This volume on the revival of women’s ministry in the 19th-century Church of England presents documents from a variety of unpublished sources that show how the Deaconess Movement posed a threat to the gender order of Victorian society by creating new areas of activity and roles of authority outside the domestic sphere. Prominent among the institutions and individuals discussed are the North London Deaconess Institute and the first head deaconess, Elizabeth Ferard (1825–1883). No jacket.