UTO Grants

Julia C. Emery Hall, Episcopal Church of Liberia
Clayashland, Montserrado County, Liberia

D. Elwood Dunn writes in his history of the Episcopal Church in Liberia that Bishop Ferguson of Cape Palmas was instrumental in the founding of the girls' school at Bromley Mission. He was given $3,500 from the thank offering, later named the United Thank Offering, of the Woman's Auxiliary. Following an appeal he made at the 1904 General Convention, the school also received an anonymous donation of $14,500 from a member of the Woman's Auxiliary. This donation carried the request that the school be named for Emery, who had served as General Secretary of the Woman's Auxiliary to the Board of Missions for several decades.

In November 2005, Emery Hall held a 100th anniversary celebration. Although deeply damaged in the horrific civil wars, Emery Hall and Bromley Mission have continued their work of educating young girls. Today, Emery Hall boards and educates over 60 girls in grades K-12, at a cost of approximately $500.00US per year. All of these girls are orphaned, and all come from the displacement camps resulting from the civil wars. Emery Hall has also expanded to now include underprivileged young boys from local communities as day-students.

At the 2007 Face To Face UTO weekend, Emily Benjamin, now living in and Diocesan UTO Coordinator for Maryland, shared the 100th Anniversary program with UTO. Emily is an alumna of Emery Hall, as is her mother, aunts, and sisters. Although no pictures of her girlhood in Liberia remain because all was left behind when they fled the civil war, Emily received a copy of Emery Hall’s 100th anniversary program through friends still in Liberia.

-- Information courtesy of The Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin TX, and from an August 2007 interview with Emily Benjamin.