Deaconesses in Europe

J >> Jane M. Bancroft >> Deaconesses in Europe

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[52] Daniel Neal's _History of the Puritans_, London, 1703, vol. i,
pp. 344-346.
[53] _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.
[54] Schaefer, _Die Weibliche Diakonie_, vol. i, p. 207.
[55] _The Royal Guide to London Churches_ for 1866, 1867. By Herbert
Fry, p. 162.
[56] _Official Year-book of the Church of England_, 1889.
[57] _Andover Review_, June, 1888, art., "European Deaconesses,"
p. 578.
[58] _Deaconesses in the Church of England._ Griffith & Farran:
London, 1880, p. 22.
[59] _Official Year-book of the Church of England_, 1889.
[60] _Armen und Kranken Freund_, October, 1888.
[61] "Deaconess Work in England," _The Churchman_, May 19, 1888.
[62] 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.
[63] _London Diocesan Deaconess District Services._
[64] _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 founder 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."[65] 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."[66] 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
every 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 religious 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."[67]

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; while 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.

It 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:[68] "Sometimes I can
scarcely believe that it is a reality, and not all a dream--the
Conference Hall, with its appendages, and the deaconess house 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.[69]
"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
extension 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
Scripture 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. 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.[70]

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 the 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 tree 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."[71]

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 illuminating 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."[72]

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, 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 exist 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."[73]

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's 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.[74]

Mildmay 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 that 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 certain 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."

NOTE.--There is a further department at Mildmay that has never been
named, but is certainly an important and busy one; it might be
called the "Department of Inquiry," for certainly the personal
visits and letters received, inquiring into the details of the
institution, must be very large. My obligations to Mrs. Pennefather
are great, who, both by letter and printed matter, has placed a
great number of facts at my disposal, of which I have availed myself
freely in writing this sketch. Mrs. Pennefather's words, "we are
glad when we can help any Christian work with the experience God has
permitted us to gather," echo the words of the great apostle, "Let
him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in
all good things." I remember, too, the gracious patience with which,
during one of the crowded days of the last conference, Miss
Coventry, the superintendent, spent a long hour with us, answering
fully and minutely the many questions which we put when trying to
supplement our want of knowledge by her long experience. Indeed, the
spirit of Mildmay impressed me as generous and helpful; as has been
said, "Over the whole house rules the spirit of love, devotion, and
prayer."*

* "Deaconess Work in England," _The Churchman_, May 12, 1888.

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,' above 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."

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