In The Evangelist 8.4 (April, 1840), 72, Walter Scott inserted the following editorial comment from his own observations, included among several miscellaneous notes from the field, perhaps as a filler item.
We could name a church in which the sisterhood are in the habit of assembling once a week at the house of one of the Deaconesses to sew and make garments for the poor and needy; but to name the church is wholly unnecessary and it might be improper as I mention it merely to recommend the charitable custom to the sisters of other churches, that they also may be fruitful in good works and adorn their holy pro- fession by deeds of love and benevolence; for if we excel others in our views of divine truth, it is but reasonable that we should excel them in righteousness also.
W. S.
A historian might wish that Scott had risked inciting vanity among the good sisters by naming the congregation. Scott was living in Carthage, Ohio, near Cincinnati, at the time, although he gives no indication that the sewing circle was nearby. In any case, this note is evidence of yet another early Restorationist congregation that had women deacons.
Since he capitalized "Deaconesses," it appears that Scott understood this as an official function in the congregation. Alexander Campbell taught that deacons were responsible for administering church funds to furnish tables, namely, the Lord's table, the bishop's table and the tables of the poor ("Ancient Order XIX, Christian Baptist 4 [1826], 77-78; Extra issue on "Order," Millennial Harbinger 6 [October, 1835], 507). Deacons thus made provision for worship and provided food as needed for the teacher and for the needy. The sewing circle obviously went beyond considerations of food in meeting the needs of the poor, and Scott approves their work in language that echoes 1 Timothy 2:9-10. Scott does not indicate what other activities deaconesses or women in general might have undertaken, and we need not assume that they were limited to charitable work. On the other hand, Campbell did teach that women deacons officiated specifically among women (Christian Baptist 7 [1829], 17-18), so we might assume that this unnamed "Deaconess" was, among other things, the organizer of the sewing circle.
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