Episcopal Church Women: The First Hundred Years part 6
Episcopal Church Women: The First Hundred Years part 6
From outward appearances at least, the Auxiliary seemed to have weathered war and reorganization rather better than it did peace. Women, who had worked incessantly in the war years, now, in the first half of the fifth decade, seemed to experience a postwar letdown—and missions suffered. Box Work, Red Mite Boxes, all collections, dropped sharply. To make up for the Mite Box loss, the Auxiliary first tried the Gaylord Plan of assessment based on membership and then the Budget Plan (in use until the mid-1940s) based on the total income of the local group.
Neither plan raised enough money to support all Auxiliary endeavors. The Auxiliary did, nevertheless, continue its scholarships, and it oversubscribed two special funds: the Emery Fund to be used for the support of women missionaries, retired or on leave, and the Bishop Tuttle Memorial, to be used for housing women who were studying for the mission field. In 1925–1926 and 1926–1927, however, its financial situation was so bad that it could not issue a yearbook.
There were redeeming features, however—money being only one medium of mission: first, the library was enlarged; then, there was a year-round supply closet; and, last, there was a Speakers’ Bureau and a Committee for Shut-Ins. There was also a new Bishop’s Guild which bought, made, and cared for the Bishop’s vestments, made altar linens for missions, and custom-produced them for revenue.
In 1924, at the Synod meeting in Omaha, Father Gear’s Cross was presented to Mrs. Baxter as a representative of Minnesota women. Father Gear’s daughter, Mrs. Stubbs, had worn it for many years and had directed that, at her death, it be returned to Minnesota. Ever since, it has been the Minnesota Auxiliary President’s Cross.
Two years later, Mrs. Baxter died, and so great had been the impact of her life on the Auxiliary that the yearbook, now reinstituted, devoted seven pages to accounts of what she had done and been.
In the second half of the decade, the Auxiliary awakened and began to move in new directions. Its work was now centered in the deaneries, and the yearbooks were filled with accounts of their labors.
A new constitution and bylaws was adopted in 1928, which provided for an annual meeting in May and for a Finance Committee which was charged with both auditing Auxiliary and UTO books and making recommendations for expenditures. It also “legalized” certain committees and affiliates (some new since reorganization and some old) such as CPC and Little Helpers (Junior Auxiliary had not survived).
At the end of the decade, the Auxiliary had recovered enough to honor its missionary commitments and to contribute to special funds. For instance, it began the practice—in effect for many years—of sending Christmas gifts to Diocesan missionaries; it helped rebuild an earthquake-shattered hospital in Tokyo; it gave $1,000.00 to the Advance Fund and sent $7,087.82 to the UTO Ingathering at the Triennial in Denver. It also paid for installing running water in Miss Salisbury’s house in Morton and for wiring St. Cornelia’s at Birch Coolie; it picked up the tab for choir stalls at Ft. Snelling Chapel, shared the cost of a field-secretary (at the behest of Bishop Keeler) and, of course, paid its scholarship obligation.
Episcopal women, at this period, made great gains within the Church. Where Bishop Edsall, in keeping with the thought of many men of his generation, had held tight rein on the Auxiliary, attending all meetings, large or small, Bishop McElwain, like many men of his generation, apparently appreciated that women were generally capable—and came to meetings only if his busy schedule permitted. Bishop Keeler, in turn, encouraged and believed in the Auxiliary and developed a sort of partnership with it—witness the many times during his Episcopate that they worked together using Auxiliary funds.