Guide to the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of National Missions War Services Unit Records

The 1941 General Assembly (PCUSA) assigned responsibility for ministry to "War Industry Communities" to the Board of National Missions. The term "War Industry Communities" covered all critical problems in the home field within the general scope of National Missions except those having to do with service to US military forces, to refugees, or to prisoners of war. This mission work extended to include Puerto Rico and Cuba.

The BNM created a special War Services Unit. A.L. Roberts, Assistant Secretary of Rural Church Work, was placed in charge of this unit; assisting him was Thomas B. Foster. The Unit operated under the supervision of Administrative Secretary Hermann N. Morse.

The Unit worked with the Board of Christian Education and the Committee on Camp and Church Activities as well as with interdenominational agencies such as the Home Missions Council of North America. Its primary concern was to minister to the massive numbers of Americans who had left their homes and churches to find work in the newly created industrial defense areas. BNM field workers established Sunday schools, built churches, and organized parishes. Temporary housing areas such as trailer parks were served by a "wayside chapel"--a missionary drove from place to place in a bus and conducted services along his route.

Since War Service work was national in scope, it had to be administered locally to some extent. Roberts and Foster worked with five contacts at the synod level: Jacob A. Long, J. Earl Jackman, Henry S. Randolph, A.B. McCoy, and E.A. Odell. All five were departmental secretaries in the BNM, Jackman in the Department of Missionary Support and the other four men in the Department of Missionary Operation. These men made recommendations for continuation of grants and employment of field personnel.

Upon the end of the war in 1945, the Unit's focus shifted towards helping the population to readjust to peacetime conditions. On June 1, 1946, drastic budget cuts went into effect in the Unit. Most of its funds from that point on were expended on projects which were to be permanent work done by regular national missionaries. In the course of the next two years all such projects were absorbed into various permanent departments of the BNM.