A Sensitive Independence: Canadian Methodist Women Missionaries in Canada and the Orient, 1881-1925

Kamala S. Narayanan is Serials Librarian at the Douglas Library,
Queen’s University.

This book attempts to bring some long overdue attention to the
missionary enterprise of the Women’s Missionary Society (WMS) by
examining the experiences and contributions of women like Agnes
Wintermute and Martha Cartnell. It succeeds in providing a comprehensive
analysis of the relationship between the missionaries and their female
constituencies in Canada and the Orient. These enterprising women
championed improved social conditions. Missionary Societies opened
schools, hospitals, and shelters in Japan and China, in the face of
language barriers and relentless opposition. Gagan describes the
diversity of missionary experiences. Some women found fulfilment, while
others experienced anxiety and psychosomatic ailments.

Also featured in the book is a rare insight into the means and methods
deployed by the WMS to encourage converts into Christianity, and a
fairly detailed account of the discrimination at play in the meagre
support given to the Native missions in British Columbia, compared with
that provided to foreign missionaries.

Included in the book are a comprehensive bibliography, well-organized
notes, an exhaustive index, and rare photographs. The maps depicting the
WMS mission stations in Japan, Szechwan (China), and the home missions
show the scope of the WMS activities.