Margaret Flory Papers

The collection documents the career of Margaret Flory, ecumenist, leader in student religious work, and mission executive in the Presbyterian Church (USA) from 1944-1980 who established and directed innovative programs including Junior Year Abroad, Frontier Internships in Mission, and Bi-National Service. The Flory papers illustrate how the workings of various ecumenical mission and student organizations intersected and overlapped in the activities of one committed representative.

The first twelve of the fifteen series in this collection represent organizations with which Flory was associated. While it seemed wise to establish these series in order to provide a structure for the collection, it should be noted that Flory was involved in numerous, overlapping activities throughout her career and many of these organizations intersected with each other in various ways. For example, the Student Study Seminars documented in Series IV were sponsored by the United Campus Christian Fellowship (Series VI), a part of the National Student Christian Federation (Series VI), which was in turn a member of the World Student Christian Federation (Series VII), but they were administered by Flory in her capacity as director of the Office of Student World Relations (Series I) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) (Series XI).

Flory's career was most centrally defined by her eighteen years (1951-1968) as the director of the Office of Student World Relations (called Office of Student Work until 1958), part of the Board of Foreign Missions/Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations of the United Presbyterian Church, recorded in Series I. During this time, Flory started the Junior Year Abroad program for college juniors (1953; Series III) and the Frontier Internship in Mission program for recent graduates (1960; Series II) and directed a series of Student Seminars for the United Campus Christian Fellowship (Series IV). Her work also included organizing international service opportunities for the Association of Presbyterian University Pastors (Series V). Although administered under Presbyterian auspices, all of these programs served a broader, ecumenical constituency. The ecumenical and international nature of Flory's service to students naturally led to a high level of involvement with the ecumenical student movement, both in the United States (Series VI) and internationally (WSCF; Series VII), and with the education and mission programs of the National and World Councils of Churches (Series VIII).

After a transitional three-year assignment in New Dimensions in Mission (1969-1971), Flory continued to serve in the newly-reorganized People in Mission Unit of the Presbyterian USA Program Agency as Associate for Human Resources. Although she no longer had the direct involvement with student programs that defined her prior assignment, her work continued to be shaped by the priorities and relationships she had developed in the Office of Student World Relations. She continued to oversee the Frontier Internship program until it made the transition to international administration in 1974, and she started a new program, Bi-National Servants (1971; Series IX), to encourage returned Frontier Interns and others with international experience to maintain their connection with their "country of relationship." She also oversaw programs including Mission to the USA, Three-Way Mission, and Overseas Associates, and served as president of the Association of North American Cooperating Agencies of Overseas Women's Christian Colleges for the Asian Women's Institute (Series X, see also AWI archives, RG 106). In 1978, she was called upon to lead an experimental program in Education for Mission: Involvement in Mission.

Series XI contains records of Flory's work for the Presbyterian Church other than through the Office of Student World Relations (Series I), including activities concurrent with her service in the OSWR but under other denominational structures, the latter third of her career with the People in Mission Unit, and post-retirement activities such as the 150 year celebration of Presbyterian Missions in 1987 and the Global Mission Conference in 1989. It also contains records related to divisions of the Presbyterian bureaucracy other than the missions board in which Flory was employed.

Flory's engagement with the other organizations in Series XII ranged from simply having received information about them in the course of her work to being a member to active leadership. Leadership roles held by Flory in these organizations are noted in the following contents listing.

Series XIII contains subject files and program resources collected by Flory in the course of her career, many of which relate to a number of the organizations covered in the first twelve series. For example, the internationalization of mission was a major interest of Flory, and there are internationalization files in most of the organizational Series I-XII, as well as general files on the topic of internationalization in Series XIII. Subject files may contain materials generated by, for, or about organizations represented in other series, but are filed here topically rather than by the organization name. The subject files convey major themes of Flory's ministry, such as her enduring interest in China and Latin America and her commitment to innovation in mission, to civil rights, and to student work.

Series XIV contains biographical materials and memorabilia, including materials from just some of Flory's extensive travels. Of note is the record of the "Friends of Margaret Flory" event in November 1980 to mark her so-called retirement (Flory found the term "retirement" an ill fit, since she remained at least as active in ministry after retirement as before). This event included a one-day symposium on "The International and Ecumenical Task of the Church in the Next Two Decades," during which participants reflected on issues that had been key concerns in Flory's career. The issues selected for these discussions provide an apt summary of some of the major themes treated in this archive: