Who Are Deaconesses?
As part of the Division for Ministry, Pr. Cox also serves on the Board for the Deaconess community. In November of this year the Deaconess Community of the ELCA moved out of their majestic headquarters in Gladwyne, Pa and relocated their Motherhouse in Chicago. This ended a ministry that had begun in Philadelphia in 1884 when John D. Lankenau, finding American nursing care lacking, personally wrote to Germany to inquire about staffing the Gernam Lutheran Hospital with knowledgeable Lutheran “sisters”. The first 7 deaconesses not only staffed the hospital which was soon to acquire a reputation as on of the finest in the country and continues today as Lankenau Hospital, but had also within the first 10 yrs. opened a children’s hospital, a convalescent home for the aging, a school for girls, and a kindergarten, as well as training new deaconesses for parish work and nursing. Their numbers were increased by other Deaconesses that came from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark as well as Germany. In
