Daughters of the King See Spectacular Rise
Episcopal News Service. June 23, 1998 [98-2205]
Nan Cobbey, Features Editor of Episcopal Life, the church's national newspaper
(Episcopal Life) The fastest-growing organization in the Episcopal Church today may well owe its success to what its members eschew, as much as to what they do.
Daughters of the King -- a lay religious order for women, which is adding chapters at the rate of a dozen a month -- will not take stands on issues and forbids fund-raising.
What the Daughters do permit, and in fact take vows to promote, is prayer, service and evangelism. The 113-year-old order, founded at Church of the Resurrection in New York, has a simple secret. It gives women exactly what many surveys say they want: a way to deepen their spiritual life and the community of a small group. "We are just booming and we are running along trying to get things in place to be able to handle this kind of enormous growth," says Sue Schlanbusch of Stirling Heights, Michigan, national president.
In 1990, Daughters of the King had 7,189 members. Today, the national office in Marietta, Georgia, counts 16,419 and the growth appears to picking up speed. In 1996, 94 new chapters came aboard. In 1997, 82 more. This year, by the end of April, 45 new chapters had signed on.
"Women are looking for a deeper relationship with God, a relationship which connects them with a community of believers," says Linda Patterson, executive director, and that is what they are finding in the Daughters: "a quietness and connectedness." Some of the newest members agree.
Constance Keaton of High Springs, Florida., was seeking sisterhood. "In a small church you have a very lonely spiritual life...and so having sisters that know what I'm about and that believe as I do, it's a true gift."
Dr. Kim Smith, an obstetrician/gynecologist and Daughter in training in Houston, was attracted because the organization seemed to be so "mission-minded." Smith, who will soon leave for four years in Kenya as a medical missionary, praises the Daughters for being "one of the groups that understands most the heart of God."
Noelis Rodriguez of the new Gethsemane Chapter in Miami, the first Spanish-speaking chapter in the United States, says she was drawn to the order "because I wish to dedicate my life to pray and to service others by prayers."
Anna Bacon Moore, a woman in her late 20s who was just "installed" as a full-fledged member of the Mary and Martha Chapter in La Jolla, California, points to "the women already in the order" as what attracted her: "just who they were, the kind of people they were. Everyone...is so dedicated to serving."
To Carolyn Faust of Indianapolis, the group "helps with the daily reminder that there's more to life than career success and committee obligations and even the responsibilities of being a parent."
"Daughters is kind of a safe place because we don't get involved in any of the politics of the church," says Schlanbusch. "We meet to pray and study and we serve. We don't have a lot of worldly things that are a part of what we do. We have spiritual things."
One of the "worldly things" the Daughters don't do is raise money. The rule against it has been on the books since the order's founding in 1885. Funds come solely from dues and gifts. Outreach projects and overseas mission work -- which are extensive -- are paid for from "The Self Denial Fund," to which members contribute.
"Oftentimes you can get so focused on raising money...you forget what you are raising money about, forget the dreams that God has given you," says Deborah Tischler of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, public relations director. She welcomes the peace the prohibition brings. Like Schlanbusch, she calls the Daughters "a safe place" where women, "regardless of their theological point of view," can be comfortable.
"Because we purposely do not, and have never, taken stands on issues...you can have a woman who is very liberal with one who might be very conservative," says Tischler. "And you can worship with your sister and not feel like you are going to be challenged."
Most Daughters chapters are small, a dozen or so members, though they range in size from three to several hundred. Most meet monthly for prayer and study. Service projects range from providing receptions after parish funerals to sewing quilts and layettes for babies with AIDS. All chapters devote themselves to the parish prayer list and to aiding their priests. Some projects grow well beyond a single chapter, like the Balm of Gilead has in Texas. That ministry, started by Daughter Joan Dalrymple of Houston, offers pastoral care, help, even housing to families of hospital patients who come from across the country to M.D. Anderson Hospital for cancer treatment or surgery.
"It has become very big throughout all Texas. They do everything," says Schlanbusch.
Daughters participate in a three-month training program of study, a sort of postulancy, before they become full-fledged members. They take vows to follow a rule of life that obligates them to serve and to pray daily for their own congregation and clergy and for the larger church. A Junior Daughters division, also growing rapidly, accepts girls ages 7 to 20.
Most of the growth is coming in Provinces 4 and 7, basically south of the Mason-Dixon Line and east of the Rio Grande River. "The Bible Belt," says Tischler. "Province 1 [New England] and Province 6 [the upper Midwest] have been our most sparsely populated." Only women who are members of the Episcopal Church, churches in communion with it or churches that recognize the historic episcopate may join.
Chapters are forming outside the United States as well, in Uganda, Cuba, Honduras, Brazil, South Africa, Haiti, Nigeria, Ghana, Australia, China and Mexico.
Linda Zaleski of Tallahassee, Florida, led a Daughters delegation to Cuba two years ago at the request of Bishop Jorge Perera. His wife, Teresa, had learned about the organization at the Worldwide Anglican Encounter in Brazil in 1992 and wanted the organization in Cuba.
"We were there for 14 days, traveled a total of 2,800 miles...visited seven different churches and established six chapters," says Zaleski. It was a joint effort. Daughters working in Honduras translated the study guide. A daughter in south Florida put it on disk and the Tallahassee chapter got it printed. Province 4 Daughters provided 140 of the Daughters' distinctive silver crosses Teresa Perera chose key women in each parish to lead the new groups and they received the visitors.
That trip "was a blessing" for Zaleski and the Cuban women who joined. "They are such a warm, loving, generous people. It just breaks your heart. One woman sent me a letter and said, 'Even if we never see you again, just to know that there are Daughters in the United States praying for us makes everything worthwhile."