for women.” He inspired Sarah Doremus to great efforts in mission support and organizations (see Footprint 7).
Women were raising money and supporting mission efforts on a regular and sustained basis. In 1875, the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions was established. This was not without opposition and one woman’ response to that was “What, are the men afraid that we will get ahead of them.” That was a fear, among others, about the role of women in the 19th century. The Board was organized to promote its work among women and children of non-Christian nations. This was in a large part in response to that challenge of Abeel and the outstanding work of Doremus. Auxiliary societies were organized in many congregations and were extremely successful in fund raising and generating support. These socieites made it possible to fund missionaries, help build buildings—primarily hospitals and schools, and raise awareness of missions and the larger world outside the local community.
In their work through the board, women published histories of the mission field and established a mission magazine. In 1946, the original woman’s board was merged into the Board of Foreign Missions as separate boards began to be eliminated in the RCA—and maybe there was a desire to incorporate their successes into the larger board’s work.
In the domestic sphere back in the U.S., the women’s executive committee of the Board of Domestic Missions was established in 1882 and it soon became the independent Women’s Board of Domestic Missions in 1897.These women were instrumental in building parsonages and helping build churches. They supported mission work in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mexico, and among Native Americans. In 1951, it also merged. This board with the Board of Domestic Missions.
Women’s voices were being heard and women were joining the men on the mission field. Their work focused largely on women’s education and medical developments. In many areas only women could treat women, so the women missionaries were often the only source of medical care and treatment. Unmarried women started to be sent out—heeding part of David Abeel’s call for workers in the mission field.
This is just a brief view of a very important aspect of our rich heritage which contributed to raising the status of women both in other nations as well as within the U.S. Women were in the mission field practicing medicine before it became more common in the United States. An important side-note to these movements was that as a denomination, the RCA began talking about women’s ordination as early as 1850, but, that’s another story.
Much still needs to be researched and written about these efforts of the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Some good starting points are Patterns and Portraits: Women in the Reformed Church in America, edited by Renee S. House and John W. Coakley; Letters to Hazel, by Mary Kansfield; By Grace Alone, by Donald Bruggink and see Lynn Japinga, Loyalty and Loss, for the late 20th century results of these boards.
If anyone is familiar with My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Maria and I lived a large part of that in our wedding long before it became a motion picture) there is a scene in which Toula is talking to her mother about her father not wanting her to go to school (one of the few dissimilarities with Maria’s life). Her mother supports her going to college and replies that “The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants.”
The 19th century witnessed many women’s societies and associations for the support of church and missions. A prominent leader in this was our own David Abeel, the founder of the Amoy Mission in China when he called for “woman’s work for women.” He inspired Sarah Doremus to great efforts in mission support and organizations (see Footprint 7).
Women were raising money and supporting mission efforts on a regular and sustained basis. In 1875, the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions was established. This was not without opposition and one woman’ response to that was “What, are the men afraid that we will get ahead of them.” That was a fear, among others, about the role of women in the 19th century. The Board was organized to promote its work among women and children of non-Christian nations. This was in a large part in response to that challenge of Abeel and the outstanding work of Doremus. Auxiliary societies were organized in many congregations and were extremely successful in fund raising and generating support. These socieites made it possible to fund missionaries, help build buildings—primarily hospitals and schools, and raise awareness of missions and the larger world outside the local community.
In their work through the board, women published histories of the mission field and established a mission magazine. In 1946, the original woman’s board was merged into the Board of Foreign Missions as separate boards began to be eliminated in the RCA—and maybe there was a desire to incorporate their successes into the larger board’s work.
In the domestic sphere back in the U.S., the women’s executive committee of the Board of Domestic Missions was established in 1882 and it soon became the independent Women’s Board of Domestic Missions in 1897.These women were instrumental in building parsonages and helping build churches. They supported mission work in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mexico, and among Native Americans. In 1951, it also merged. This board with the Board of Domestic Missions.
Women’s voices were being heard and women were joining the men on the mission field. Their work focused largely on women’s education and medical developments. In many areas only women could treat women, so the women missionaries were often the only source of medical care and treatment. Unmarried women started to be sent out—heeding part of David Abeel’s call for workers in the mission field.
This is just a brief view of a very important aspect of our rich heritage which contributed to raising the status of women both in other nations as well as within the U.S. Women were in the mission field practicing medicine before it became more common in the United States. An important side-note to these movements was that as a denomination, the RCA began talking about women’s ordination as early as 1850, but, that’s another story.
Much still needs to be researched and written about these efforts of the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Some good starting points are Patterns and Portraits: Women in the Reformed Church in America, edited by Renee S. House and John W. Coakley; Letters to Hazel, by Mary Kansfield; By Grace Alone, by Donald Bruggink and see Lynn Japinga, Loyalty and Loss, for the late 20th century results of these boards.
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