The Diaconate: Löhe's Legacy of Service to the Neighbor

Word & World Volume 24, Number 2 Spring 2004 The Diaconate: Löhe’s Legacy of Service to the Neighbor ELIZABETH A. STEELE and SALLY L. KERR he nineteenth century was a time of turmoil and social change in Europe, espe- cially in Germany. The Protestant Reformation disrupted “the organized char- ity system administered by the monasteries of Western Europe.”1 Although there were individuals who developed programs to meet the needs of the people in their communities, there was no unified effort by the church. The church faced a chang- ing world at a time when it was “possessed of a half-romantic, socially apathetic or- thodoxy.”2 In 1848 at a gathering in Wittenberg, Johann Heinrich Wichern challenged the church with his proposal that the church begin a mission to the society around it. His challenge led to the establishment of the Central Committee for the Inner Mission and to a growing sense of social responsibility. In the midst of this ferment in society and church, Wilhelm Löhe was living 1Susan Wilds McArver, “A History of the Diaconate,” in From Word and Sacrament, ed. Duane H. Larson (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1999) 71. 2Frederick S. Weiser, Love’s Response: A Story of Lutheran Deaconesses in America (Philadelphia: The Board of Publication of the United Lutheran Church in America, 1962) 37. This year marks the 150th anniversary of Wilhelm Löhe’s founding of the deaconess house in Neuendettelsau, Germany. This legacy continues in the work of deaconesses and diaconal ministers in American Lutheran churches. Copyright © 2004 by Word & World, Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota. All rights reserved. 165 Steele and Kerr in the small Bavarian village of Neuendettelsau. As a village pastor he became aware of the great number of German Lutherans emigrating to America. In 1841 he established an institute to train missionaries for the New World. The earliest pas- tors helped to form the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and later others became part of the Iowa Synod. At the same time, he founded a society to train deaconesses for service in Bavaria, but that early effort failed. In 1854, Löhe began the training of deaconesses following the model established by Theodore Fliedner at Kaiserswerth. There were several differences, however. One was the liturgical richness of the community. Another was that “Löhe’s deaconesses were highly trained and accordingly had a greater degree of responsibility in managing their endeavors than the Kaiserswerth sisters had. Löhe insisted upon self-reliance.”3 The deaconess movement grew rapidly in Europe and was active in other de- nominations as well. In England and Scotland, programs for training deaconesses developed among Anglicans, Methodists, and Presbyterians. THE DEACONESS MOVEMENT IN AMERICA William A. Passavant, a graduate of the Lutheran seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, visited Kaiserswerth in 1846 and was so impressed he convinced Fliedner to bring his ideas and expertise to America. Passavant found property in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and established the first Protestant hospital west of the Allegheny Mountains. Fliedner and four deaconesses arrived in 1849, and a year later Passavant consecrated Catherine Louisa Marthens, the first deaconess consecrated in America. Sister Catherine served as the first employee of the Lutheran Or- phans Home, the predecessor of Silver Springs-Martin Luther School. That effort was not entirely successful, and it was not until 1884 under the leadership of John D. Lankenau, a wealthy Philadelphia banker, that the deaconess movement took firm root on American soil. Seven deaconesses arrived to fill the critical need for nurses at the German Hospital in Philadelphia. The hospital was the center of their work but that quickly expanded to include a home for the aged and a children’s hospital. The first deaconess was consecrated in 1887 and the motherhouse dedicated a year later. Other deaconesses came to America but without the benefit of the generous financial support provided by Lankenau. Sister Elizabeth Fedde, trained at the Christiania Motherhouse in Oslo, Norway, arrived in Brooklyn, New York, in 1883 to serve the Norwegian population in the area. She was later responsible for the or- ganization of a home and hospital in Minneapolis. Other motherhouses were established in Chicago, Omaha, and Brush, Colorado.4 An historic change came in the development of the deaconess movement among Lutherans in America when the General Synod acted in 1889 to establish a 3Ibid., 44. 4Ibid., 62–63. 166 The Diaconate Board of Deaconess Work. Their responsibility was “to promote and develop the diaconate, to establish and direct motherhouses and training schools, to select and place deaconesses, and to hold property and investments for this purpose.”5 This was the first time a deaconess community was established by an action of the church. In 1895 the motherhouse was opened in Baltimore, Maryland, and six deaconesses were consecrated. The Baltimore sisters worked primarily through the parishes. Most significant, however, was the action of the General Synod declaring the diaconate to be an office of the church. This relationship to the church was true for Methodist deaconesses in North America from the beginning of their work in 1888. The Methodist diaconate developed as an office in the church administered by a commission. “many of the agencies and institutions that would later be part of the Lutheran social service system were served by deaconesses” The first half of the twentieth century saw the continued growth and expan- sion of the deaconess movement in North America. It took a variety of forms, and the work done by deaconesses expanded as well. It came to include hospitals, nurs- ing schools, homes for the aged, orphanages, social work among the urban poor, kindergartens, care of the physically and mentally challenged, visiting nurses in urban and rural settings, schools, as well as work in and through parishes. Many of the agencies and institutions that would later be part of the Lutheran social service system were served by deaconesses. By 1940 there were ten Lutheran motherhouses training and sending women into the field. CHANGE AND OUTLOOK Things began to change following World War II as the growth seen earlier turned to decline. The question of whether the diaconate could survive in North America began to be raised. The mergers in the 1960s that created the three large bodies of Lutherans in North America—the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, the American Lutheran Church, and the Lutheran Church in America—would ad- dress the question and answer it in different ways. Change was definitely in the wind. The Lutheran deaconess program that continued to experience growth dur- ing this period was the one founded at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1933 by the Synodi- cal Conference. The training program moved to the campus of Valparaiso University and in 1946 became a four-year undergraduate program in religious education. The remaining elements of the motherhouse were disbanded and the Lutheran Deaconess Association was born. 5Ibid., 61. 167 Steele and Kerr The American Lutheran Church inherited several deaconess communities in Chicago, Brooklyn, Brush, and Milwaukee, but at the time of the merger no plans were made for the continuation of the diaconate. The motherhouse model founded in Germany and transported to American soil by Löhe and Fliedner survived only in the merger that created the Lutheran Church in America. It was, however, not without its labor pains. Eventually the three motherhouses at Omaha, Baltimore, and Philadelphia were merged into one at Philadelphia. In 1966 the Deaconess Community of the Lutheran Church in America was formed. It related to the church through the Board of College Educa- tion and Church Vocation. DIAKONIA: World Federation of Sisterhoods and Diaconal Associations was “born out of longing for reconciliation and healing in the aftermath of World War II.”6 In Utrecht, Netherlands, a preliminary planning conference was held in Sep- tember 1946. The following year DIAKONIA was founded at a meeting in Copen- hagen, Denmark, with inaugural members from Denmark, Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. Members of DIAKONIA gather in assembly every four years. The next assembly will meet in England in July 2005. Spread originally by missionaries, diaconal communities have sprung up and are now part of the work of the churches around the world. DIAKONIA is organized in regional groups—Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas and Carib- bean—and these regional groups meet in the years between assemblies. All of these gatherings provide opportunities to share stories, to hear of the ministries happening, to listen to the joys and struggles of these faithful followers of Jesus. Supporting one another’s ministries is done through the relief program, DIAKAID, which was established to give needed help and support for designated diaconal projects around the world. Together, these deaconesses continue to struggle for change in structures that limit the ministries of women. “as a core component of the gospel, diakonia is not an option but an essential part of discipleship” The Hanover Report of the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission, “The Diaconate as Ecumenical Opportunity,” published in 1996, gives this general description of diaconal ministers: “Diaconal ministers are called to be agents of the church in interpreting and meeting needs, hopes, and concerns within church and society.”7 In November 2002 representatives from Lutheran churches throughout the world gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa, under the auspices of the Lutheran World Federation for a Global Consultation on Diakonia. The report from that 6Chita R. Framo, foreword to Diakonia: Challenge and Response (DIAKONIA Foundation, 1996) 1. 7The Diaconate as Ecumenical Opportunity: The Hanover Report of the Anglican-Lutheran International Com- mission (London: Anglican Communion Publications, 1996) 17. 168 The Diaconate consultation challenges the churches to move toward more prophetic forms of diakonia.

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