The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1902-12-03

WhOle nutnDeT Du1lL ny tuS cuL11S
Church, had been aided by the
Woman's Home Mission Society.
The aggregate statistics of the So
ciety from 1886 to 1902 are:
Number of members, 2o,o34.
Receipts for local and connection
al work, S725,945.66.
Number of parsonages built and
aided, 1,265.
Money donated to parsonages,
$117,2S4.23.
Money loaned to parsonages,
$37,1oo.oo.
Value of supplies furnished
preachers families not noted above
$44,92G o6.
Number of boarding schools re-
ported, 4.
Number of night schools sup
ported, 5.
Number of missionaries and
teachers employed, Al.
Rescue homes and doors of hope,
Value of property owned by the
society, $o9, 900 90.
The Woman's Home Mission So
ciety of the South Carolina Confer
ence was organized in 1893. For
five years it made but little prog
ress. It was r~eorganized November,
1898. Mrs. w. w. Duncan was
chosen president; Mrs. w. L. Wait
was chosen corresponding secretary,
and Mrs. w. A. Rogers, treasurer.
In 1899 Miss Belle Bennett and
Mrs. w. D. Kirkland met the Con-
ference officers in executive meet
ing. From that time the work has
gone steadily forward with increas-
ing strength and usefulness.
The General Conference Of 1902
provided for deaconesses. The
principles and work involved in the
Office have long obtained in the
church in more or less degree even
from Apostolic times. 1t has OBJ.
tanned in our church i'll a limited
degree without the name and para
phernalia of Office. Our Church
polity is the result of accretion.
While it accords with the truest
philosophy, it has not been thought
out as such; but it has been devel-
oped as needs and experience have
dictated. The Church legislators
did not reason from cause to effect
but from effect to cause. When
they saw the good effects of certain
innovations they adopted them, The
conservatism of OFF branch of the
Church has made us slow to see the
needs and to assay the experience
of the Office of deaconess. But it
has come at last, and we hope the
action of the late General Confer
ence is but the harbinger Of the
greater usefulness of our women IN
church work. We will let Miss.
Mary Helm, the editor of Our
say what a deaconess is.
What is a deaconess? CD She is;
a c~onsecrated Christian woman.
(2) She is so circumstanced that
she can give her whole time to the
service of God. (3) She is a trained
worker. (4) She is authorized and
by the church. 60 She
asks for no salary, only that her ne
cessities be provided for when she
has no means of support. (6} She
is at liberty to retire from the work
at any time she may desire ~
She wears an ordinary. simply made
dress of uniform color with those
in the same Office with some dis
tinctive mark of that Office, posi-
bly, white strings to her bonnet,
~ She lives in a deacouess' home
where there are sufficient numbers
of deaconesses in. n community
for the sake of economy, con-
venience and companionship. 90
As a pastors assistant, she becomes
a leader for women of that congre-
Cation in church work. They learn
her how to work more efec-
and they are led into lines of
service they have not entered upon.
(1o) She may be connected as a
J~aocoracc with her own home