About Grace House

History

Grace House Center was one of fifteen missions of the Episcopal Diocese in the early 1900’s. Episcopal deaconesses staffed the center and ran what today would be considered a social service program. The deaconess order was established by the Episcopal Church in 1889 to work in communities with the problems associated with poverty in rural and mountain communities.

According to the canon which created the order, the deaconesses were to:

“. . . teach the unlearned, to instruct youth, to care for the sick, to comfort the afflicted, to supply the wants of the poor and needy, and to labor in all ways for the extension of the Church of Christ.”

The women who came to the coalfields of Southwestern Virginia served as midwives, taught hygiene and nutrition classes, sponsored women’s auxiliaries and quilting groups, settled disputes in the community, led worship services at the local church, and taught music classes. The Mission was a very important place to the people in Wise County and other mountain communities who were isolated from the amenities becoming available in other parts of the Commonwealth.

With the ordination of women to the Episcopal priesthood, the deaconess order was phased out and Grace House became the learning and training center for the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, continuing its long tradition of outreach to the community.