A Background of the Deaconess Community
The contemporary history of this Deaconess Community can be located in four places: Kaiserswerth in Germany, Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, Baltimore in Maryland and Omaha in Nebraska.
Germany
In 1836 in Germany Pastor Theodor Fliedner and his wife Friedericke
Műnster, using the story of New Testament Phoebe (Romans 16:1), the example
of Mennonite deaconesses in Holland, the work of the Daughters of Charity of
Saint Vincent de Paul and the work of Wichern and his brotherhoods of
deacons, called women to serve as deaconesses in a small pastoral charge in
Kaiserswerth. They were part of a movement called the Inner Mission, which
aimed at re-activating the ancient role of men and women to serve the lost,
the crushed, and the poor. By 1884 there were 56 deaconess communities in
Germany, France, Switzerland, and Scandinavia with a total of 5,653
deaconesses. They ministered with vagrants, epileptics, those in prison (and
those recently released from prison), the sick, orphans, and anyone who had
need. (Florence Nightingale experienced nursing in Kaiserswerth with the
deaconesses.)
Philadelphia
In 1884, John Lankenau attempted to convince Fliedner to send deaconesses to take over the German Hospital, of which Lankenau was president. He finally found seven deaconesses from a small sisterhood in Iserlohn who agreed to come. These seven women literally cleaned up the Hospital, and with Lankenau’s financial help, entered into parish work, started a school for girls, a kindergarten, and a convalescent home for the aging, as well as establishing a Motherhouse for Deaconesses – all within a decade of their arrival in Philadelphia. The Motherhouse was eventually moved to Gladwyne (outskirts of Philadelphia) in 1953, a building donated by the Pew family of Philadelphia.
Baltimore
In 1889, just 5 years after the arrival of the Philadelphia sisters, the General Synod of the Lutheran Church (USA) created a Board of Deaconess Work, designating deaconesses as persons holding an “office of the church”. They opened a Motherhouse in Baltimore in 1895; the School was opened in 1910. They entered the nursing field, but not in hospitals. They were sent into the homes of the sick – as their German sisters still do. They went to parishes to complement the pastor’s work, and entered the ‘foreign mission field’. This action by a Lutheran Church in instituting a Deaconess Community was a first for Lutheranism worldwide. The School was for all women church workers, offering courses for parish workers, church educators, church secretaries, and pastors' wives, as well as deaconesses and missionaries. It continued operating until 1965, by which time deaconess candidates were attending seminaries across the country.
Omaha
Pastor E.A. Fogelstrom created Immanuel Hospital and Deaconess Motherhouse in Omaha in 1890, a brief six years after the early beginnings in Philadelphia. He had sent women to Philadelphia and Sweden for training as deaconesses. Immanuel Hospital was opened in 1890, as was the Deaconess Home, opposite the hospital. Women from this House served in the Immanuel Orphan Asylum, Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul, MN , and others in parishes. In 1904 the Augustana Lutheran Synod assumed direct control of Immanuel Deaconess Institute.
Merging Together
As early as 1947, the Philadelphia and Baltimore Houses were in close consultation with one another. Church merger and the birth of the Lutheran Church in America in 1962 provided good timing for the unification of these two deaconess communities - accomplished January 1, 1963. They sold the building they owned in Baltimore and moved to Gladwyne. On January 1, 1966, the deaconesses from Omaha joined the Deaconess Community of the Lutheran Church in America. The Deaconess Community of the LCA entered the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as an intact community. It continues to function under policies and relationships established by the Division for Ministry, ELCA.
Moving Forward
In 1996 the Community decided to sell its home in Pennsylvania, for the sake of its mission and ministry. The Gladwyne house had become a facility for retired sisters and for people from every walk of life to use as a retreat center. As it became older, it became more of a liability to operate. Its style was that of a mansion, not an image of Word and Service, some would say. Many deaconesses were planning to retire with family, or in a geographic area other than Gladwyne. The house was sold in 2002; offices are presently rented from the Lutheran Center in Chicago. The Community is still in transition at the writing of this story.
Mission
"The Deaconess Community ELCA has been formed in order that skilled and committed women serving in community may complement the ministry of Word and Sacrament as well as the ministry of the whole people of God. This ministry is exercised within the context of the church's mission to proclaim the Gospel, to relate the Gospel to human need in every situation, and to extend the ministry of the Gospel to all the world." (bylaws of the Deaconess Community of the ELCA, 3.1)
Members of the Deaconess Community serve people through calls from congregations, institutions, and agencies related to the ELCA or the Evangelical Lutheran Church In Canada (via a mutual agreement between the two churches which began before either were officially organized.) Their ministries include Christian education, youth and family ministry, director of music, parish administrator, parish worker, director or teacher of nursery or parochial school, chaplains, social workers, health care, special education, communications, and a variety of other specialized ministries.
Members of the Deaconess Community and its predecessor bodies have always encouraged and enabled men and women to become professional leaders in the church. They have had a pivotal role in initiating standards, providing professional training, seeking recognition through rostering, and advocating for compensation, pension and health benefits.
Community
This Community’s organization: The highest authority within the Deaconess Community is its biennial Assembly. From among its members, the Assembly elects the Directing Deaconess and six members of the Board of Directors. Of the other five Board members, one is appointed from among the members of the Board of the Division for Ministry, through which the Deaconess Community is responsible and accountable to the ELCA.
The Deaconess Community supports its members through preparation for service and spiritual, personal, and professional growth. It aids deaconesses when seeking calls, throughout their ministry and in retirement. Support of the Community is shared through intercessory prayer, personal correspondence, telephone calls, newsletters, the biennial Assembly, and a percentage of annual contribution.
Outside our Community
Throughout the latter half of the 19th century, pastors and deaconesses came to America from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and various parts of Germany. They began hospitals and other institutions of mercy, and motherhouses in which to train deaconesses for service. In 1894 the close ties between these groups became official with the organization of the Lutheran Deaconess Conference in North America, the first inter-Lutheran agency in the land. It has been said that in the origins of every Lutheran Social Service agency in the USA one may find the name of a deaconess.
Rev. W.A. Passavant opened the very first Lutheran Deaconess hospital (in fact, the first Protestant hospital in America) in Pittsburgh. In 1852, in The Missionary (his periodical) he wrote: “We have seven theological seminaries, four classic schools, five colleges for the education of our young men, and for our women two seminaries on paper. That shows what little importance is attached to the education of women. Our attitude so far in this question is neither Scriptural nor just to the female sex or the Church of Christ itself”. Passavant’s words are certainly a precursor and foundational for the attitude and work of this Deaconess Community over the years.
Follow the links below to learn more about the origins and background of The Deaconess Community:
