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.
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:[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.