The Episcopal Women’s History Project (EWHP) gave awards and grants while meeting in Indianapolis during the 77th General Convention of The Episcopal Church. Accepting the Malcolm and Pat Diesenroth Parish Award on behalf of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, NC was Ellen Weig.

The award, which comes with a $250 prize, is given for outstanding efforts of a parish to preserve or tell its history, especially the stories of women who helped form its congregational life. St. Matthew’s was recognized for its extensive research, documentation, and public presentations on the history of nearly 200 years of women’s work in the parish.

Research topics included the woman’s working association functioning as early as 1826, the Ladies Sewing Society at work frm 1866 to 1900, one of the five founding diocesan Woman’s Auxiliary branches beginning in 1882, and the successor ECW branch active until the late 1990s.

In October 2011 a paper on the work and legacy of the St. Matthew’s Ladies Sewing Society was presented by Ellen at the EWHP conference in Seneca Falls, New York.

Way to go, Ellen! (Ellen is pictured here on the right with Diocese of NC ECW president Lisa Towle, center, and Lynn Hoke, archivist and historian for the Diocese of NC ECW, while at the national ECW Triennial ‘12.)