Showing 88 results

Authority record
Corporate body

Woman's Auxiliary

  • Corporate body
  • 1871-1968

In 1871, the General Convention authorized The Woman's Auxiliary to the Board of Missions to coordinate the work formerly conducted by a large number of isolated women's missionary societies. This work included raising funds, publicizing the missionary programs, and recruiting and training women missionaries. The Emery sisters–Mary Abbott, Julia Chester, Susan Lavinia, and Margaret Theresa–were all instrumental in the founding of the organization.

The first General Meeting of the Auxiliary was held in 1874, at which time the women resolved to meet concurrently with General Convention. These meetings came to be known as the Triennial Meetings of the Woman's Auxiliary. In 1889 Julia Chester Emery, who at the time was secretary of the Woman’s Auxiliary, began the United Offering (later renamed United Thank Offering) which provided funds for a wide range of innovative missionary projects.

In 1919, the first National Council Executive Board of the Woman’s Auxiliary was formed to oversee the direction of the work of the women, not only in supporting missionaries, but in social service, religious education, and prayer and worship.

At the 1958 Triennial Meeting, under the direction of the National Council, necessary bylaws were adopted to rename the Executive Board of the Woman’s Auxiliary as the General Division of Women’s Work, which included a designation that diocesan groups would be known as Episcopal Church Women.

Symbolic of the turbulent social climate of the late 1960s, the role of women in the Church went through numerous and significant changes, rendering the Episcopal Church Women unsure of where they fit. Structural reorganizations were initiated aiming to integrate women into the Church on every level. As a part of these changes, Executive Council (formerly National Council) dissolved the General Division of Women's Work in 1968.

Subsequently, the Triennial Meetings were organized by various ad hoc committees until the 1985 gathering, at which time bylaws were adopted forming the Episcopal Church Women (ECW) at the national level. A resolution was filed at the June 1986 meeting of Executive Council confirming that the newly formed Episcopal Church Women “is the same or successor organization to the Woman’s Auxiliary, the General Division of Women’s Work, the Committee for Women, the Triennial Program and Planning Committee, and the Triennial Committee”.

The ECW assumed responsibility for coordinating women's activities in the Church and for organizing the Triennial gatherings.

Wates-Seabury Exchange Program

  • Corporate body
  • 1957-1966

In 1957, Norman Wates, a London businessman, made funds available to the Archbishop of Canterbury for financing the travel and related costs of a clergy exchange program with The Episcopal Church. The immediate goal was to exchange as many as ten English and American priests and their families each year. The Archbishop of Canterbury notified the Rt. Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill, and the first clergy exchange began in 1958; however, “The Anglican Interchange Program” didn’t receive its official designation as the Wates-Seabury Plan until June 1960.

The Presiding Bishop felt that The Episcopal Church should provide additional funding so he drew upon parish, diocesan, and national church funds to support the American side of the exchange. The Episcopal Church formalized the exchanges in December of 1959 when the National Council passed a resolution providing funds for an exchange program administered by the Presiding Bishop with the assistance of the Presiding Bishop's Advisory Committee on Anglican Relations.

The program operated successfully through the 1965–1966 exchanges, but at that point it had became apparent that the Church of England was unable to contribute the funds necessary to receive Norman Wates' continued support. An attempt to prevent the demise of the program took place in 1966 with an “Inter-Diocesan Exchange.” Although The Episcopal Church on the national level aided the 1966–1967 exchange, it did not take place under the Wates-Seabury Program nor was it inter-primatial as were the prior exchanges.

Several attempts were made to revive the program but they ceased with the death of Wates in 1969. In all, between 1958 and 1967, fourteen exchanges took place with eleven of those operating under the Wates-Seabury Program.

Voorhees School and Junior College

  • Corporate body
  • 1897-1967

Denmark Industrial School in Denmark, South Carolina was founded in 1897 by Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, a graduate of Tuskegee Institute. Its name changed to Voorhees Industrial School in1902, in honor of donors Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Voorhees of Clinton, New Jersey.

In 1929 the curriculum expanded to include post-secondary education and the school was renamed Voorhees Normal and Industrial School. The name changed again in 1947 to Voorhees School and Junior College.

In 1962 it was accredited as four-year Voorhees College, and in 2022 it became Voorhees University. The school was affiliated with the American Church Institute from 1924 to 1967.

Venture in Mission

  • Corporate body
  • 1976-1988

Authorized by the 65th General Convention in September 1976, Venture in Mission (VIM) was a large scale fund-raising program resolved to provide mission development funding for the national church. VIM was put into motion by early 1979, and ultimately received the participation of 90 domestic and overseas dioceses. The 1979 and 1982 General Conventions continued the program with resolutions of commendation and appreciation. The original goal was to raise $100 million. By 1985 that goal had surpassed $170 million. The funds were dispersed to various diocesan programs that included community-based ministries for marginalized populations, education, lay and ordained ministry development, urban and rural work, health services, community development, the recruitment of black clergy, training in Hispanic ministries, and overseas missions projects in Costa Rica, Tokyo, Tanzania, and Uganda. The program formally concluded at the end of 1988, although disbursements from existing accounts continued for some years after.

United Thank Offering

  • Corporate body
  • 1889-

The United Thank Offering (UTO) began in 1889 at the Triennial Meeting of the Woman’s Auxiliary as a special fund-raising initiative to support missionary work of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS). Since UTOs inception, they have been a form of self-organized participation by women in The Episcopal Church. The UTO has also existed as a component group of the DFMS and its women’s ministries agency, both of which were within the oversight authority of the Executive Council and its predecessor bodies.

In 1935, with annual budgets exceeding a quarter million dollars and close to a thousand grant requests, the Executive Committee of the Woman’s Auxiliary hired their first manager (called the assistant secretary) to coordinate the grant and public relations process under the direction of the National Council. In 1958, when the Woman’s Auxiliary was integrated into Church structure as the General Division of Women’s Work. The UTO staff officer was appointed directly by the Presiding Bishop for the first time. A decade later, the Executive Council introduced an important change when it subsumed women’s work and ministry under the umbrella of the Committee for Women in place of the General Division of Women’s Work. This change led directly to the recommendation to Council of two separate agencies: the Committee on Lay Ministries (for women) and a clearly independent UTO Committee to continue the fund-raising and grant allocation program. The UTO Committee was replaced by the UTO Board, with revised by-laws and a Memorandum of Understanding in 2012.

Initially the United Thank Offering was collected to fund missionaries and building projects; however, its scope expanded over its 125 year history to include grants for ministries that met societal needs, such as educational programs, childcare programs, and outreach to under-served populations.

Standing Liturgical Commission

  • Corporate body
  • 1928-1997

Prior to the establishment of the Standing Liturgical Commission, liturgical matters were handled by a number of temporary committees and joint commissions. Its most immediate predecessor was the Joint Commission on the Revision and Enrichment of the Prayer Book, established by the 1913 General Convention to revise the Book of Common Prayer.

On the publication of the 1928 edition, the General Convention of 1928 voted to discharge the joint commission and establish in its place the Standing Liturgical Commission for the preservation and study of matters relating to the Book of Common Prayer as well as the development of other liturgical materials. The Standing Liturgical Commission carried out this mandate until the 1997 General Convention, when it was merged with the Standing Commission on Church Music to form the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music.

Standing Commission on Church Music

  • Corporate body
  • 1973-1997

At the 1973 General Convention, the Joint Commission on Church Music (JCCM) was renewed as the Standing Commission on Church Music (SCCM). The newly formed Standing Commission now served the Church in all matters pertaining to music, including serving as a link between associations of professional Church musicians and diocesan music commissions, assisting individual dioceses with courses and conferences on Church music, and collecting and collating material for future revisions of the Church Hymnal. It was also charged with reviewing The Hymnal 1940 and preparing recommendations to the next General Convention for a revision, which was ultimately approved in 1982 and published in 1985.

At the 1997 General Convention, the Committee on Structure recommended that the Standing Liturgical Commission and the Standing Commission on Church Music be merged into a single commission on worship, incorporating the current work of the two existing bodies, thus becoming the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music.

St. Philip's Normal and Industrial School

  • Corporate body
  • 1898-

St. Philip’s Normal and Industrial School in San Antonio, Texas was founded in1898 by the Rt. Rev. James Steptoe Johnson, Bishop of West Texas, and was headed by Artemesia Bowden as its dean from 1902 to 1954.

St. Philip’s was never administered by the American Church Institute (ACI), though appropriations were made to it from 1918 to 1931. It was incorporated into the San Antonio Independent School District in 1942 as St. Philip’s Junior College, affiliated with San Antonio Junior College under the control of the San Antonio Union Junior College District from 1946.

It began admitting white students in 1955; in 2003 the majority of its student body was Latino.

St. Paul's Normal and Industrial School

  • Corporate body
  • 1888-1967

The Rev. James Solomon Russell founded St. Paul’s Normal and Industrial School in Lawrenceville, Virginia in 1888 and served as its principal until his death in 1935. He was succeeded by his son, the Rev. J. Alvin Russell.

In 1941 it began to offer a four-year degree program and changed its name to St. Paul’s Polytechnic Institute. The school’s name changed again to St. Paul’s College in 1957. At one time it was the largest of the American Church Institute’s (ACI) schools with over 1,500 students.

The school was affiliated with ACI until its dissolution in 1967.

St. Mark's School

  • Corporate body
  • 1890-1941

St. Mark’s School (Birmingham, Alabama) was founded in 1891 as an outgrowth of St. Mark’s Church, with financial support from J. A. Van Hoose, a white Episcopal deacon and the 10th Mayor of Birmingham. It was the first institution in the city to offer secondary education to black students and was initially established as a girls’ boarding school.

St. Mark’s was an American Church Institute (ACI) school from 1912 to 1941 when it was dropped due to the exorbitant expense necessary to renovate its buildings. Calhoun School in Lowndes County, Alabama was brought under ACI oversight in its place. It is uncertain whether the school continued to operate after 1941.

St. Augustine's College

  • Corporate body
  • 1867-

St. Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute (Raleigh, North Carolina) was founded in 1867 by the Rev. J. Brinton Smith of the Freedman’s Commission and the Rt. Rev. Thomas Atkinson, Bishop of North Carolina, from the beginnings of a day and Sunday school for African American children of Christ Church Parish. Smith served as the first principal and Atkinson as the president of the Board of Trustees.

In 1893 the school changed its name to St. Augustine’s School. In 1919 the school became known as St. Augustine’s Junior College, then in 1928 as St. Augustine’s College. For some time it was the only four-year liberal arts college for African Americans sponsored by the Episcopal Church. It was one of the first schools to be affiliated with the American Church Institute (ACI) in 1906 and remained under that organization until ACI dissolved in 1967. It remains a four-year liberal arts college.

St. Agnes Hospital and Nursing School

  • Corporate body
  • 1896-1959

After an appeal to General Convention of the need for a hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina for African Americans, St. Agnes Hospital and Nursing School was founded in 1896. The hospital occupied buildings on the grounds of St. Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute and served as both a hospital and nurses’ training school. By 1931 it had grown to a 100-bed hospital serving 2,000 patients annually.

St. Agnes was affiliated with the American Church Institute (ACI) from approximately 1906 until 1958, when ACI discontinued appropriations in order to conform to its mission to support only church-related schools and in anticipation of a new county health system.

St. Agnes Nursing School closed in 1959.

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