WESLEYAN CHURCH DEACONESSES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11446, 8 December 1897, Page 2

WESLEYAN CHURCH DEACONESSES.

The first deaconess sent to Christchurch from Dr Stephenson’s Institute, London, has come to work in connection with the Durham Street circuit. Sister' Christian has been at work for more than nine years among the sick and- suffering of East London and one of the English provincial towns. The first five years were spent in St George’s in the east, ,at a medical mission, wheie six “sisters ” tried the experiment- of residing in the slums, and nfet daily and hourly appeals for sympathy and help from all sorts and conditions of people; She was afterwards' sent by Dr Stephenson, of the above Institute, to a very different sphere of work in the old town of Ipswich, where she laboured among the working classes of the town and surrounding villages. This was given over into other hands that she might, by the desire of the Deaconess Council, come out to this colony and commence similar work. The Wesley Deaconess Institute, of London, with the Rev T. B. Stephenson, of “ The Children’s Home,” as its founder and warden, was born in July, 1890, when a " sister,” with three probationers, took possession of Mewburn House, London, N.E. It was the dream of Dr Stephenson when quite a young man. Pressing needs compelled the formation of .an organised body of women workers, whose motive should be of the highest, whose fit- ' ness should be tested, whose powers should be developed by training, and whose qualifications should be sealed at the close of a sufficient probation. In the service of Christ amongst the sick, the lapsed • (both women and men), the poor, and the ’religiously indifferent, lies a great field which is peculiarly suitable for women’s work, and which, as it needs to be done in the most skilful and effective way, requires women of the right spirit, duly tested and trained.. To-day the Wesley Deaconess Institute is an order of women, which, under the sanction of the conference, provides tested and trained workers for any field of work at home or abroad. It has over forty deaconesses at work in about thirty places in England and abroad. Some are engaged in missions, others in ordinary suburban circuits, two are doing a good work in Johannesburg, and another is at work among the heathen in Ceylon. Thus in many ways and in many lands the.; influence of the deaconess order has haac, and will increasingly be, exercised.