Guide to the Margaret Purchase Papers

Margaret Purchase, missionary for the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., served in Iraq (1956-1969) and in Lebanon (1969-1973). She was a teacher and an administrator at the American School for Girls in Baghdad (later renamed Baghdad High School in Mansour) from 1956 to 1969. She taught English, Bible and physical education, and served as the principal for several years. When Americans were forced to leave Iraq in 1969, she transferred to Beirut, Lebanon, where she directed the Christian Education Division of the Near East Council of Churches. Prior to her missionary service, Purchase was director of Christian education at the United Church (Congregational-Presbyterian) in Big Rapids, Michigan (1949-1955). After completing her missionary service, she was director of Christian education at the First Presbyterian Church in Reading, Pennsylvania (1974-1978). Under sponsorship of the Near East Foundation and as a Presbyterian Overseas Associate, Purchase then returned to Lebanon where she taught English at the Hamlin Hospital School of Nursing in Hammana (1979-1986). In addition to English, she also taught elementary psychology and sociology. Upon her retirement and return to the United States in 1986, Purchase became involved in Christian-Muslim interfaith dialogue and educating people about Islam and the Middle East through volunteer work with the Institute for Global Education in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she initiated a project on "Understanding Islam" in 1993. Concerned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she made several mission trips to Israel and Palestinian communities in the 1990s.

Margaret Purchase was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on April 26, 1926. She majored in psychology and sociology at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1949. She studied religious education during the summers at Union Theological Seminary in New York, receiving an M.R.E. in 1953, and an M.A. in religious education in 1954, through the combined program with Teachers College, Columbia University. Beginning in 1955, Purchase spent a year studying Bible, theology and church polity at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois, while doing field work with physically handicapped children at the Illinois Children's Hospital School. Other continuing education activities included a year at the University of Michigan to study Middle East Studies and Arabic in 1962-1963, and one semester at Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1967-1968. Margaret Purchase died at the Wharton Nursing Home in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee, on July 7, 2009.