The International Service Fellowship, more commonly known as Interserve, is an interdenominational Protestant Christian charity which was founded in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 1852. For many years it was known as the Zenana Bible and Medical Missionary Society and it was run entirely by women.
History
Interserve was originally called the Calcutta Normal School and later the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society and then the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission.
[Interserve England and Wales]
Mundus, Retrieved 31 May 20 It was founded as one of the
zenana missions
The zenana missions were outreach programmes established in British India with the aim of converting women to Christianity. From the mid 19th century, they sent female missionaries into the homes of Indian women, including the private areas of h ...
in the 19th century, with the aim of addressing the medical and educational needs of Indian women.
In 1821, Mary Ann Cooke (soon to be Wilson) landed in Calcutta with the intention of setting up a school to educate young Hindu women. Although she experienced significant opposition from people unwilling to countenance the thought of women receiving an education, she worked closely with the
Church Mission Society
The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...
to set up a school to teach girls. In 1852 Mrs Mackenzie, a colleague of Miss Cooke’s, wrote to the social activist
Mary Jane Kinnaird
Mary Kinnaird or Mary Jane Kinnaird, Lady Kinnaird; Mary Jane Hoare (1816–1888) was an English philanthropist and co-founder of the Young Women's Christian Association. Kinnaird has one Women's College and a girls' High School in Pakistan and ...
(who later founded the
YWCA
The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries.
The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...
) to ask for her assistance in expanding the organisation’s work. Lady Kinnaird’s involvement
[Jane Garnett, ‘Kinnaird , Mary Jane, Lady Kinnaird (1816–1888)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 200]
accessed 31 May 2017
/ref> led to the rapid growth of the organisation and its expansion across India. Fund raising in Britain was led by enthusiasts such as Harriett Urmston
Harriett Urmston born Harriett Elizabeth Hughes (20 January 1828 – 4 September 1897) was a British missionary in India who preached to the British wives and soldiers in Rawalpindi. She spent years talking in the UK in support of the Zenana Bib ...
who began her support in 1875.[
From 1880 the organisation became known as the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission][ as its focus expanded to include medical work. In 1881 a Zenana worker, Miss Bielby, met ]Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
at Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history.
The original cast ...
to ask for her support in publicising the organisation’s work, a request to which the Queen agreed. At this time the organisation began to expand its sending bases as well, and workers were sent from Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and the USA as well as from Britain.
For the first century of its existence the organisation was run solely by women but in 1957 the decision was made to accept men as well. In 1987 the organisation was renamed “Interserve” to reflect its international status and its emphasis on practical service.
Today
Interserve sends out over 800 workers from countries including Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, the Netherlands, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, and India.
Interserve workers use their practical skills to serve the people they live amongst, in line with the instructions of Christ given in the Great Commission
In Christianity, the Great Commission is the instruction of the resurrected Jesus Christ to his disciples to spread the gospel to all the nations of the world. The Great Commission is outlined in Matthew 28:16– 20, where on a mountain i ...
. Interserve, as an interdenominational agency, receives support from no specific Christian denomination in particular.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Interserve International
National Interserve office websites - links page
* The archive papers of Interserve are held b
SOAS Special Collections
Christian missions
Zenana missions