DEACONESS

[`diːkənɪs]

диаконисса

дьяконица

deaconess: translation

   Deaconesses are women who perform the functions of a deacon in many Protestant churches. The modern Protestant deaconess movement began as a small ministry within the Moravian Church in 1745. That movement inspired a German Lutheran pastor, Theodor Fliedner (1800-64), to begin the Rhenish-Westphalian Deaconess Society to operate the hospital and deaconess training center he had opened in Kaiserswerth in 1836. Fliedner was initially assisted in this effort by his wife, Friedericke Munster, and a nurse, Gertrude Reichardt. At the center, women went through an ordination service in which they committed themselves to the care of the poor, the sick, and the young. Their commitments were not for life, and they could leave the order whenever they chose.

   in 1838, the first deaconess was sent to serve away from Kaiserswerth. Fliedner authorized a foreign deaconess motherhouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1849, followed by one in Jerusalem in 1851. others soon appeared in Paris and Berlin. By the mid-1860s, there were 30 motherhouses and 1,600 deaconesses serving in locations around the world.

   The move to the United States was facilitated by William A. Passavant (1821-94), who brought four of Fliedner's deaconesses to Pittsburgh to manage the first Protestant hospital in the United States. That work grew to include hospitals in Milwaukee, Chicago, and elsewhere, as well as several orphanages. Philadelphia businessman John Lankenau in 1884 brought seven deaconesses to run the German hospital there. His actions encouraged other deaconesses to initiate new ministries in several cities with large Lutheran populations. In the 20th century, three main centers of deaconess work emerged in the Lutheran community; they merged in 1988 to form the present Deaconess Community of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

   The Lutheran deaconesses inspired the creation of a similar movement in the Methodist Episcopal Church.In 1885, Lucy Rider Meyer (1849-1922) opened the Chicago Training School (now part of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois) for women who wished to enter full-time Christian work, and in 1887 she proposed the creation of a deaconess order to employ the graduates. The proposal was approved by her church's general conference in 1888.

   A deaconess movement was born within the Episcopal Church in the United States in 1852, when William A. Muhlenberg of New York City organized the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion to provide nursing care at St. Luke's Hospital. Three years later, Bishop W. R. Whittingham ordained deaconesses in Baltimore, Maryland, to serve destitute women and orphans. These efforts served as a catalyst for William Pennefather to organize the Anglican "Mildmay Deaconesses," an order of teachers and nurses, for work in London. The following year, the bishop of London moved unilaterally to revive the Order of Deaconesses in the Church of England.

   The movement emerged among Presbyterians in the 1890s in diverse locations from Toronto, Ontario, to New Zealand. The Ewart Missionary Training Home in Toronto opened in 1897. The first deaconess in NEW ZEALAND completed her training as the decade ended, and began work at a church in Dunedin. In 1903, Jeanetta Blackie became the first superintendent of a training center in that city, the first step toward a New Zealand Presbyterian deaconess order.

   The deaconess movement spread worldwide in the 20th century. In 1947, the Diakonia World Federation was established to promote ecumenical relationships among the different female dia-conal associations and communities.

   See also feminism, Christian; women, ordination of.

   Further reading:

   ■ Myra Blyth and Wendy S. Blyth, No Boundaries to Compassion: An Exploration of Women, Gender and Diakonia (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1998)

   ■ Christian Golder, History of the Deaconess Movement in the Christian Church (Cincinnati, Ohio/New York: Jennings & Pye/Eaton & Main, 1903)

   ■ Janet Grierson, The Deaconess (London: CIO, Church House, 1981)

   ■ Lucy Rider Meyer, Deaconesses. Biblical, Early Church, European, American, With the Story of the Chicago Training School, for City, Home and Foreign Missions, and the Chicago Deaconess Home (Chicago: Message Publishing, 1889)

   ■ Karyn-Maree Piercy, "Presbyterian Pioneers": The Deaconess Movement, Dunedin, 1900-1920. (Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago, B.A. honors thesis, 2000).

Deaconess: translation

   In the Apostles' time there were holy women set apart for the work of the Church, for example Phoebe, the servant or deaconess, who was commended by St. Paul. This order of Deaconesses continued until about the seventh century, when the changed conditions of the Church interfered with its usefulness. In many places the order has of late years been revived and is demonstrating its original usefulness. The American Church has recognized the need of such an order of women in its work, and in the general canons provision is made for establishing the order and for its continuance and regulation. According to these, a woman to be admitted to the office of Deaconess must be at least twenty-five years of age, a communicant of the Church, and fit and capable to discharge the duties of the office. Before she can act as a Deaconess she must be set apart for that office by an appropriate religious service. When thus set apart she shall be under the direct oversight of the Bishop of the Diocese, to whom she may resign her office at any time, but having once resigned her office she is not privileged to be reappointed thereto unless the Bishop shall see "weighty cause for such reappointment."

   Training Schools for Deaconesses have been established in various parts of the country where candidates for this office receive special instruction and are trained for their work.

Deaconess: translation

A maid that had devoted her life to serve God, and to prayers as well.

St. Paul mentioned Phoebe as a deaconess (Rom. 16:1).

She is officially in charg of certain duties in the church. She helps the priest in serving women, particularly the sick and needy, besides at their baptism. She is not to be ordained but raised.

In the early church, deaconesses were recognized as a distinct order of women who were vowed to perpetual chastity. They were, nevertheless, allowed to perform only certain duties in the care of women, and no sacerdotal services in the church.

Deaconess: translation

   Rom. 16:1, 3, 12; Phil. 4:2, 3; 1 Tim. 3:11; 5:9, 10; Titus 2:3, 4). In these passages it is evident that females were then engaged in various Christian ministrations. Pliny makes mention of them also in his letter to Trajan (A.D. 110).

deaconess [ˏdi:kəˊnes] n

1) диакони́са

2) дья́коница

1. диакониса

2. дьяконица