Árdís - 01.01.1958, Blaðsíða 33

Ársrit Bandalags lúterskra kvenna
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Scandinavian countries, women were sent to Kaiserswerth for
training. Demands for deaconesses came from everywhere. Three
years later, some deaconesses went with Pastor Fleidner to Jerusa-
lem, and soon schools and hospitals in Constantinople, Smyrna and
Alexandria were staffed by deaconesses trained at Kaiserswerth.
In 1851 Florence Nightingale spent three months as a student at
Kaiserswerth.
In America, the Rev. William Alfred Passavant, of Pittsburg,
Pa., was interested in the social problems in his community, es-
pecially among the sick, orphaned and the aging. He visited
Germany and met Pastor Fliedner there. He visited several of
the institutions of mercy. He gained a new vision, a spark touched
his soul which soon burst into flame. He realized that the diaconate
should be established in America. He realized that humble service
for Christ to the suffering ones could be best carried on through
organized charitable ministrations of the church. Before leaving
Kaiserswerth, he had Pastor Fliedner promise him four deaconesses
to assist with the beginning of a similar Motherhouse in America.
This promise was fulfilled on July 14, 1849, when the energetic
Pastor Fliedner accompanied four deaconesses to Pittsburg to estab-
lish the first Protestant hospital in America. The first deaconess
to be consecrated in America was Louise Marthens in the year 1850.
There was an increasing interest in the Diaconate, resulting in
seven motherhouses being established in eleven years among the
various Lutheran bodies.
Our United Lutheran Church has two Motherhouses, one at
Baltimore, and the other at Philadelphia. A school to provide basic
religious, professional and clinical training is connected with each
Deaconess House. The Philadelphia training program emphasizes
the preparation of women for nursing, institutional, and social
work; the Baltimore school for parish work and religious education.
Both schools are affiliated with church-related colleges. A six-
year plan of preparation for deaconess students following high
school graduation includes religious, theoretical and clinical train-
ing; the conferring of a bachelor’s degree, and consecration as
deaconesses of The United Lutheran Church in America.
You may be interested in the duties of the parish deaconesses.
She usually supervises the whole program of Christian education
and youth activities. She advises in the Sunday School; conducts