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Blessed Julia Chester Emery


The addition of Blessed Julia Chester Emery to the calendar of the American Church is quite recent, having been approved in 1994. The daughter of a New England sea captain, she was one of many children. Two of her brothers became priests; one sister devoted herself to providing hospitality for missionaries on leave while also caring for a sister who was ill. Another sister was National Secretary of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Board of Missions, a post Julia took over in 1876, holding that responsibility for forty years.

Especially amazing for the time, she visited every diocese in the United States in support of foreign missions, and also traveled to England, China, Hong Kong, and the Philippines to encourage the work of the missions. Based on her first hand experience, she was able to be particularly effective in raising great support for those missions from the Episcopal women of the United States.

Perhaps her biggest gift to the Church was founding the United Thank Offering (UTO) which exists to this day, and which makes grants of millions of dollars to worthy ministries at home and abroad. Her feast day, being the day of her entrance into the Larger Life in 1922, is January 9th.

 

[Adapted by A. T. K. Z. + from an article by James Kiefer]

 

Collect for the Feast of Blessed Julia Chester Emery


O Almighty God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of your servant Julia Chester Emery, and aided by her prayers, may persevere in running the race that is set before us until, at last, we may attain with her to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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To learn more of Blessed Julia Chester Emery from a site run by a parishioner from Saint David's Episcopal Church in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, click here.

 

This page last modified on Friday, April 11, 2008 09:40 PM