ssociation has not continued in the form in which it originated, but
has now changed into the Sisterhood of St. John the Evangelist. Still
this sisterhood retains many of the distinctive deaconess features. A
sister may, for instance, withdraw from the sisterhood for proper
cause. She labors without remuneration, and the sisters live together in
a home, or singly, as they may please, in any place where their work is
located.

In the Diocese of Western New York there are five deaconesses, with
their associates and helpers, under the direction of the bishop of the
diocese.

In America, however, as in England, within the Episcopal Church
sisterhoods are more influential and more rapid in their growth than are
deaconess institutions. In a list of the sisterhoods of the Episcopal
Church in America, given in the monthly magazine devoted to women's work
in the Church,[85] fourteen sisterhoods are named, one religious order
of widows, and two orders of deaconesses, one of which is that which is
now changed into the Sisterhood of St. John the Evangelist.

In 1871 the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church
discussed at some length the relation of women's work to the Church, and
there resulted increased interest in the subject of sisterhoods and
deaconess institutions. An effort has been made to obtain for the order
of deaconesses a wider recognition than it now enjoys, as it simply has
the support of the bishop within whose diocese the deaconesses are at
work. To this end, in the General Convention of 1880, a canon was
presented to the House of Bishops, and accepted by a large vote. But it
reached the Lower House too late for consideration, and no further
action has been taken since that time.

In the Presbyterian Church of America the question of the revival of the
office of deaconess has already claimed some attention. The late Dr.
A. T. McGill for many successive years earnestly recommended the revival
of the office to the members of his classes in the theological seminary
at Princeton; and his views, matured by years of reflection, were given
for publication in an article published in the _Presbyterian Review_,
1880.

In the Minutes of the General Assembly for 1884, page 114, and of 1888,
page 640, we find an overture asking if the education of deaconesses is
consistent with Presbyterian polity, and, if so, should they be
ordained, answered in the negative in the following words: "_The Form of
Government_