There is now on hand enough gold for a chalice

Mrs. George Alston, chairman of the Treasure and Trinket Fund, reports that there is now on hand enough gold for a chalice and asks that gold be sent to her for a paten. This Communion Service is to be given to the new Church for the Deaf to be erected in Durham, the “Advance Work” for the diocese. Mrs. Alston says, as before, after enough gold is provided for the chalice and paten, the silver, or gold left will be used to pay for the making of the service, unless packages received are marked otherwise.

(From “The Woman’s Auxiliary,” The Carolina Churchman, September 1926, p. 11)

The scholarship would now be named for Lex Mathews

[NOTE: In his November 26, 1985 memo to Diocesan Council Lex Mathews attached background information for the “Women’s Issues Task Force’s Diocesan Scholarship for Women 35 and Older.”] 

At the January 3, 1986 meeting the Task Force had a sad event to discuss. The Rev. Lex Mathews had died in December, victim of a faulty heater on his boat. There are not words to fully describe what he had meant to the work of the Task Force and to the individual members. The scholarship would now be named for Lex Mathews.

Colleen Hartsoe, “Women’s Issues and the Lex Mathews Scholarship,” Typescript report, May 2000

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After three years of work the first awards have been made! The Committee had decided that as soon as $30,000 was reached toward the goal, the first grants would be awarded. That goal was achieved earlier this year and the scholarship committee appointed by the Commission on Women’s Issues (CWI) met to consider sixteen applications received in a six-week period. Two grants of $400 each were made.

“Lex Mathews Scholarship Fund,” ECW Patchwork, August 1988.

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Begun in 1985, the original idea for this scholarship came from Abbie Penwell, the current archivist at St. Michael’s, Raleigh. The creative scholarship is a tribute to the ministry and memory of the Rev. Lex Mathews, late Director of Christian Social Ministries for the Diocese of North Carolina. The scholarship is funded by contributions and the generosity of the Episcopal Church Women across this Diocese, who recognize the need to provide educational opportunities for women who have been out of the work force for a period of time, or who need to upgrade their skills or education to advance career opportunities.

Eva Morriss, “Lex Mathews Scholarships Awarded to Five Women,” ECW Patchwork, Fall 1999, p. 2

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UPDATE: As of the 2013-14 academic year, 274 Lex Mathews Scholarships have been awarded, totaling more than $265,000. For more information about applications and/or contributions please contact lexmathews@ecw-nc.org.

The Lex Mathews Scholarship Committee demonstrated its faith in my potential with an offer of financial help

I recently wrote to previous recipients for their comments about how the scholarship has affected their lives. Here is an excerpt from one woman’s letter:

When one has been out of school for several years and has been working in a dead-end, low-paying job, depression and self-depreciation find a secure home. The Lex Mathews Scholarship Committee demonstrated its faith in my potential with an offer of financial help and my spirits and belief in myself soared. It was a positive affirmation that I very badly needed. I cannot thank the Committee enough for that emotional and psychological boost.

(Source: Colleen Hartsoe, “Judy Mathews and Friends Give ‘Birthday Present’ to Fund”, ECW Patchwork, Winter 1997, p. 2)

He had the gift of not taking himself or others too seriously, while he took God’s commands and promises very seriously

A memory of the early years of board meetings of the Chapel Hill Drug Action Committee: I remember feeling frustrated and discouraged at the monumental task of providing services for homeless runaways or kids on drugs, and having Lex [Mathews] answer me with booming laughter. He had the gift of not taking himself or others too seriously, while he took God’s commands and promises very seriously.

(Source: Connie Toverud, “Remembering Lex and his work: Taking God seriously,” The Communicant, February/March 1986, p. 6. In this special tribute issue Connie Toverud was identified as a teacher and guidance counselor with the Carolina Friends School in Durham.)

He perceived that the gifts of men and women should be equal in the sight of man

Lex was a charismatic man who could have gathered admiring women around himself and used them to carry out social ministries while he personally wielded power in the church’s political structure. Good works would have been done and few women would have complained. But this was not his way. He perceived that the gifts of men and women should be equal in the sight of man. (He knew that quoting scripture about the sight of God doesn’t always lead to earthly change.) By striving himself for the so-called feminine qualities of service, warmth and empathy, Lex validated these traits. But he also wanted women to learn to use the political power traditionally reserved for men. His overriding concern was for the powerless in our society.

(Source: Colleen Hartsoe, “Remembering Lex and his work: Validating ‘feminine’ traits,” The Communicant, February/March 1986, p. 6. In this special tribute issue Colleen Hartsoe was identified as an ECW member and member of the Task Force on Women’s Issues, which the recent Diocesan Convention had voted to make a permanent commission.)

On the first Sunday in Lent I visited Durham . . . The next day I visited the day-school taught by Miss Dancey.

On the first Sunday in Lent I visited Durham, celebrated the Holy Eucharist in the morning, and in the afternoon said Evensong and catechized the children of the Sunday-school. The next day I visited the day-school taught by Miss Dancey.

(Source: The Rev. William Walker, Report of the Archdeacon in Charge of Colored Work, 1891 Journal of Convention, 140)

She taught the public school at Galloway Farm for two years and gave herself fully to the demands of the people upon her time and life

Miss Lillie H. Hill of Pittsboro, after serving three and a half years in this community [Leaksville-Spray, now Eden] has gone to take up a very interesting work at Southern Pines under the direction of Rev. Harry O. Nash. Miss Hill did a very useful and self sacrificing work at Spray for a year and a half as United Offering worker. Then she became so much interested in the needs and opportunities of the new St. Andrew’s Mission in the country that she taught the public school at Galloway Farm for two years and gave herself fully to the demands of the people upon her time and life. There is a God-given opportunity at St. Andrew’s just now for some woman (who may read this) of sufficiently independent means, to give a year of her life to this cause. It will simply mean “going about doing good” after the example of our Master – teaching Sunday-school and visiting.

(Source: “Leaksville and Spray,” The Carolina Churchman, November 1917, p. 9)

By the inspiration of the one Churchwoman of the community

In The Spirit of Missions for October, 1906, there is an interesting article by the late Miss Kate Cheshire in which there appears the following paragraph: “This little log church (Knollhurst) is in the heart of the woods. By the inspiration of the one Churchwoman (Mrs. C. R. Wall) of the community, it was built by the people with their own hands, and daubed with mud inside and out. I have played on the little melodeon when the principal keys would be propped up with sticks; and yet the singing and the service would be hearty. Rain or shine the church was always packed, and benches were placed at the windows and door to hold the overflow. I only wish the woods were full of these little log churches!”

(Source: The Rev. Harvey A. Cox, “Historic Sketch of Knollhurst Chapel, Stokes County, North Carolina,” The North Carolina Churchman, September 1, 1937, pp. 2-3)

two rules continue to be of vital importance in the life of the women of the Church: Prayer – Service

A notable landmark in the history of the Order of the Daughters of the King will be reached this year – the Jubilee Anniversary of its founding. Fifty years ago, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, New York City (now the Church of the Resurrection), the members of a small Bible class, led my Mrs. Margaret Franklin, set themselves the important task of doing more to extend the Kingdom of God. Through the years the Order has grown until it spreads from coast to coast and overseas. Its two rules continue to be of vital importance in the life of the women of the Church: Prayer – Service. Nearly six thousand junior and senior Daughters look into the future with great hope and vision.

(Source: “Jubilee Anniversary of Daughters of the King,” The Carolina Churchman, March 1935, p. 10)

In other words isolated people constitute not only a field but a force of great potentiality

Since the appointment of a national leader by the Department of Religious Education in 1929 the work among the isolated has become a definite part of the program of nearly every diocese and district. The president of the Woman’s Auxiliary in the Diocese of North Carolina is eager to enlarge and intensify this work in the diocese.

Through this ministry thousands of adults and children throughout the church are now enjoying fellowship within the Church who would otherwise have lost touch with it. And the Church has every reason to expect that there shall result from the efforts and prayers of many of these isolated people revived mission churches, Sunday schools gathering in all the unchurched children of a community, and it may be other leaders like the late Bishop Burleson, whose father was brought into the church through the church’s ministry to the isolated. In other words isolated people constitute not only a field but a force of great potentiality… . All branches will be asked to send in names of isolated people; and to provide ways for isolated people near them to get to district meetings; and to work out ways and means of drawing into closer fellowship with their isolated – as one parish branch does by “giving every fifth meeting to dividing into small groups and going off in cars in different directions to call on those who are isolated.”

(Source: “The Church’s Ministry to the Isolated,” The Carolina Churchman, October 1933, p. 10)