Diaconal Ministry - Canadian Connections from 1912-2023

---

Information on Diaconal Ministry in Canada can be found through many different Finding Aids at Laurier Archives. It is best to contact the staff and ask for support.

Details on Diaconal Ministry within the Church Bodies can be found, for example, in the Minute Books - e.g. 1947 Minutes of the 85th Annual Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Canada (Canada Synod) p. 20 reports on Florence Weicker as "First Deaconess" (Baltimore) to serve in a Canadian Lutheran congregation." She was preceded in training by other Canadians who did not return to Canada to serve.

Details on Diaconal Ministry can also be found within the Congregational Records. See for example, the Finding Aid for St.  John's Lutheran Church (Waterloo, ON) fonds (S2077)  : https://libarchives.wlu.ca/downloads/new-st-johns-lutheran-church-waterloo-on-fonds.pdf

Understanding what is meant by the terms in context is key.

The Canada Lutheran (that began in 1912) was at first a publication "in the interest of English Lutheranism in Canada, by the Authority of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Central Canada." The St. Lawrence Lutherans had the tradition of the "elders and deacons" from the time Governor Simcoe gave the local "elders and deacons" a license of occupation for their church in 1793.

The October 1912 (Vol 1. No. 4) edition of The Canada Lutheran deals with Deacons in the context of a congregational constitution for St. Peters OTTAWA, in a way that is different than the May 1912 Minutes of the Women's Missionary Society of St. Peter's CAMBRIDGE.

In Cambridge, the affirmation of women as "missionaries and deaconesses" is explicitly noted in the handwritten and transcribed Constitution of the Women's Missionary Society of St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church [CAMBRIDGE, ONTARIO], May 22, 1912.  This is a reference to "deaconesses" who will serve in the professional sense such as women who train at a Motherhouse for professional ministry. 

Alternately, the publication of the constitution of St. Peters Ottawa by the Synod of Central Canada (English) as an example constitution includes Articles related to "Deacons" as we might today think of a Church Council person or Lay-Minister. 

1912 congregational constitution reference at: https://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/WLU/0024149621T.PDF

1912 local Mission Society constitution (auxiliary to the congregation) at:  https://images.ourontario.ca/Laurier/2686480/data?n=1 and its objective reads: 

"Its object shall be to zealously aid the Women's Missionary Society of the Synod and of the General Council in prosecuting the great work at home and abroad by developing the missionary activity of its own members, and of the congregation to which it belongs. This shall be done by discussions at its meetings, by circulating missionary literature, by seeking out devoted women to become missionaries or deaconesses, and if possible by annually conducting an every-member canvass of the congregation for an offering for missions."

The original publication called The Canada Lutheran began in July 1912, As such, it dates back to the time before the 1918 (re)union of the General Synod and General Council in the form of the ULCA or United Lutheran Church in America (which after 1918 included the Augustana Synod). 

The story of Deaconess Ella Koch is worth noting in this regard.  In the 1913 Handbook of the Mary J. Drexel Home and Philadelphia Motherhouse (available online) Ella Koch (later Sister Ella Koch) entered professional training as a Probationer Deaconess in 1908, See p. 7  https://ia800900.us.archive.org/26/items/handbookofmaryjd00mary/handbookofmaryjd00mary.pdf  

The 1920 American Census records Sister Ella at the Philadelphia Motherhouse as a Deaconess whose occupation was "nurse" and indicates that she was born in Canada. 

The biography of Sister Ella in Weiser's Directory indicates that Sister Ella served through the Philadelphia Motherhouse of Deaconesses from 1915-1923 and concurs with family histories in Ancestry.ca that Ella M. Koch was born in the United States, then lived in Canada as a girl.. 

Sister Ella was, however, properly claimed in the Centennial Publication of St. Matthews  Berlin/Kitchener as a consecrated "daughter" of the congregation which was part of the Canada Synod of the General Council. 

The 1913 Deaconess history includes the following: "The institution is connected with the Lutheran Church (General Council), inasmuch as the Pastor must be a member of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, and annually reports to that body on the work of the Motherhouse. The inmates of the house constitute a congregation, in which the Pastor performs all ministerial acts. Pastor and Oberin together constitute the Directory of the Motherhouse with all its branches.  A Deaconess is a Christian woman (unmarried, or widow without children) who, from love to her Lord and in gratitude to her Saviour, has made it her life-work to serve Him in His poor and needy members, and who, in order to carry out this vocation of ministering love, has voluntarily joined the Deaconess Motherhouse, performing her functions under its direction and retaining her membership in it as long as she serves the Lord in this ministry. Deaconesses are called Sisters because of their fellowship of faith and love in Christ as the daughters of one Motherhouse, and because they are to minister to those who are committed to their care, in true sisterly love. To designate their office, the Sisters wear a special garb which is, however, not the habit of an order. This garb or habit is meant to be nothing more than a dignified, practical, plain, and inexpensive dress, not subject to the changes of fashion, and corresponding in the main to the plain attire in vogue during the first half of this century, when the Female Diaconate was revived. The habit is of value not only because of its neatness, but also because it secures to the Sisters a large measure of support and protection in their work. In the Sisterhood are Nursing Sisters, Teaching Sisters, and Parish Sisters, according to the three principal spheres of their ministry, the care of the sick and the needy, the instruction and training of the young, and the assistance of pastors in such work as these may assign them. (p.  13).

Koch is noted in Weiser's Directory as serving at Lankenau Hospital in Philadelphia from 1915-1923. 

The November 1914 edition of The Canada Lutheran highlights the tour of Guest Speaker Rev. P. W. Rath, of the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Motherhouse of Deaconesses speaking on "Deaconess Work" through Eastern Canada (Montreal, Ottawa, Berlin/Kitchener) and to various audiences including the Sunday School Institute.