Lutheran Nuns, Or What?

On one of my church calendars the other day it reminded me of the commemoration of Elizabeth Fedde.  Sadly, Elizabeth Fedde is not especially memorable in church history books.  She was significant in the development of the deaconess movement in the 19^th century.  The notification, however, brought me to a moment of nostalgia and something that modern church members hardly know anything about.  Deaconesses are part of the American church special to the post-immigrant years.

Back in college I participated in the Semester Abroad program spending a semester of my Junior year in Germany.  University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point arranged the month of travel before settling in for the academic term in Munich.  One of our first stops was a stay in Kaiserswerth, a village outside of Dusseldorf.  Kaiserswerth was the motherhouse for a very large deaconess community.  I knew nothing about deaconesses and in retrospect I wish I would have taken greater note.  Deaconesses are women of the Lutheran church dedicated to the social ministry of the church:  nursing, teaching, social work, etc.  Yes, there are similarities to Roman Catholic nuns.  Deaconesses wear a “habit” but not like the medieval garments formerly worn by nuns.  The deaconesses in Germany wore a modest black or gray dress.  Some of the older deaconesses wore a white cap similar to a nurse’s cap.

When I started seminary I was introduced to Sister Arnetta Beyer who was the bursar (bookkeeper) at Wartburg Seminary.  My Kaiserswerth experience gave me heads up but other seminary students were clueless about Lutheran women called “sister.”  Sister Arnetta was from the Milwaukee motherhouse of Lutheran deaconesses.  She and another deaconess were working in Dubuque, Iowa.  Sister Arnetta was from North Dakota and became a deaconess because she was influenced in her youth by another deaconess. 

Deaconess Hospital in Milwaukee, which has long since been merged with another hospital, was the center of ministry for the Milwaukee deaconesses. Unless she was a parish worker, a deaconess worked at the hospital.  Stories were told that if a Wartburg Seminary student became ill and needed hospitalization (days before health insurance), they would be put on the train in Dubuque and sent to Milwaukee to be cared for by the deaconesses.

Because of dwindling numbers of new deaconesses, the Milwaukee motherhouse disbanded as an organization.  The remaining deaconesses working in secular fields continued their tasks.  The consecrated women in their light blue jumpers and white blouses became a ministry of the past.

There are still some deaconess communities within the United States.  Diaconal ministers are recognized within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Valparaiso University in Indiana has been a training center for deaconesses in the Missouri Synod and the ELCA.

Here’s my point:  Ever since the early days of the Church, diaconal ministry was vital to the church:  Stephan who was martyred, women like Priscilla and Agrippa, Lois and Eunice tended to the details of serving widows and orphans.  There has always been a spot in the life of the church for those blessed deacons and deaconesses who literally touch the lives of the people of God.  Maybe there still is a place for those communities of similar spirited people dedicated to prayer and healing and teaching.