Mary Schleicher (1855-1949) was the first

deaconess The ministry of a deaconess is a ministry for women in some Protestant, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox churches to provide pastoral care, especially for other women, and which may carry a liturgical role. The word comes from the Greek ...

in the

Anglican Diocese of Sydney The Diocese of Sydney is a diocese in Sydney, within the Province of New South Wales of the Anglican Church of Australia. The majority of the diocese is evangelical and low church in tradition. The diocese goes as far as Lithgow in the wes ...

, appointed in 1886 to Newtown parish.

Early life

Mary Augusta Sophia Schleicher was born in 1855 at

Mill Park Mill Park is a small suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 18 km north-east of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, central business district, located within the City of Whittlesea Local government areas of Victoria ...

, Victoria. Her father John Theophilus Schleicher (d 1892) was an Anglican priest and CMS missionary. Her mother Caroline Schultze (d 1897) had trained at the deaconess institute at

Kaiserswerth Kaiserswerth is one of the oldest quarters of the City of Düsseldorf, part of Borough 5. It is in the north of the city and next to the river Rhine. It houses the where Florence Nightingale worked. Kaiserswerth has an area of , and 7,923 in ...

in Germany. The family arrived in Victoria, Australia in 1855 and Mary was born soon afterwards.

Ministry

Mary was set apart as a deaconess on 25 July 1886 at St Stephen's Newtown by Bishop Barry, during a ceremony in which a male evangelist was also commissioned. Her admission as a deaconess followed a debate at the Sydney Anglican Synod in 1885 concerning creation of a deaconess institute, a proposal which sought to organise women's religious ministry in a way that avoided sectarian concerns about religious orders. Bishop Barry saw the role of deaconess in terms of lay ministry, rather than a form of ordination for women. Mary's role as deaconess was to serve in the parish of Newtown under the direction of the rector, Robert Taylor, her duties including visiting homes of the poor. In 1889 Mary's sister Selma Schleicher became Sydney's second Anglican deaconess when she was commissioned for ministry, having already been ordained in Germany. Finally in 1891 Mary's brother was appointed Principal of Sydney's Moore Theological College. The Schleicher family were consequently instrumental in the establishment in 1891 of Deaconess House in Sydney as a training institution for Anglican deaconesses, known as "Bethany", and the forerunner of Mary Andrews College.

Later life and death

Mary married Canon Robert Taylor, the newly widowed rector of her parish of Newtown, on 28 December 1898 at Gladesville, New South Wales. In accordance with local custom at the time she ceased to be considered a deaconess upon marriage. She died 1 July 1949 at Marrickville, New South Wales, aged 93.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schleicher, Mary 1855 births 1949 deaths 19th-century Australian women 20th-century Anglican deaconesses 19th-century Anglican deaconesses Anglican Church of Australia clergy Australian people of German descent Clergy from Sydney People from the Inner West (Sydney)