History of the Women's Mission Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
The Women's Missionary Society (WMS) is an organization rooted in African Methodism as far back as 1787.
The first woman missionary of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church was Sarah Allen, wife of Richard Allen - the founder and first Bishop of the church. According to the Know Your Church Manual, p. 20, "her first missionary project was to look after the physical condition of the preachers who her husband sent out into the field." Many of them returned in very poor physical condition, and Sarah Allen organized the women of the church to mend their clothes and provide hot nourishing meals when they came to make their reports.
As time went on, more and more women with a missionary spirit came together in organized groups to attempt to meet the many needs evident around them. The two main organizations were the Parent Mite Missionary Society (est. 1874), and the Women's Home and Foreign Missionary Society (est. 1895). Already plans were being formulated to establish women's missionary groups in the Southern and Western states...and to unify existing efforts. In 1944, the desired consolidation was completed, providing us with the organizational structure and name we now know as the Women's Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Mission Statement of the WMS is:
God's Word - God's Will - God's Way.