The first meeting called to consider organizing a society was gathered in a private parlor in New York City on January 9, 1861, and addressed by a returned missionary from Burma.
[1] The society's object was to "send out and maintain single women as Bible-readers and teachers, and to raise up native female laborers in heathen lands".
In the spring of that year, Ellen Huntly Bullard Mason, wife of Dr. Francis Mason of Burma, took the long journey home expressly to present her plea in person to the American Baptist Missionary Union and the women of the churches.
But the little group, fired with her enthusiasm, conceived the idea of a non-denominational society patterned after the English organization of 1834, enlisted missionary workers in New York, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia, and in 1861 incorporated the Woman's Union Missionary Society of America for Heathen Lands.
In courtesy to Mrs. Mason, Taungoo was the field chosen for the first missionaries, and during the first year four native Bible women were employed in Burma, India and China.
It proposed to send out only single women, and the converts to be gathered would unite with such churches as geography and fellowship made practicable.
All these women were located in Calcutta, Allahabad, and Kanpur, India; Shanghai, China; and Yokohama, Japan.
The older girls constituted a higher department, and their work was done wholly in English, with one language of the country also.
Since that time, the organization, which is now known as the United Fellowship for Christian Service, has continued to run charitable operations in India.
Two medical missionaries, Dr. Sara Seward and Dr. Mary Seelye, established a children's hospital in Calcutta in 1871.
Following World War II, WUMS began work with Tibetan refugees in Rajpur, and in 1948 Kalvari Bible School was begun.
Through their joint efforts, numerous schools and hospitals were established in cities such as Calcutta, Kanpur, Fatehpur, Allahabad, and Jhansi through the hard work and donations received by the mission to spread the message of the Lord to the heathen lands.
Upon their return, WUMS representatives left the locals with the mission, who through their hard work, built schools and hospitals for their community.
These efforts led to the creation of assets, including land, hospitals, and schools, which would continue to uphold the values and ideas of Christianity, so that the kingdom of God would come on earth as it is in heaven, which were introduced by the WUMS representatives from New York to the heathens of India that turned believers.
Recognizing the need for formal organization, the mission was officially registered in India for the first time in 1954-55 under the Indian Society Registration Act of 1860.
Since its registration, the organization has been known as the United Fellowship for Christian Service (UFCS), previously recognized as the Woman's Union Missionary Society in India.
UFCS has continued to operate and expand its charitable missions across India, preserving the legacy of service and support to communities in need.
There were several day-schools in the city, numbering 70 or more scholars, who joined the girls from the Home in Sunday-school, and with women also, brought the attendance up to 150-180.
In all, 35 girls had passed the English department up to 1889, some of whom were teaching in mission schools, and others were married to evangelists and pastors.
[6] The society inspired other Christian women, including the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Protestant Church, which was established after members attended a speech given by Miss L Guthrie, a WUMSHL missionary working in Japan.