Stirring the Church to deeper sympathy with missions.
A Short History of the Work of the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union of Victoria.
the very beginning of pWMU
Over the history of the Christian church adversity has often flamed a greater zeal within God’s people.
The death of Rev J. H. Davies in April 1890 could have meant the end of the endeavor of the Young Men’s Fellowship of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria to establish a Victorian Presbyterian Church mission in Korea. He had been struck down with smallpox and pneumonia as he rode his pony south from Pusan (Fusan) in Korea to where he felt ready to start this work. His sister Mary, who had accompanied him to Korea 5 years earlier, returned to Australia.
But far from dampening the growing missionary spirit in the colonial Victorian Church, the death of Rev Davies challenged the home Church to make greater efforts. By August 1890 the women of the Church, who were already involved in various ways of supporting missionaries, banded together to form the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union of Victoria (PWMU). In 1891 they had already raised enough financial support and developed the necessary organisational support and sent three women missionaries to Korea.
the early work and life of PWMU in Korea
PWMU began as a missionary agency in the same way as APWM is today. Aeneas MacDonald, in his book One Hundred Years of Presbyterianism in Victoria, published in 1937, wrote: In all that has been done during the existence of our Korean Mission the women of our Church have borne their noble share; indeed as we have seen they were in the field before the Assembly itself. He was referring to the women sent out to Korea by PWMU and the women of the PWMU who sent them.
PWMU’s work in recruiting and sending women missionaries into the field, and supporting them in every way, continued from 1891 until 1941 when World War II saw some missionaries in Korea imprisoned. By this time many things had changed. Victoria was no longer a colony of Britain but a State of Australia. There had been a depression making it harder to raise financial support. The Work of the Young Men’s Fellowship of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria (PCV) had been taken over by the Foreign Missions Committee of the PCV. A joint decision was made by PWMU with the Foreign Missions Committee in 1941 to recall all PWMU missionaries from the field. PWMU’s work as a sending mission agency was finished.
All during its years as a mission agency PWMU looked to Rolland House Deaconess Training Institute, which was established in 1898, to train and prepare many of its prospective missionaries. So close was the relationship that the name of the college was changed to Rolland House, The Presbyterian Missionary and Deaconess Training Institute. Rolland House produced a booklet of memories dedicated to PWMU at the time of PWMU’s centenary. Funds were established by PWMU to support Deaconesses in their training and work. Today these funds support overseas bursary students at the Presbyterian Theological College of Victoria.
the Post WWII transformation of PWMU
After 1941 PWMU continued with the same missionary zeal and has never ceased supporting mission work both at home and abroad. Deaconess training and support continued to be a focus and interest in the work of home mission stations increased. Missionaries sent out by the Foreign Missions Committee were provided with some financial support from PWMU particularly when they had unexpected needs. PWMU embraced these missionaries as their own, arranging for them to speak at meetings, providing goods for their children and endeavouring to care for them while they were on home assignment.
1977 brought about an even bigger change for PWMU than 1941. Church Union caused much heartache and the entire Foreign Missions Committee went into the Uniting Church. Only one fulltime overseas missionary family and one part-time man remained with the Presbyterian Church of Australia. The Church was six months without any mission board. The remaining Presbyterian missionaries were reliant on the Uniting Church Board to bridge the gap. At this time PWMU turned its attention entirely to Presbyterian missionaries working for other mission agencies such as Wycliffe. With the establishment of BOEMAR, which later became APWM, PWMU began supporting both Presbyterian missionaries and missionaries with other agencies, and does so to this day.
Deaconess work was phased out after 1977 by the PCV, and PWMU’s interest in home mission station work was also phased out over many years.
pWMU today and towards the future
In the Jubilee History of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, D. Macrae Stewart wrote in 1909: One of the most important developments of missionary activity in the Victorian Church was the formation of the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union of Victoria, in the year 1890. He goes on to state that PWMU, Apart from the devoted service which it is carrying on among Chinese in Melbourne, the aborigines in Northern Queensland, and the natives of Korea, the P.W.M.U. is doing fine work in stirring the Church to deeper sympathy with missions…
26 years after its formation, and 107 years after D. Macrae Stewart’s commendation, PWMU has not only broadened the mission fields which it helps support but it still endeavours to stir the Church to a deeper sympathy with missions.
The PWMU Newsletter, the children’s Dayspring Magazine and Dayspring Day, the events where our workers can share are all designed not only to inform and encourage PWMU members, but also to stir up deeper sympathy with missions in our congregations.
It is only as God’s will is done and only when our work is done in His power that more souls worldwide will turn to Christ. It is His command to us; …Go and make disciples of all nations… Matthew 28:19
Paul reminds us: How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? Romans 10:14-15
PWMU remains an important link in the sending of Christian folk into cross cultural work both at home and overseas. In 2019 it is one of the longest serving organisations in the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
references
CAMPBELL, Elizabeth M. After Fifty Years, A Record of the Work of P.W.M.U. of Victoria. Melbourne: Spectator Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd. 1940.
CAMPBELL, Elizabeth M. The Changing Years 1940 to 1950. Malvern. McKellar Press. 1950.
MACDONALD, Aeneas. One Hundred Years of Presbyterianism in Victoria. Melbourne: Robertson and Mullens LTD. 1937
PATON, Maisie. Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union 1950 – 1977 . UCA Synod of Victoria.1985
STEWART, D. Macrae. The Presbyterian Church of Victoria, Jubilee History. Melbourne: D. W. Paterson Co.
TALSMA, Alexe. There Were Many Women, United in a Century of Service 1890 – 1990. Melbourne: Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union of Victoria. 1991.
office information
PWMU Office
580 Glenferrie Road (rear of hall), Hawthorn 3122
Telephone: 0466 124 261
Email: pwmu@ozemail.com.au
Postal Address:
PO Box 8255
Camberwell North
VIC 3124
Office Manager:
Mrs Natalie Miller
Office Hours
Tuesdays and Fridays 9.00 am to 1 pm
Visitors Welcome
