Dorcas society

A Dorcas society is a local group of people, usually based in a church, with a mission of providing clothing to the poor.[1] Dorcas societies are named after Dorcas (also called Tabitha), a person described in the Acts of the Apostles (9:36).[2][3]

Edwin Long's A Dorcas Meeting in the 6th Century (painted 1873–1877) imagines a Dorcas society of Late antiquity.

Dorcas societies were at their height in the 1800s,[4] but there are still Dorcas societies around the world, providing clothing and other physical needs.[2][3]

One Dorcas society was founded in Douglas, Isle of Man, in December 1834 as part of the community's thanksgiving for being spared from an outbreak of cholera.[1][5] Other Dorcas societies were established by missionaries in the Americas in the early 1800s.[6][7] Beatrice Clugston founded the Glasgow Royal Dorcas Society in 1864.[8][9][10] One English Dorcas society in Sydenham, London, met during five Tuesdays in Lent, producing 166 garments in one year.[4]

The Dorcas Society at St Paul's Chapel of Trinity Church Parish, New York City, was founded in 1850; another Trinity Chapel, St John's, also had a Dorcas Society; the two provided clothing to school children in the parish.[11] The Dorcas Society of Maine was founded in 1897 by Kate Douglas Wiggin as the Dorcas Society of Hollis & Buxton, Maine.[12] The Dorcas Society of Maine is still active and provides academic scholarships and charitable contributions within its community.

See also

References
  1.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "Dorcas Society". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.
  2. Lockyer, Herbert (1967). All the women of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. pp. 46–48. ISBN 0310281512.
  3. Achtemeier, Elizabeth (2003). Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons, Volume 3. CSS Publishing. p. 123. ISBN 0788019430.
  4. Richmond, Vivienne (1995). Clothing the Poor in Nineteenth-Century England. Cambridge University Press. p. 216. ISBN 1107042275.
  5. Isle of Man Dorcas Society
  6. Keller, Rosemary; Ruether, Rosemary; Cantlon, Marie (2006). Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America: Women and religion: methods of study and reflection. Indiana University Press. p. 245. ISBN 025334686X.
  7. Errington, Elizabeth Jane (1995). Wives and Mothers, School Mistresses and Scullery Maids: Working Women in Upper Canada, 1790-1840. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 174. ISBN 0773513094.
  8. Colin Rochester (2011). Understanding the Roots of Voluntary Action: Historical Perspectives on Current Social Policy. Sussex Academic Press. pp. 142–. ISBN 978-1-84519-424-6.
  9. Elizabeth L. Ewan; Sue Innes; Sian Reynolds; Rose Pipes (8 March 2006). The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 77–. ISBN 978-0-7486-2660-1.
  10. "Beatrice Clugston (1827-1888)". TheGlasgowStory. Retrieved 2021-09-04.
  11. Appleton's Dictionary of New York and Vicinity. New York City: D. Appleton & Company. 1896. p. 272. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  12. "The Dorcas Society of Maine".
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