There are besides “out sisters,” who work with the sisters but reside at their own homes. This is a valuable feature of this mission, as it interests ladies who are living in their own homes, and yet who can be very useful to those who devote their whole work to the sisters’ labor. In the Report a great many instances are given which show what an intimate knowledge of the poor people is obtained by these sisters, and in what practical ways they169/165 minister to the bodily and spiritual needs of those whom they find in their house-to-house visitations. The term “sister,” as it is used in the report of the London West Central Mission, is in all respects a synonym for “deaconess,” as the name is understood in the large deaconess establishment at Mildmay. To the study of this we shall devote the following chapter.
[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.