1 Daniel Neal’s History of the Puritans, London, 1703, vol. i, pp. 344–346.
2 Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth, from 1602 to 1625. By Alex. Young. Second edition. Boston: C. E. Little & J. Brown, 1844, pp. 455, 456.
3 Schäfer, Die Weibliche Diakonie, vol. i, p. 207.
4 The Royal Guide to London Churches for 1866, 1867. By Herbert Fry, p. 162.
5 Official Year-book of the Church of England, 1889.
6 Andover Review, June, 1888, art., “European Deaconesses,” p. 578.
7 Deaconesses in the Church of England. Griffith & Farran: London, 1880, p. 22.
8 Official Year-book of the Church of England, 1889.
9 Armen und Kranken Freund, October, 1888.
10 “Deaconess Work in England,” The Churchman, May 19, 1888.
11 I am indebted to the kindness of the Rt. Rev. the Bishop of Wakefield for these numbers, upon whom the mantle of Dean Howson seems to have fallen in caring for the deaconess cause.
12 London Diocesan Deaconess District Services.
13 First Annual Report of the London West Central Mission, pp. 14–42.
CHAPTER XI.
MILDMAY INSTITUTIONS.
Valuable suggestions will be obtained from the study of every successful deaconess institution, and none will perhaps furnish more practical models for American Methodism than does the establishment at Mildmay Park in North London. Its methods of work are flexible, and allow place for a diversity of talent among the workers, while a wide variety of charitable and evangelistic effort is undertaken. These two causes give a breadth and vigor to the work at Mildmay that impress every one who has knowledge of it.
Whenever we find a good cause carried on successfully and prosperously, we know that behind it there must be a strong man or woman who has “thought and wrought” to good purpose. So the first question that arises in the mind of the visitor who for the first time forms one of the audience in the great Conference Hall, or looks about in the adjoining building to see the deaconess home, is, “Who first thought this out? Who was the founder171/167 of this wonderful mission?” And the answer tells us that Mildmay originated, as did Kaiserswerth, in the prayerful determination of a Christian minister and his wife to reach out to every good end that God’s spirit of enlightenment could suggest to them. Rev. William Pennefather was rector of Christ’s Church at Barnet, and while devoted to his ministerial duties his sympathies did not end with his own people, nor his own denomination. His home was sometimes called the “Missing Link,” for it was a meeting-place for noblemen and farmers, bishops and clergymen of all churches; a place “where nationalities and denominations were easily merged in the broad sunshine of Christian love.”1 He carried his principle of Christian fellowship further, for, after mature deliberation, in 1856, he issued a call for a conference to be held at Barnet whose object was “to bring into closer social communion the members of various Churches, as children of the one Father, animated by the same life, and heirs together of the same glory.”2 These conferences have been continued from then to the present time, and are known and prized in many lands. I was present at the conference of 1888, and representatives were there from nearly every172/168 Protestant country, while on the platform were leaders of nearly every Protestant denomination, furnishing a wonderful illustration of the union of the Christian Church in Christ; a spiritual union so real and eternal that the minor differences of faith were swallowed up in the great fact that in Christ Jesus all are one.
Gradually a variety of missionary and evangelistic agencies grew up about the conferences. In 1860 the little Home was opened at Barnet which subsequently developed into the deaconess house at Mildmay Park. The question of calling into more active exercise the energies of educated Christian women, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, was one that was attracting attention at the time in England. Mr. and Mrs. Pennefather had long desired to do something in this direction, and their desire took this practical form. In its beginning it had to battle with all the “definite and indefinite objections” that could be advanced against any attempt at organizing woman’s work. But those days of latent suspicion or more open antagonism are long past. The institution has justified its right to be by doing a work that otherwise would have remained undone.
In 1864 Mr. Pennefather was called to St. Jude’s, Mildmay Park, and the philanthropic and religious173/169 undertakings which he had begun were transferred to his new home. He took with him the “iron room” that had been erected for the conferences at Barnet, and continued to use it for the same purposes at Mildmay; while the missionary training-school and home were accommodated in a house which he hired for the purpose.
His new parish was in a part of London where poverty and want abounded. There was no adequate provision for the education of the poor and neglected children, so he erected a building where elementary instruction could be given at a very low price. A soup-kitchen was started at the iron room: clubs of various kinds were formed, and other agencies were set at work, both for the temporal and spiritual welfare of the people. The degraded and miserable neighborhood gradually underwent a transformation, and the police testified that there was a manifest restraint on the lawless locality. “To many of the waifs of life no human hand was stretched in kindness until he came to the district and taught them what Christianity was.”3
A small legacy coming to him, he bought a house with a large garden attached, and made it a mission center for the needs of the infirm and aged; while174/170 the ignorant and careless, who would not enter a church, were often induced to attend meetings here.
The training-school had been started at Barnet for the purpose of training foreign missionaries; but Mr. Pennefather now saw that there was as great a demand for home mission workers in the sorrowful and benighted portions of the vast metropolis, so, after much deliberation and consultation between himself and his wife, he decided to initiate the ministry of Christian women as deaconesses. He hesitated about the name to be given to the women whom he employed as Christian workers, but no other was suggested conveying the same idea of service to Christ among his suffering and needy ones, and, as the appellation had already won respect through the good reports of the deaconess houses on the Continent, he decided to adopt the same name. They continued to work in his parish only until the terrible visitation of the cholera in 1866. Then when men were swept into eternity by hundreds, and hundreds more were in dire distress, the deaconesses were invited by the minister of another parish to come to his assistance. In this way the bounds of the work began to enlarge. A small hospital was added to the home and a medical-school mission was begun.
175/171It now became necessary to build a large hall; the iron room was too small for the conferences, the church too small for the congregation, and the missions had outgrown the capacity of the mission room. When the plan for a new building was made known money came in unsolicited from various sources. The undertaking was pushed rapidly forward, and in October, 1870, the hall was opened. It will seat 2,500 people, having a platform at the west end, and a gallery running around the sides and east end.
Thanksgiving and prayer were built into the walls from the very foundation; and before the basement rooms were cleared of rubbish, or the floor laid, a prayer-meeting was held to ask for a blessing upon the future undertakings of the mission. The basement was divided into five rooms, to be used for night-schools and other agencies for the benefit of the poor.
Adjoining the hall, at the west end, was built the deaconess house. From his home near by Mr. Pennefather had watched the completion of the work with great interest. In one of his letters he says:4 “Sometimes I can scarcely believe that it is a reality, and not all a dream—the Conference Hall, with its appendages, and the deaconess house176/172 actually in existence. May the Holy Spirit fill the place, and may he make it a center from whence the living waters shall flow forth.”
From a letter written to one of these deaconesses, we gain his opinion as to the need of deaconesses, and what was his ideal of a Home.5 “The need for such an institution is great indeed. I do not suppose there was ever a time in the history of Christianity in which the openings for holy, disciplined, intelligent women to labor in God’s vineyard were so numerous as at present. The population in towns and rural districts are waiting for the patient and enduring love that dwells in the breast of a truly pious woman, to wake them up to thought and feeling. O! if I had the women and had the means, how gladly would I send out hundreds, two by two, to carry the river of truth into the hamlets of our country, and the streets and lanes of our great cities. Will you pray for the Home? Ask for women and for means. I want our Home to be such a place of holy, peaceful memories that, when you leave it, it may be among the brightest things that come to your mind in a distant land, or in a different position; and each inmate can help to make it what it should be.” But Mr. Pennefather did not live to see the great extension177/173 in usefulness and importance that the Deaconess Home was to obtain in later years. He passed away from life April 28, 1873, leaving to his wife, who had ever been his sympathetic and devoted helper, the care of continuing the work he had begun. She is still the head of the Mildmay Institutions, assisted by a resident superintendent, and aided by the counsels of wise, experienced men, who form the board of trustees.
From the beginning of the erection of the new building every portion of it was put to use. In one of the basement rooms is the invalid kitchen, where, daily, puddings, jellies, and little delicacies are prepared and sent out to sufferers in the neighborhood, who could not otherwise obtain suitable nourishment. From eleven to two o’clock tickets are brought in, which have been distributed by the sisters or by the district visitors; and those who come to take the dinners, while waiting their turn, have a kind word, or sympathetic inquiry about the sick one, from the deaconess in charge.
A flower mission occupies another room. Kind friends send here treasures from the garden and green-house, field and wood, and children contribute bouquets of wild flowers. A deaconess superintends the willing hands that tie the bunches, each of which is adorned with a brightly colored Scripture178/174 text. Ten hospitals and infirmaries were regularly visited during 1888; and more than thirty-eight thousand bunches of flowers were distributed, each accompanied by an appropriate text.
Near at hand is the Dorcas room, where deaconesses are kept busy in cutting out clothing and superintending the sewing classes. During the winter of 1887 thirty widows attended this class three times a week, glad to earn a sixpence by needlework done in a warm, lighted room, while a deaconess entertained them by reading aloud. A large amount of sewing is given out from the same room, and the garments that are made are often sold to the poor at a low price. A most impressive scene is witnessed during the winter months, when, on three evenings of the week, all the basement rooms are crowded with the men’s night-school, which has, it is believed, no rival in England. The ordinary number of names on the books exceeds twelve hundred. There are forty-nine classes, all taught by ladies, the majority of them being deaconesses. The subjects range from the elementary to the higher branches of general and practical knowledge, including arithmetic, geography, geometry, freehand drawing, and short-hand. The Bible is read in the classes on Monday and Friday, and a scriptural address is given by some gentleman on Wednesday.179/175 The school always closes with prayer and singing. The men may purchase coffee and bread and butter before leaving, and of this they largely avail themselves. A lending library is also attached to the school. The highest attendance during last session was five hundred and eighty-one, the lowest two hundred and eighty-seven.
The influence of this school is very great, and many pass on from it to the men’s Bible-class, which is held on Sunday afternoons in the largest basement room.6
A servants’ registry is attached to the deaconess house, and through its means about four hundred servants are annually provided with places.
Nearly fifty deaconesses make their home at this central house, many of them having work in the different parts of the city, perhaps at remote distances, but returning at night to the home-like surroundings and purer air of the central house. The large sitting-room, the common living-room of the deaconesses, is a charming place. It is of great size, but made cheerful and attractive by pictures, flowers, and bright and tasteful decorations that are restful to the eyes. Both Mr. and Mrs. Pennefather made it a principle of action to have the home life cheerful, pleasant, and attractive, so that when the180/176 sisters come in toward evening, tired physically, and mentally depressed and exhausted by the long strain of hearing tales of misery, and seeing sights of wretchedness and squalor the day through, they could be cheered not only by the words of sympathy and love of their associates, but by the silent, restful influences of their surroundings.
As I looked around the great room with deep-set windows, brightened by flowers, and still more by the happy faces of the deaconesses, some of whom were young girls with the charms of happy girlhood set off by the plain, black dress and wide white collar of the deaconess garb, I could but think the founders wise in arranging such pleasant, home-like surroundings for their workers.
From the windows you look down into a beautiful garden, a rare luxury for a London dwelling. This garden was among the later accessions of Mr. Pennefather, being purchased by him shortly before his death. A train of circumstances led to its possession which he regarded as markedly providential; and the delightful uses to which “that blessed garden,” as it has been called, has since been put, seem to justify the importance he attached to securing it. During the conference times great tents are reared here for the refreshments which the weary body needs. A fine old mulberry tree181/177 extends its branches, and under its ample shade meetings of one kind or another are held at all hours of the day. The lawn, with its quiet, shady walks, furnished with comfortable garden seats, provides a meeting place for friends, where, in the intervals between the services, those who perhaps never see each other during any of the other fifty-one weeks of the year may walk or sit together. “Here in more ordinary times may be seen the children of the Orphanage (where thirty-six girls form a happy, busy family) playing together, or the deaconesses in their becoming little white caps, who have run out for a breath of air. Here, too, during the summer, a succession of tea-parties is held for the different classes which have been reached by the deaconesses in the more densely populated parts of London, to whom the garden is a very paradise.”7
Before leaving the Central Deaconess Home I must speak of one branch of work—the artistic illustration of Scripture texts—because it so illustrates the happy freedom and wisdom of the Mildmay methods, which seek to develop the strength of each sister in the line of her special aptitudes. Two of the deaconesses have marked ability as artists, and they devote their time to illuminating182/178 texts and adorning Christmas and Easter cards with rare and exquisite designs. From the sale of these illuminations over five thousand dollars were realized last year for the benefit of the institution.
The Conference Hall, too, should have a further word of recommendation for the truly catholic spirit in which it serves the interests of a myriad of good causes. Besides the crowded meetings of the conference there are held Sunday services throughout the year. The hospitality of its rooms is readily granted to every good cause with which the mission has sympathy. During 1887 “temperance society meetings, railway men and their wives, Moravian missions, Pastor Bost’s mission at La Force, the MacAll Paris missions, the Sunday closing movement, young men’s and young women’s Christian associations, a Christian police association, the Children’s Special Service mission, the Christmas Letter mission, Bible readings for German residents, and various other foreign and home missions have all in turn been advocated here.”8
The larger number of the deaconesses at the central house, as well as the twenty-five at the branch house in South London, are employed in twenty-one London parishes, where their work has been sought by the clergymen; they go to all,183/179 undertaking every kind of labor that can give them access to the hearts and homes of the people. While co-operating with the clergyman in charge of a parish their work is superintended from the Deaconess Home. They visit from house to house among the sick and poor, hold mothers’ meetings, teach night-schools, hold Bible-classes separately for men, women, and children; hold special classes for working women and girls who are kept busily employed during the day, and during the winter months have a weekly average of more than nine thousand attendants on their services. They are solving the problem of “how to save the masses” by resolving the masses into individuals, and then influencing these individuals by the power of personal effort and love.
But a few steps from Conference Hall is the Nursing Home, where about one hundred “nurse sisters,” nurses, and probationers make their home in the intervals between their duties, and are presided over by a lady superintendent of their own. Adjoining is the Cottage Hospital, a beautiful building, the gift of a lady in memory of her son. The walls have been painted and decorated throughout by some ladies who delight in using their skill to make beautiful the homes of the sick.
A large hospital and medical mission also exist184/180 in Bethnal Green, a densely populated part of London that in some portions can vie with the worst slums of the city. It was so necessary to provide better accommodations for nursing the sufferers than could be found in their poor homes that a warehouse was fitted up with beds and transformed into a small hospital. In 1887 four hundred and thirteen patients were received at the hospital, and in the dispensary for outside patients sixteen thousand four hundred and eighteen visits were paid during the year, nearly two thirds of which number were to patients in their own houses. There is no place in which a hospital could be more sorely needed than in this destitute part of London, and perhaps no place where it could be more appreciated. “I had no idea,” said a man of the better class who was brought in, “of there being such a place as this; you give as much attention to the poorest man you get out of the street as could be given to a prince.”9
Every Christmas some kind of an entertainment is arranged for the hospital patients, and, through the gift of friends, articles of warm clothing are distributed to protect against the winter’s cold.
A variety of mission work is carried on in connection with Bethnal Green. There is a Men’s185/181 Institute, open every evening except Sunday and Monday, in connection with which is a savings’ bank that is well patronized. There is a Lads’ Institute, where the deaconesses have classes and meet the boys in a friendly way; a men’s lodging-house, where a comfortable bed and shelter can be had for eight cents a night. The latter is an enterprise which could be imitated with profit in all our large American cities, where it is very difficult for the homeless and poverty-stricken to obtain a decent lodging, or to find any place, in fact, where liquor is not sold. There are also evangelistic services in the mission here, Sunday-schools, Bible-classes, temperance meetings, a soup kitchen, and a coffee bar, where, during Christmas week, between four and five hundred men and boys were given light refreshments, and at the same time some idea of the kindliness and good-will that are associated with this happy season of the year.
There are also two convalescent homes, one at Barnet and one at Brighton. The home at Brighton is especially designed for the poor patients of the East End mission. The report for the year ending December 31, 1887, says that five hundred and fifty men, women, and children enjoyed its benefits for a fortnight or longer.10
186/182Mildmay nurse deaconesses have also charge of the Doncaster General Infirmary, the Nurses’ Institute at Malta, and the Medical Mission Hospital at Jaffa, where two hundred and nineteen patients were received the last year, of whom one hundred and seventy-five were Moslems.
There also exists under the supervision of Mildmay workers a railway mission that was begun in 1880 for men on duty at two of the London stations. An organized mission has sprung up from this small beginning that has now extended over three great lines of railroads which employ thousands of men.
The long list of labors given do not exhaust the efforts of Mildmay workers, for, besides special teas for policemen and postmen, and the mission room and day-school at Ball’s Pond, there is also an educational branch that is meeting the demand for higher educational advantages for women, under distinctly religious influences, by the Clapton House School.
The questions involuntarily present themselves, when reading the undertakings just enumerated, that involve not only faithfulness and devotion in service, but disciplined, practiced faculties, “What class of women are these by whom so much has been accomplished? And what is the training that187/183 has made them so effective?” It is difficult to answer the first question. The deaconesses are of all classes, many of them being ladies who devote their time, talent, and means to forward the cause. There are a good many daughters of clergymen, who are carrying out the associations of their life at home. Just how many are self-supporting and just how many are maintained by the Institution are facts that are never known; as Mrs. Pennefather says in a letter of February 11, 1889, “There are certain188/184 points we deal with as strictly private. While every probationer pays four guineas for her first month, the after monetary arrangements are never known except to myself and the resident lady superintendent.”
The second question is more easy of response. There is a probation house, where ladies that present themselves as candidates are received for a month, and are given work in teaching orphan children, or go out to the city missions and the night-schools under the care of a deaconess. If the probation has proved satisfactory the candidate enters the training-school called “the Willows,” a mile or two from the Central House, a pleasant home which about three years ago came into the possession of the institution and the inmates of the school, formerly accommodated in five small houses, are now gathered, at slightly greater expense, under one roof in the larger, pleasanter home. The following extracts, taken from a little circular called “A Missionary Training-school,” will give us a good idea of the life of the embryo deaconesses, and the instruction, practical and theoretical, that they receive. “The house, which lies a little back from the road, is entered through a conservatory passage, and on the other side of the spacious hall, with its illuminated motto, ‘Peace be to this house,’ above189/185 the fireplace, are the lady superintendent’s sitting-room and the large dining-room, where, on the day when I visited ‘the Willows,’ about thirty of us sat down to dinner. Several others were absent in connection with their medical studies. Both these rooms open on a terrace, and beyond stretches a garden which, even in lifeless winter-time, looked inviting, and, in its spring beauty and summer loveliness, must be in itself a training for the young natures which are learning in the slums of Bethnal Green and Hoxton their hard acquaintance with sin and sorrow. Perhaps in these days of strain and toil too little has been thought of the need of young hearts for some gentle relief from the first shock of meeting with the evil with which older workers have a mournful familiarity.”
The inmates of the Training-school are not deaconesses alone. The school was started to prepare workers for the foreign field, but the crying need of the vast metropolis turned attention to the home field. The Church of England Zenana Society sends its candidates to Mrs. Pennefather for training, and she is glad to accept them, believing that a variety of companionship is needed by those who, in zeal for their personal work, might lose the broad sympathy for all kinds of Christian labor, which is an invaluable cultivation for wise and useful laborers.
190/186The several classes who pass through the course of training may be designated as follows:
a.) Those who pass on to the deaconess house.
b.) Candidates for (1) the Church of England Zenana Society; (2) the Church Missionary Society.
c.) Those who receive medical training for working among the women and children of India.
d.) Those who are as yet unconnected with any society.
e.) When vacancies occur some few are received who merely return to home or parish work, but who are greatly benefitted by training and experience.
“The general routine of life seems to be as follows: Prayers at eight o’clock, then breakfast, followed by a certain amount of domestic duty which falls to the lot of each. For it is not forgotten that these years of training are not for the sake of home life, but as preparation for the self-denials of missionary life. Speaking broadly, the mornings seem to be chiefly devoted to classes; afternoons to out of door and district work; and thus theory and practice pleasantly relieve and support each other.”
There are regular Bible-classes held by different clergymen, and once a fortnight there are lectures on the history of missionary work. There are classes in Hindustani, drawing, and singing, and191/187 for those whose education is defective, elementary classes in arithmetic, geometry, and short-hand. The probationers are also given training in the duties of the store-room, and the order and method that they are taught in caring for the minutest details must certainly form valuable habits in all those who have any desire to profit by the instruction they receive.
For those who are destined for medical work among the women of India there is a special course of medical training, both theoretical and practical.
The age requirement is not so strictly maintained at Mildmay as at many other deaconess houses, but, as a rule, ladies from about twenty to thirty years of age are preferred as students in the training-school. The sum of three hundred dollars is charged for the year’s expenses at the training-school, medical students paying one hundred dollars additional.
Our study of the Mildmay Institutions has been somewhat extensive. As was said at the beginning of the chapter, the great freedom and simplicity of the Mildmay methods, as well as the happy faculty that its directors possess of utilizing all varieties of individual talent, make this deaconess establishment one that is full of valuable suggestions to the similar institutions that are now arising in American192/188 Methodism. No working force is wasted; if a deaconess possess a special talent, she is given a field in which to exercise it; and if exceptional conditions arise workers are found ready to meet them. This training provides well-equipped missionaries for the foreign field, and equally well-prepared missionaries for the great field of the present hour—the home mission work in the crowded wards of great cities.
The annual expenses of the Mildmay Institutions vary from one hundred and ten thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Sixty thousand dollars are received in voluntary contributions, and the remaining sum is generally obtained from friends who are immediately concerned in the work.
It is certainly a marvelous tribute to Christian faith, although it is never heralded as such, that an establishment of the extent and magnitude of Mildmay has been maintained for years with no permanent endowment to fall back upon, and that annually the renewed self-denial of constant friends has to supply the large amount of money needed to meet the entire expenses. Besides those outward and visible services which it renders “for the love of Christ, and in his name” Mildmay furnishes a constant testimony to the fidelity of the Christian faith in the hearts of many believers.
1 Life and Letters of the Rev. W. Pennefather, p. 279.
2 Ibid., p. 305.
3 Life and Letters of the Rev. W. Pennefather, p. 435.
4 Life and Letters of the Rev. W. Pennefather, p. 471.
5 Life and Letters of the Rev. W. Pennefather, p. 471.
6 Mildmay Deaconesses and their Work, p. 7.
7 Mildmay Deaconesses and their Work, p. 6.
8 A Retrospect of Mildmay Work During the Year 1887.
9 Mildmay Deaconesses and their Work, p. 13.
10 A Light in a Dark Place, p. 21.
CHAPTER XII.
DEACONESSES IN SCOTLAND.
When Fliedner went on his second tour to England he extended his journey to Scotland, and ventured to Edinburgh at a time when the cholera was sweeping with fearful ravages through the city in order to become acquainted with Dr. Chalmers. The great Scotch divine and his good deeds, that were connected with all kinds of charitable endeavor, moved the German pastor to admiration and stirred him to holy emulation. On the other hand, that Chalmers was profoundly touched by the work that Fliedner had accomplished in Germany there can be no doubt; we have his own words to testify to the importance he attached to the diaconate of women. In his lectures on Romans, he says: “Here, too, we are presented with a most useful indication, the employment of female agency, under the eye and with the sanction of an apostle, in the business of the Church. It is well to have inspired authority for a practice too little known, and too little preached on in modern times. Phebe194/190 belonged to the order of deaconesses, in which capacity she had been the helper of many, including Paul himself. In what respect she served them is not particularly specified. Like the women in the gospels who waited on our Saviour, she may have ministered to them of her substance, though there can be little doubt that, as the holder of an official station in the Church, she ministered to them by her services also.” It is but recently, however, that deaconesses have become incorporated into the religious life of Scotland, and, so far, they do not exist in connection with the Free Church, of which Chalmers was the able and heroic leader, but only in connection with the national Church—the old historic Church of Scotland. Within this Church the question has assumed the form, not alone of the revival of the apostolic order of deaconesses, but also of the organization of all the manifold activities of women within the Church into one whole, which is put under the authority and direction of the officers of the Church.
Isolated attempts in this direction had previously been made, but in 1885 the first definite steps were taken when the Committee on Christian Life and Work, of which Dr. Charteris was the Convener, presented to the General Assembly a report on “The need of an organization of women’s work in the195/191 Church,” part of which is as follows: “The organization of women’s work in the Church has become a subject of pressing interest. The Assembly has already sanctioned and regulated the organization of women’s work in collecting for foreign missions, and in sending out and superintending missionaries. The great and growing strength of the movement thus recognized is one of the most gratifying things in our mission; ... but of still older date, and not less powerful, is the part taken by women in the home work of the parish church. Lady visitors are carrying messages of divine truth and of human sympathy into the dwellings of the poor both in town and country. Many have been trained as nurses that they may be skilled ministrants to the suffering and sick; and there can be little doubt that the greater part of the actual personal help which ministers receive in parishes is from the women of the congregations. But those who have done most of the good work are most instant in asking from the Church some means of doing still more. From ministers and from their female helpers have come many requests to the committee for some provision for training; some recognition and organization of those who are trained…. In the Church of England are many homes for nurses and deaconesses; training institutions for female196/192 mission work of every kind; and the rapidity with which they are multiplying proves of itself how much they are needed; also non-conformist institutions of the kind, and some separate from all Churches. Your committee believe that the time has fully come for our Church’s taking steps to supply her own wants in this important department of mission work.”1
The General Assembly then directed the committee to inquire into the subject of women’s work in the Church, and to bring up a definite report to the next assembly. The committee accepted the task, sent out requests to every parish for suggestions as to the forms of Christian work to be carried on by women, and the best means of making preparation for their special training, and prepared themselves by personal inspection of the leading institutions for training women workers in England to be able to answer intelligently the same questions. A scheme was reported in 1886 which should incorporate all existing parish organizations, such as Sabbath-school teachers’ and women’s societies of all kinds, and should aim at increasing their number and working power. In 1887 regulations were perfected for working this scheme, and the approval of197/193 this by the Assembly of 1887 made the new plan a part of the organized work of the Church.
The comprehensive character of the new departure in the Church of Scotland is plainly seen from a view of the organization as it now exists. The three grades into which the Christian women workers are divided embrace every kind of work done in connection with the Church. The first grade is general in its character, and forms an association called the Women’s Guild. In each parish the members of Bible-classes, of Young Women’s Congregational Associations, of mission working parties, of Dorcas societies, as well as tract distributers, Sabbath-school teachers, members of the Church choir, and any who are engaged in the service of Christ in the Church are all to be accepted as members of the guild. The next higher grade is the Women Workers’ Guild, for which a certain age is required, and an experience of at least three years, with the approval of the kirk session which enrolls them. In connection with this guild are associates, who have a similar relation to the members of the Women Workers’ Guild that the associates have to deaconesses in the English deaconess houses. They are not pledged to regular or constant service, but engage to do some work or contribute some money every year. They can go to198/194 the deaconess house, put on the garb of the deaconess while there, and as long as they remain can assume the responsibilities and enjoy the privileges belonging to deaconesses. The third higher grade is that of the deaconesses. Any one desiring to become a deaconess “must purpose to devote herself, so long as she shall occupy the position of a deaconess, especially to Christian work in connection with the Church, as the chief object of her life.”2 Provision was also made for a training-school and home where deaconesses could be prepared for their duties.
There are a great many ladies who for a long time have been engaged in doing the practical work of a deaconess without being clothed in the garb, or invested with the office. The Church of Scotland recognized these workers by providing two classes of deaconesses, who should be equal in position, but have different spheres of activity. Those who for seven years had been known as active workers, and who have given their lives largely to Christian service, are accepted as deaconesses of the first class, and are free to work wherever they find themselves most useful within the limits of the Church. The second class embraces those who shall have received training in the deaconess199/195 institution, or have been in connection with it for at least two years.
When the measure was finally passed by the General Assembly there was no delay in carrying into execution the details indicated by the plan of work. The Deaconess Institution and Training Home was at once started. It was located at Edinburgh, as the most central and convenient place for the institution, and as furnishing the most available advantages for the instruction and training of the deaconesses. From here as a center the work is expected to penetrate into every part of Scotland by means of the trained workers whose services will be available for all parts of the country when desired by the ministers and kirk sessions. With true Scotch prudence and wisdom it was arranged that the lady who was chosen to be the superintendent should fit herself thoroughly for the duties of her responsible place by becoming familiar with the workings of similar institutions in England. She was accordingly given six months’ leave of absence, which she spent among the great London Homes, and only assumed the duties of her position May 1, 1888. Meanwhile the Home had opened under the temporary care of a lady who had been a worker in Mrs. Meredith’s Prison Mission, and for six years a Mildmay deaconess. It had from the200/196 beginning the warm co-operation of sympathizing, influential friends. Regular courses of lectures were arranged on subjects connected with Christian work, and as similar courses will be demanded of like institutions in America it may be interesting to give the syllabus in full:
SYLLABUS OF LECTURES.
(On Tuesdays at 12.)
1. B.—Professor Charteris. Four Lectures.
“How to Begin a Mission.”
Nov. 29.—1. Whom to visit, and why. The ills we know of, bodily, spiritual, social; and seek to lessen.
Dec. 06.—2. How to induce the people who belong to no church—perhaps care for none—to come in.
Dec. 13.—3. What to do with the children; (a) to attract, (b) to influence them.
Dec. 20.—4. What agencies besides Sunday services prove best.
2. C.—Dr. P. A. Young. Six Lectures.
“Medical Hygiene for the Use of Visitors.”
Jan. 03.—1. Object and scope of the course of lectures; short sketch of the structure and functions of the human body, including a brief description of the functions of digestion, absorption, circulation, respiration, excretion, secretion, and enervation.
Jan. 10.—2. Fractures, how to recognize and treat them temporarily; bleeding, and how to treat it; the use of the triangular bandage.
Jan. 17.—3. Treatment of fainting, choking, burns and scalds, bites from animals, bruises and tears from machinery, convulsions, sunstroke, persons found insensible, suspected poisoning and frostbite; how to lift and carry an injured person.
Jan. 24.—4. Sick-room, its selection, preparation, cleaning, warming,201/197 ventilation, and furnishing, bed and bedding, infection and disinfection.
Jan. 31.—5. Washing and dressing patients, bed-making, changing sheets, lifting helpless patients, food administration, medicines and stimulants, what to observe regarding a sick person.
Feb. 7.—6. Taking temperature, baths, bedsores, nursing sick children, application of local remedies, poultices, fomentations, blisters, etc.; management of convalescents.
3. D.—Rev. George Wilson. Four Lectures.
“Difficulties Encountered by District Visitors.”
Feb. 14.—1. Difficulties proceeding from indifference.
Feb. 21.—2. Difficulties proceeding from ignorance.
Feb. 28.—3. Difficulties proceeding from adversity.
Mar. 6.—4. Difficulties proceeding from anxiety.
Mar. 6.—4. Note.—Questions invited from the ladies.
4. E.—Rev. Dr. Norman Macleod. Four Lectures.
“Some Qualifications of a Church Worker, especially among the Poor.”
March 13.—1. Motives and aims.
March 20.—2. Difficulties and hindrances, how to overcome them.
March 27.—3. Conditions of success.
Aprilh 03.—4. Helps, agencies, etc.
5. F.—Rev. John McMurtrie. Two Lectures.
“History and Methods of Missions to the Heathen.”
April 10.—1. History of missions.
April 17.—2. Methods of missions.
Another wise provision in this Scotch home is the arrangement by which those who do not wish to become deaconesses, but who want to become competent Christian workers in their own homes, can202/198 come here and spend some months in receiving training and instruction in various methods of Christian work. There is no department in life in which many blunders and much loss of time and usefulness cannot be prevented by making use of the experience of others who have previously overcome the difficulties to be encountered. In other words, we need to obtain all the preparation and discipline we can possibly have in order to do our work well; and especially is this true of Christian work, which demands the highest service that the heart and soul of humanity can give. Many individuals will come to the home to be trained and fitted to work in their own homes, and will start new lines of Christian activity that will win the sympathies and efforts of many who are eager to be employed in good works, if only they can have competent direction.
A pamphlet entitled The Deaconess Institution and Training Home says: “Are there not many parts all over Scotland—mines, quarries, etc.—where the population is poor and hard-working? Would it not in such places be an advantage both to minister and people to have a Christian lady, trained, experienced, and devoted, to live and work among them? Or, which would be possible in every parish, would it not be a great advantage that203/199 in case of need—in a mining accident, an outbreak of sickness—a trained Christian nurse should be available during the emergency?”
The General Assembly provided that deaconesses should be solemnly inducted into their office at a religious service in church. It also provided “that along with the application for the admission of any person to the office of a deaconess there shall be submitted a certificate from a committee of the General Assembly intrusted with that duty stating that the candidate is qualified in respect of education, and that she has had seven years’ experience in Christian work, or two years’ training in the Deaconess Institution and Training Home.” Also, “Before granting the application, the kirk session shall intimate to the presbytery their intention of doing so, unless objection be offered by the presbytery at its first meeting thereafter.” On Sunday, December 9, 1888, the first deaconess was set apart to her duties. The kirk session was already in possession of the necessary certificates testifying to her “character, education, experience, devotedness, and power to serve and co-operate with others.” Due intimation had been made to the presbytery. The questions were put that were appointed by the General Assembly:
“Do you desire to be set apart as a deaconess,204/200 and as such to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in the Church, which is his body?
“Do you promise, as a deaconess of the Church of Scotland, to work in connection with that Church, subject to its courts, and in particular to the kirk session of the parish in which you work?
“Do you humbly engage, in the strength and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master, faithfully and prayerfully to discharge the duties of this office?”
The lady who, by answering the above questions, received the sanction of the Church as one of its appointed officers was Lady Grisell Baillie, of Dryburgh Abbey. She writes to the author of this book: “I count it a great honor to be permitted to serve in the Church of my fathers, and I pray that I may be enabled faithfully and prayerfully to fulfill the duties to which I am called, and that it maybe for the glory of our God and Saviour that I am permitted to work in his vineyard.”
Miss Davidson, who was temporary superintendent of the home, but who is now engaged in organizing branches of the Women’s Guild throughout Scotland, and Miss Alice Maud Maxwell, the present superintendent of the home, have also been set apart to the same office. As has been said, “Each represents an old Scottish family, whose members205/201 have been distinguished for Christian and philanthropic labors;” and “each represents a different type of deaconess work.” Lady Grisell Baillie is engaged in gentle ministrations among the people of her own home. Miss Davidson is at the service of every minister who desires aid in organizing women’s work in his parish. And Miss Maxwell is at the training-home, leading a busy life in directing the class labors and missionary activities that center around it and in impressing her life and spirit upon a band of workers who are to further Christ’s cause both at home and in the mission field.
The mention of any facts that can bring before us the varied character that the deaconess work can assume is valuable. For to be truly useful, this cause needs to provide a place for women of very unlike qualities, and also to allow a certain degree of freedom which will insure the individuality of each worker.
The action of the Church of Scotland has had its influence upon the Reformed Churches throughout the world holding the presbyterial system. At the session of the London Council of the Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches during the summer of 1888, Dr. Charteris presented a report embracing many of the features of the elaborate scheme206/202 which he had previously devised for the Church of Scotland. And the Council, in receiving the report, not only approved it, but “commended the details of the scheme stated in the report to the consideration of the churches represented in the Alliance.” We may regard the Presbyterian churches of Great Britain, therefore, as committed, not only to the indorsement of deaconesses as officers in the service of the Church, but to the organization of the whole work of women in the churches, under ecclesiastical authority and direction.
There is one feature of the deaconess cause as it has been developed in the Church of Scotland that is of especial interest to the Methodists of America. Most of the great deaconess houses of England have sprung from the personal faith and works of earnest-souled individuals. Mildmay, for example, is a living testimony to the faithfulness and energy of the Rev. Mr. Pennefather and those associated with him. Within the Church of England the recognition accorded deaconesses is a partial one, resting on the principles and rules signed by the archbishops and eighteen bishops, and suggested for adoption in 1871. But as yet the English Church has not formally accepted this utterance, and made it authoritative. The German deaconess houses, while receiving the practical indorsement of the207/203 State Church of Germany, are not in any way officially connected with it. Even Kaiserswerth itself is solely responsible to those who contribute to its support for a right use of the means placed at its command. The same fact applies to the Paris deaconess houses. They are all detached efforts, not parts of a general system. But the Scotch deaconesses are responsible to a church, and a church is responsible for their work. The Church of Scotland is, therefore, justified in its claim when it says that the adoption of the scheme of the organization of women’s work by the assembly of 1888, “is the first attempt since the Reformation to make the organization of women’s work a branch of the general organization of the Church, under the control of her several judicatories.”3 The second attempt was made, which was the first also for any Church in America, when, May 18, 1888, the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States instituted the office of deaconess, and made it an inherent part of the Church economy, under the direction and control of the Annual Conferences.