Women's Missionary and Service Commission
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The Women's Missionary and Service Commission, previously known as the Women's Missionary and Service Auxiliary and abbreviated WMSC or WMSA, was a women's organization of the "old" Mennonite Church that originated out of the Mennonite Sewing Circle movement. Named the WMSC in 1971, there were many precursor organizations and it has since evolved into Mennonite Women USA, an organization with a much wider scope.
Mennonite women in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, were sewing garments for the poor as early as 1895, resulting in the creation of the Paradise Sewing Circle in 1897 through the efforts of Mary A. Mellinger. In 1911, the Associated Sewing Circle was established in Lancaster County.[1] 1900 saw the organization of sewing circles in Science Ridge Mennonite Church in Sterling, Illinois, and at Prairie Street Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Indiana.[2] In the next decade, more sewing circles formed in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Ohio, and Ontario.[1]
Organizational Roots
After her husband, Menno Steiner, died in 1911, Clara Eby Steiner began to organize women to promote a general society of sewing circles[3] which came to fruition in 1916 with Mary Burkhard as the first president. From 1922, the general society was named the Mennonite Women's Missionary Society.[1]
In 1928, the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities created a women's mission committee to operate under it. In the 1933 constitution, the committee took the name The General Sewing Circle Committee of the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities. This organization and the MWMS co-existed, but eventually most members transitioned to the newer organization, which met annually in connection to the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities.[1]
The organization was reorganized and renamed the Women's Missionary Sewing Circle Organization in 1947.[1]