'Bear Ye One Another's Burdens': inculcating Christian Values Through caring Practice in the Anglican Girls' friendly Society 1875-1914

The latter half of the nineteenth century is notable for the amount of philanthropic activity undertaken by women and for the prominence of religion as a mediator of their horizons of possibility. The Girls’ Friendly Society, which began in 1875, was the first organisation run by and for women to be officially endorsed by the Anglican Church. It continues today as a smaller organisation dedicated to raising the self-esteem of girls and vulnerable young women. As a large, durable organisation that provided a wide range of social and work related support for its members the GFS has attracted the attention of several scholars. The GFS also produced its own histories, periodicals and ephemera through which it celebrated its achievements, disseminated its message and reached out to its membership. This article sees the GFS as an organisation with an educative as well as philanthropic and religious mission. It focusses on the GFS’s use of participatory caring practice in the period prior to the 1914 -18 war to foster the Christian values it sought to inculcate in its members. The article also notes the exploitation of publicity by the society to promote its work and justify its moral stance.