100 Years of Service – Let’s Start at the Beginning…

In 1911, the Associated Lutheran Churches met in convention in Ft. Wayne, IN. At that convention, Pastor F.W. Herzberger presented a paper on the female diaconate. This paper included eight theses and an exposition on the name “deaconess” on the grounds of Scripture and Church history. Some portions of the paper:

-The office of Deaconess was established by the Church because of the need for women in the field of missions and charity. The role flourished in the early Christian Church, but “disappeared under popery”
-Deaconesses are different than Catholic nuns in that they are permitted and encouraged to marry. “Woman is destined by God to be a wife and mother” and deaconesses “must be permitted to enter holy matrimony at any time, if God so directs their lives”
-“attendants, nurses & matrons in the charitable institutions of the church, teachers & parish workers in congregations, and assistants to missionaries at home & abroad” were listed as suitable placements
-Deaconesses are not to be considered as serving in the office of public ministry, as that is reserved for men only, rather they are “exercising their rights and obligations of the general priesthood of believers”
-Special training for deaconess work should be given to student nurses at Lutheran hospitals

Those in attendance were asked to give the matter more thought. One who urged further study was Pastor Philipp Wambsganss of Ft. Wayne.

Pr. Wambsganss served as the president of the Associated Lutheran Churches as well as the chair of an organization actively engaged in the work for which Pr. Herzberger proposed training women. Also, Pr. Wambsganss’ mother had been one of the deaconesses brought from Germany to Pittsburgh in 1849 to serve in the Lutheran hospital. Pr. Wambsganss saw to it that the question of training deaconesses was kept alive at various pastoral gatherings.

To be Continued……

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