History of the Mission Yearbook

The Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study dates back to 1892, when the Women’s Executive Committee for Home Mission, Organization of Presbyterian Women, prepared a simple Calendar of Prayer to help women’s societies pray for missionaries on designated days. Three years later the first mission yearbook appeared, called the Year Book of Prayer for Foreign Missions. That publication was joined with the prayer calendar in a 1919 edition, the Year Book of Prayer for Missions, when both international and domestic personnel were included. In 1971 the name changed to what we know today as the Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study. Having been in continuous annual publication since 1892, it has the longest history of any denominational mission and prayer book in the United States.

The Mission Yearbook is part of the ongoing history of faithfulness of Presbyterian Women and demonstrates their commitment to mission and to prayer. The dedication page for the Year Book published in 1896 reads:

Let us keep this Year Book of Prayer with the Book that holds the sure word of promise, in the place where each day we go to meet our Lord and to commune with Him.

Let us pour out our hearts in gratitude that He has called us to aid Him in the work of extending His kingdom; let us plead earnestly for the dear ones whose names and work are designated.

So will our faith grow brighter, our love more intense and we shall realize the blessedness of the tie that binds our hearts in love to Christ.