Inter Church Missionary Union/ Woman's Inter-Church Missionary Union/ Inter-Church Council of Women/ Women's Division of Council of Churches of Buffalo and Erie County/ Church Women United, 1911 - 2009
Collection context
Summary
- Creator:
- Network of Religious Communities
- Abstract:
- Although the history of this interdenominational group of women dates back to 1911, the earliest paper in the collection is a 1928 flyer from the Annual Meeting of the Interchurch Council of Women. The minutes start in 1938. Most of the collection consists of documents: meeting minutes, rosters, annual reports, area workshop descriptions, newsletters, one book (written by a founder, Laura Gerould Craig), retreats, task forces and scrapbooks. The physical collection includes papers, a book, slides, audiotapes, newspaper clippings of constituent organizations except the Interchurch Missionary Union.
- Extent:
- 7 banker boxes 6 scrap books
- Language:
- English
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The various iterations of the Church Women United began in 1911 and, at first, had been a very active independent organization which later chose to become an integral part of the then Council of Churches in Buffalo. Initially they sought to observe a day of Prayer each year and created an membership comprised of women identified with the Evangelical churches in Buffalo and vicinity.
In 1938, the organization became a department within the (Buffalo) Council of Churches. They continued to hold fellowships and interfaith meetings as well as a leadership school. In 1941 they began a project for a week day Religious Education Denomination School which took two years to bring into fruition. In 1951 they began working at General Hospital calling on new mothers and later branched out to other local hospitals.
Migrant work was a very special project for many years including a Vesper Service on a Sunday at the Migrant camp.
Another ongoing project included a World Community Day observance where clothing, other articles and money was collected and sent to those in need through the Church World Service. Mission Institutes were long a part of the United Church Women Program, and included evening programs to already full scheduled to provide information for women who were employed outside the home and others who found it difficult to attend daytime meetings.
In the field of public relations, the group created newsletters, a speaker's bureau and participated in TV and radio.
- Biographical / historical:
-
A group of like minded Christian women worked together to hold an interdenominational "jubilee" in 1911. The decision was then made to create a permanent organization to insure the observance of a day of prayer every year. The founding women represented Evangelical churches of Buffalo and vicinity and chose the name: Interchurch Missionary Union of Buffalo and Vicinity. They also created an organizational board that gave each denomination a representative. The number of denominations increased during the first 25 years from nine to sixteen.
The name changed in 1927 to Interchurch Council of Women as a new constitution was adopted.
A conference of five women's organizations which were working toward a National Federation of Church Women met in Buffalo in 1928. This was heralded as a unique and unprecendented meeting by the New York Times.
In 1938, the organization voted to become a department within the Council of Churches. Each year an interfaith meeting was held including Jews and Catholics.
A Spring Leadership School was held in 1940 at which a small number of women in the different churches received special help and training for their Missionary Program. This was said to be the first of its kind in the State.
In 1941, the constitution was revised and the name changed to Council of Church Women of Buffalo and Erie Counties. Buffalo leadership had become involved beginning in 1939 with a NYS Council Board of Directors of the National Council of Church Women.
In 1943 the name changed one more time to Church Women United. This department within the Council of Churches stayed active until 2009.
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Parts of the collection will be digitized and available at NY Heritage in the future.
At this point, the materials are available for review by researchers upon contacting the organization.
- Terms of access:
-
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted: Http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-Edu/1.0/
- Location of this collection:
- Contact:
- 716-882-4793