Dorcas Society

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Edwin Long's A Dorcas Meeting in the 6th Century (painted 1873–1877) imagines an early 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. Dorcas societies are named after Dorcas (also called Tabitha), a person described in the Acts of the Apostles (Chapter 9, v. 36).[1][2]

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.[3] Other Dorcas societies were established by missionaries in the Americas in the early 1800s.[4][5] One English Dorcas society in Sydenham met during five Tuesdays in Lent, producing 166 garments in one year.[6]

Dorcas societies were at their height in the 1800s,[6] but there are still Dorcas societies around the world, providing clothing and other physical needs.[1][2]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Lockyer, Herbert (1967). All the women of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. pp. 46–48. ISBN 0310281512. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Achtemeier, Elizabeth (2003). Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons, Volume 3. CSS Publishing. p. 123. ISBN 0788019430. 
  3. Isle of Man Dorcas Society
  4. 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. 
  5. 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. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 Richmond, Vivienne (1995). Clothing the Poor in Nineteenth-Century England. Cambridge University Press. p. 216. ISBN 1107042275. 
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