ELCA News Blog
May 28, 2008   

Keffer re-elected directing deaconess of ELCA Deaconess Community

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service

The Deaconess Community of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) elected Sister E. Anne Keffer to a second four-year term as its directing deaconess April 27 during its biennial assembly April 25-28 at the Carol Joy Holling Camp in Ashland, Neb.  In the balloting for directing deaconess, Keffer received 29 votes, Sister Davia A. Baldauf, Mount Holly Springs, Pa., received 19 votes and Sister Carolyn R. Hellerich, Lincoln, Neb., received three votes.  The community elected Baldauf, Sister Melinda A. Lando, New York, and Sister Amy M. Lindquist, St Paul, Minn., to its board of directors.

Keffer is a graduate of Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University), Waterloo, Ontario, and the Baltimore Deaconess School, Baltimore.  She earned bachelor of education and master of education degrees from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, and a doctor of ministry degree from the Graduate Theological Foundation, South Bend, Ind.  Keffer served as a director of Christian education and youth ministry in urban and rural team ministry settings across Canada, and as a chaplain on two university campuses and a retirement home.  She was director of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, when elected directing deaconess of the ELCA Deaconess Community in 2004.

The Deaconess Community is a community of lay women consecrated by the church to a ministry of Word and service.  Sisters in the community work in a variety of settings such as health care, Christian education and social services.  Deaconesses are theologically trained and professionally prepared for their careers.  They are called to ministry by congregations and synods of the ELCA and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.