Who Are Deaconesses?

As part of the Division for Ministry, Pr. Cox also serves on the Board for the Deaconess community.

In November of this year the Deaconess Community of the ELCA moved out of their majestic headquarters in Gladwyne, Pa and relocated their Motherhouse in Chicago. This ended a ministry that had begun in Philadelphia in 1884 when John D. Lankenau, finding American nursing care lacking, personally wrote to Germany to inquire about staffing the Gernam Lutheran Hospital with knowledgeable Lutheran “sisters”. The first 7 deaconesses not only staffed the hospital which was soon to acquire a reputation as on of the finest in the country and continues today as Lankenau Hospital, but had also within the first 10 yrs. opened a children’s hospital, a convalescent home for the aging, a school for girls, and a kindergarten, as well as training new deaconesses for parish work and nursing.

Their numbers were increased by other Deaconesses that came from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark as well as Germany. In a time before the Ordination of women, and when women had not yet entered many of the professions, Lutheran deaconesses led the way in ministries of Word and Service in this country and even in missions abroad.

With the changing of cultural patterns, the deaconesses consolidated their resources by unifying in 1966 at Gladwyne the work of the Baltimore Motherhouse (1895) and the Immanuel Deaconess Institute of Omaha, NE (1890).

While deaconesses today do not always wear the black “habit” that was standard at the turn of the last century, they still work on the frontiers of the church’s ministry to the poor and the marginalized. Today they are salaried, and receive pension benefits, as befits professionally trained and theologically oriented full time church workers. Today they may marry and have children in addition to their commitment to a life of service, discipline, and community.

God will no doubt continue to call women to the Office of the Diaconate. It has been this way since the 4th century when in addition to the great Creeds, the church found that it was necessary to provide a ministry that consisted of Service, Sacrament, and Oversight.
-- Kim-Eric Williams, Editor, “Archives Advocate”, ELCA, Nov. 2002

PS - At Augustana, our consecrated deaconess, Kathy Garrison, was trained through a similar organization, the Lutheran Deaconess Association, which was started by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Deaconesses and deacons are recognized in worship by a stole that is worn over one shoulder and crosses the body diagonally.

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Augustana Lutheran Church
2100 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20009-6507

Church Office Hours:
Monday-Friday, 9:00am-4:00pm