Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Phoebe the Servant of the Church: A Sermon, Preached at St. Peter's Church, South Kensington, on May 11, 1873, in Aid of the Parochial Mission-Women Fund
I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.
The word rendered Servant in this affectionate postscript of St. Paul's greatest letter is that which in its nearest English dress appears as the term Deaconess. A few tempting analogies and half-warrantable assumptions might conduct us into the belief that within twenty-five years from our Lord's death there was an organized rank of deaconesses in the Church possessing more or less of a sacred and separate character.
All however that we are in historical strictness really able to conclude is, that there were a number of women devoting themselves as a principal, if not exclusive, employment to good works on behalf of the Church, generally with local ties, and certainly co-operating with the regular government of the body. More precise rules, more central direction, and more exclusiveness came later, when the general dissoluteness of society, Christian so called, and still more when the breaking up of the Empire required sterner and stronger organizations.
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