From Left: Kate Ivens, Frances Torless, Miss Hookham, Rose Godfrey, Sybilla Maude (Nurse Maude), Mary Anne Vousden and Sister Edith Mellish. Seated in front is Alice Gifford.

Edith Mary Mellish was born to Edward and Ellen Mellish. Her father was a banker and businessman, her mother died when she was only 2. Edward’s second wife, Sarah Waterworth, had been a CMS missionary. She encouraged Edith’s religious development, and zeal to be a missionary. Edith attended boarding school in England. Then as the eldest child, took on the role of helping raise the children of her father’s 2nd and 3rd marriages. Only when they were old enough did she take on some parish work. In 1881 seeking training, she joined the Deaconess Community of St Andrew, London, she became a deaconess in 1891.

Edith was chosen to answer the call of Bishop Churchill Julius of Christchurch for a sister to work in his diocese. She arrived in New Zealand in 1893 to find a small group of dedicated probationer deaconesses ready to form a community. They were heavily involved in ministry to women, they worked with unmarried women, cared for orphans, taught, did church embroidery, visited hospitals and prisons, as well as developing their community life. It was far from easy, but the community slowly grew. Their original name was “The Sisters of Bethany”, changed in 1911 to “The Community of the Sacred Name”. Sister Edith became Mother Edith.

There was a gradual shift from deaconesses to a religious life of prayer, the conduct of quiet days and retreats. Mother Edith maintained the root of the religious life is the worship and service of God in prayer, meditation and self-sacrifice she took great trouble over the structure and pattern of the order setting it along the lines of a traditional religious community. But she did not enjoy good health, and in 1915 she travelled back to England for a complete break and to visit family. But she also took the opportunity to note developments in women’s religious orders in Britain and put some of these into practice upon her return in 1916, in her revision of the rule of the order and of the statutes governing it.

Mother Edith had some very strong views about the position of women in the world and in the church. She could blaze out at injustice or contempt shown to girls or women, especially the weak and defenceless. She was generous, compassionate, humble, fearless, and had a loving concern for all. For her nothing was too difficult, she had a capacity for work that was unbounded, was a great multi-tasker and under her leadership the community grew. The “Anglican Nuns” won wide admiration for their work.

BORN: 10 March 1861, Island of Mauritius

DIED: 25 May 1922, Christchurch, New Zealand