By Kevin Kilbane
of The News-Sentinel

Della Hockemeyer's remote control sits on the card table just in front of her.

The television is off because Hockemeyer, 83, has company in her room at Kingston Residence, an assisted-living center on Winchester Road.

The Rev. Thomas Olson of St. John Lutheran Church near Decatur and deaconess student Angela Lubbesmeyer sit at the table facing her. Lubbesmeyer, 23, reads a devotional prayer and Bible passage. She invites Hockemeyer to open her Lutheran Hymnal to No. 126, "Arise and Shine in Splendor."

"I know you like to sing," Lubbesmeyer tells her host as they all break into song.

Later, as he prepares Communion, Olson said several funerals have put him behind in his monthly visits to Hockemeyer and other older church members.

But help is on the way: A new deaconess program at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne will train women such as Lubbesmeyer to work alongside pastors providing people with physical and spiritual care.

"It allows someone to come more often and to spend more time," Olson said.

HistoryThe service of women as deaconesses dates to the first century of the Christian church, said Kristin Wassilak, director of the deaconess program at the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's Concordia University in River Forest, Ill.

The university offered the LCMS' only deaconess training until the denomination's St. Louis seminary started a program in 2002. The Fort Wayne seminary began its program last fall.

During the early centuries, deaconesses cared for the poor and needy, Wassilak said. During the Middle Ages, the number of deaconesses declined as women joined religious orders. In the 1800s, wars, the Industrial Revolution and poverty sparked a resurgence of deaconesses to serve as nurses, teachers and social workers.

In the 1900s, deaconesses were most active in the Lutheran and United Methodist churches, Wassilak said. The women worked as nurses and social-service workers during the first half of the century and have migrated toward working in individual congregations during the last few decades.

Today, about 100 deaconesses work in LCMS congregations nationwide, she said. "We feel 100 is a drop in the bucket. The needs deaconesses are trained to address are the needs of people hurting or suffering. There is no shortage of hurting or suffering in the world."

Many congregations don't understand the role of a deaconess, however, and don't realize the help one could offer their ministry, Wassilak said. Deaconesses aren't seeking the role because the LCMS ordains only men. The women want to help the church meet people's physical and spiritual needs by caring for the needy, teaching or visiting the sick or homebound.

Concordia Theological Seminary, which was founded here in 1846, has discussed offering a deaconess program for 20 years, said the Rev. Arthur Just, program director. LCMS leaders approved starting the three-year, master's degree program here in August.

The program currently has nine students taking classes on either a full- or part-time basis, Just said. He envisioned enrollment growing to 40 women.

Training more deaconesses will allow male assistant pastors to be called to lead congregations that now don't have a pastor, Just said.

ShortageAs in some other Christian denominations, the LCMS faces a clergy shortage. The denomination has about 8,000 active pastors, but about 600 congregations have pastoral vacancies, said David Strand, director of public affairs at LCMS headquarters in St. Louis.

For women, the launch of deaconess training also opens up ministry in a way they might not have considered previously, Just said. Not only will they receive training to provide for people's physical and emotional needs, they also receive the theological education to minister to people spiritually.

For Pat Nuffer, 57, of Fort Wayne, the deaconess program offered an opportunity to combine interests meaningful to her. "I have a real love and interest in Bible study." The wife of an LCMS pastor on the seminary faculty, she also has been a teacher and an advocate for people with disabilities.

Karoline Nee, 50, of Richland Center, Wis., picked up information about the deaconess program for her daughter. Her daughter wasn't intrigued, but the more Nee read, the more she believed deaconess work would be a way to fulfill the fire she feels ministering to others.

The program also opened a door for Leonarda Decker, 30, whose husband recently earned a master's degree in religion from the seminary. Decker had earned a theology degree in her native Lithuania, but the church there did not commission women as deaconesses.

Deaconess students take many of the same classes as male seminary students, so that has been an adjustment for some men, the women said. But the aspiring pastors have been very accepting.

"That is the best part of going here," Nee said. "They see the kind of training we are receiving."

As with their male counterparts, deaconess students get practical experience through volunteer "field work" at a local Lutheran church.

Lubbesmeyer, of Wenatchee, Wash., often goes along when pastor Olson visits older and homebound members.

Nuffer teaches a Sunday school class and performs other duties at Zion Lutheran Church on South Hanna Street. Sara Bielby, 31, of Flint, Mich., an electrical engineer by training, now leads women's Bible studies and youth devotions at St. John Lutheran Church-Flatrock near Monroeville.

They also must complete a one-year internship at a LCMS church or ministry before graduation.

Women students see a great need for their service. "I think we bring a distinctly feminine perspective to church work," Nuffer said.

A woman facing ovarian cancer or who has just lost a baby in childbirth, for example, could feel more comfortable speaking with a deaconess than a male pastor, students said. As the deaconess ministers to the woman physically, she also can minister to her spiritually.

"Deaconesses bring faith and love that really changes lives," Bielby said.

Deaconess program at a glance

What: Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne has started a program to train women to work as deaconesses in Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregations and ministries.

History: Women's service as deaconesses dates to the first century of the Christian church. Over the centuries, deaconesses have cared for the poor and worked as nurses, social workers and teachers.

Today: About 100 deaconesses work in LCMS churches nationwide. Increasing the number of deaconesses could help ease the LCMS's clergy shortage by freeing male assistant pastors to lead congregations now without a pastor. Deaconesses also can offer a feminine perspective to ministry, especially when working with women or children.

Information: Call 260-452-2210 or e-mail deaconess@ctsfw.edu.