Women's Missionary Society

(The Merrick-Fitzpatrick Women's Missionary Society)

Mission Statement:

We seek as Christian women to be led by the Holy Spirit
•  To be faithful to the Scriptures
•  To be dependent on prayer
•  To be diligent in witness
Thus fulfilling the mission as commanded by Christ
in Acts 1:8

A residence built for high school students in Indonesia gives them an opportunity to further their education

Our Union is composed of:

Little Lights - preschool ministry
Mission Band - mission emphasis in children's programs, ages 6-11
Children's and Youth Mission Ministries: mission emphasis in weekday clubs and teen groups
World Wide Guild - mission groups for young women
Woman's Missionary Societies - mission groups for women

The objectives of the Union are to engage the efforts of Christian women in evangelism, to assist in the support of Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM) missionaries, to support other programs of the Canadian Baptist Ministries, to extend the cause of missions through prayer and any other means that seems desirable and necessary to this Union. Also, to support Home Mission work in Canada in such a manner as shall seem desirable to this Union.

This organization began in 1870 when Miss Hannah Maria Norris of Canso, NS offered herself to the Maritime Baptist Foreign Mission Board as a candidate for appointment to Burma. This Board did not have the funds available for her passage and support. She engaged passage on a boat to Boston intending to apply to the American Baptist Foreign Mission Board, but before she sailed she was advised to appeal to the women of the churches. This she did on June 18, 1870. Miss Maria Norris organized a Woman's Missionary Society in her home church and soon had organized twenty-two societies in Nova Scotia and eleven in New Brunswick - the first of their kind in the world. Miss Norris sailed for Burma on September 21, 1870 with sufficient money for her passage and one year's living expenses! From these beginnings the UBWMU has attained its present status.

The official publication of the UBWMU is "Tidings", which is a 24 page magazine published ten times a year.

Affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance, Women's Department, our Union is represented by the President and Executive Director on the North American Baptist Women's Union (NABWU). Through this representation we have affiliation with the Women's Department of the BWA. The North American Women's Union is one of the seven continental unions that make up the Women's Department of the BWA. The UBWMU is one of the eighteen women's unions that make up the NABWU.

We unite with Baptist Women Around the World by participating in the Baptist Women's Day of Prayer held on the first Monday in November each year.