Julia Chester Emery


“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances;

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18


January 9 is the day in our church calendar that is set aside to honor Julia Chester Emery. Julia Emery was an early national leader of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Board of Missions, which would later become the Episcopal Church Women (ECW). She “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 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).”[i] 

 

From the UTO website, https://unitedthankoffering.com/, we can learn more about the beginnings of the UTO: “At the 1889 Triennial Meeting in New York, the Women’s Auxiliary instituted the United Offering for the support of innovative mission projects and to send female missionaries to serve as nurses and teachers. The United Offering eventually became known as the United Thank Offering (UTO) collecting the prayers and grateful offerings of The Episcopal Church in thanksgiving for the many blessings of this life. UTO has been fundamental to expanding the mission of The Episcopal Church and continues to promote the spiritual practice of gratitude.”[ii]

 

The ECW continues to organize giving and support for UTO. How UTO works can be summed up in four words: “Notice, Give, Make, and Bless.”[iii] We are invited to notice good things that happen in our lives, good things that we witness or experience each day. Give thanks for those things and for the works of God that we can see around us. Make an offering as you remember those good things that you have noticed and for which you have given thanks. Then your blessing, those good things that you have experienced and noticed, becomes a blessing for others as you give for the mission of the church.

 

Prayer

God of all creation, you call us in Christ 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, may 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.[iv]

 

[i] The Lectionary Page, http://satucket.com/lectionary/Julia_Chester_Emery.htm , accessed 12/13/2024.

[ii] United Thank Offering, https://unitedthankoffering.com/ , accessed 3/4/2022.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2006, page 123.

The Rev. Lisa R. Neilson
Vicar for Pastoral Care
If you would like to reply to this devotional, please email
the Rev. Lisa Neilson at lneilson@smec.org.