85 Years of Deaconess History: Starting in Fort Wayne

By Deaconess Candidate Cheryl Naumann
Cheryl Naumann was a founding member of the LCMS Concordia Deaconess Conference and is currently writing a deaconess history book for Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis.

At the Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States, assembled in St. Louis in June 1911, the Rev. F. W. Herzberger made a stirring appeal for the formation of a female diaconate, citing "the great need of trained women workers for special service in the great fields of missions and charities." Though some were interested in Pastor Herzberger's ideas, no official action was taken, and he spent the next eight years explaining the pressing need for deaconesses: "We need VISITING NURSES who can go into the hovels of the poor in our large cities or into the isolated homes in the countryside, especially when epidemics are abroad, and there nurse and comfort the sick and dying. We need TEACHING NURSES for the primary classes in our parochial schools. We need INSTITUTIONAL NURSES for our Orphan homes, our Home for the Feeble-minded, our Sanitarium at Denver for consumptives, our Old Folks Homes, etc. We also need trained nurses for our Home and Foreign Mission Fields. How thankful we city missionaries would be for the help of a woman worker among the female patients in the hospitals and tenement districts in which we have to labor. But above all do we need PARISH NURSES to assist our over-burdened pastors in our large commercial and factory centers in looking up straying or needy members of their large flocks. Verily, we Lutherans in the Synodical Conference also stand in need of women helpers in our teeming harvest fields!" The dream came true in 1919. During the annual conference of Associated Lutheran Charities, held in Fort Wayne, it was resolved to create the Lutheran Deaconess Association of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America (LDA). For the next 60-plus years this independent auxiliary organization trained deaconesses for service within The Lutheran Church­Missouri Synod. Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne agreed to allow deaconess students to attend its nursing school. The nursing course was supplemented with instruction in Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions, church and missionary history, and spiritual ministry. In time the training expanded to provide options for focusing on general parish work, teaching, and missions as well as nursing. Several training centers were utilized by the LDA, not only in Fort Wayne, but also in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin; Hot Springs, South Dakota; Watertown, Wisconsin; and finally Valparaiso, Indiana. In 1979 the LCMS established its own synodical deaconess training program on the campus of Concordia College in River Forest, Illinois. From the first graduating class in 1983 until now, the synodical program has produced about 130 graduates. These women can be seen working in every area of church life where servanthood and acts of mercy are the order of the day. Deaconess education expanded with the addition of postgraduate training programs at both LCMS seminaries in 2003. Each of the three synodical training centers has unique qualities, but their goal is the same: to prepare dedicated Lutheran women for vocational service to Christ and His church. She is married to the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Naumann, pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church and School, Oakmont, Pennsylvania.

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