Chicago Training School for Home and Foreign Missions
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chicago Training School for Home and Foreign Missions was a training school in Chicago for missionaries associated with the Methodist Church. It was founded by Lucy Rider Meyer and her husband Josiah in 1885 and was described as "the largest training school of its kind in the country"[1] and awarded the degree of Bachelor of Religious Service (BRS).[2]
Norman Wait Harris, a Chicago bank executive, was president of the school's board of trustees and donated land and buildings to the school.[1]
In 1930, the school was merged into the Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston, Illinois, which later became the Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary.
Founded in 1885, the Chicago Training School was started in order to educate and train women for Christian service and ministry.[3] The school grew out of the Methodist deaconess movement[4] and gave preparation for missionary work in "city, home, and foreign fields".[5] It was run by Lucy Rider Meyer, and her husband Josiah Shelley Meyer. The school was built "to educate Christian lay-women as leaders and social service agents in ministry by serving the needs of the city".[6] These women became known as deaconesses. Deaconesses nursed the sick in hospitals and poor areas of the city. They worked as missionaries and assistants to pastors, in orphanages and schools.[7] The deaconess uniform, designed by Lucy Jane Rider, consisted of black dresses with white collars, worn with black bonnets.[8] They were meant to be "simple for reasons of economy and protection as well as to identify the women as deaconesses".[7] After their training at the school, the women who "trained in the school are engaged as missionaries in India, Japan, and China...smaller numbers are in South America, Africa, Jamaica, The West Indies, and Mexico".[5] Once they returned home they continued working for churches and Sunday schools nearby.
Deaconesses at this time, such as Rider herself, advocated for women and cared for the ill and poor communities of the city. At this time in history, women were not allowed to be ordained, therefore, The Chicago Training School "was a huge force in preparing Methodist and other Christian women for a whole range of important and effective ministries that helped transform the church's relationship with societies around the world".[3] This education for these women and its importance is what drove the Deaconess movement that Lucy Jane Rider became known to lead. Throughout the time the School ran, "the Chicago Training School educated 500 foreign missionaries and over 4000 were consecrated to Christian service at home".[9]