[3] Archibald Tait, then Bishop of London and later Archbishop of Canterbury, encouraged Elizabeth Ferard's religious vocation, particularly her visit to deaconess communities in Germany after the death of her invalid mother in 1858.

The nineteenth century deaconess movement involved women living in community while carrying out traditional deacon ministries, especially teaching and serving the poor in industrialising cities.

There, deaconesses taught girls and ministered to the sick; the institutions became as an alternative, practical and religious lifestyle for women, without becoming a nun.

Resigning as head of the Diocesan Deaconess Institution in 1873 due to her own ill health, Ferard later ran a convalescent home for children in Redhill.

[3][7] The Community of St. Andrew still exists today, albeit forced to move to Westbourne Park, London in 1873 due to its growth and clearance of much of Somers Town for St Pancras railyards.

The deaconess movement spread worldwide, to many American cities as well as South Africa, China, New Zealand and the Philippines, among other places.