wfn.org | LCMS Delegates Allow Deaconesses to take Classes at Seminaries

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Board for Communication Services
1333 S. Kirkwood Road St. Louis, MO 63122-7295

61st Regular Convention St. Louis, Mo. July 14-20, 2001

July 20, 2001 #49

Contact: Bruce Kueck (314) 342-5715

Delegates allow deaconesses to take classes at seminaries

ST. LOUIS -- Deaconesses and potential deaconesses of The Lutheran 
Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) will be able to take classes at the church s 
two seminaries as a result of decisions made here on July 19 by delegates 
to the 61st Regular Convention of the church body. The convention ends today..

By a 984-86 vote, the convention encouraged "the continued training and 
certifying of deaconesses at Concordia University, River Forest, and [now] 
permit Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, and Concordia Seminary, 
St. Louis, to offer graduate-level deaconess training, directing all three 
schools to work with the Board for Higher Education to establish standards 
of deaconess education, practice and placement."

Lutheran women serve in the church s lay ministry as deaconesses in 
parishes, institutions and other organizations around the world. The 
convention resolution said there is a constant need for more deaconesses.

Concordia University, River Forest, is the only Missouri Synod school that 
trains deaconesses. Two seminaries train pastors, five schools prepare 
directors of Christian education and eight schools train teachers.

Delegates voted 839-216 to ask the LCMS Board of Directors to allocate more 
money to the church s Board for Higher Education/Concordia University 
System as "a direct subsidy for the seminaries, colleges and universities 
to maintain a strong bond between Synod and those institutions which 
prepare its church workers and lay leaders."

The Board of Directors is responsible for the Synod s budget and assets.

"Financial support for the church s educational institutions has declined 
steadily to approximately three percent of the operating costs thereof for 
fiscal year 2000-2001 and is projected to decline to zero percent for 
fiscal year 2002-2003," the convention resolution noted, while the church 
is experiencing "a pressing need for pastors to serve in the congregations 
of our Synod."

"The bad news is that the subsidy is in decline; the good news is that 
other gifts are up; but the bad news is that this weakens the bonds between 
the schools and the Synod," said the Rev. Ronald L. Bergen, president of 
the LCMS Ohio District. "This is an uncomfortable trend."

The convention voted 956-94 to commend those involved in the process for 
certifying new Missouri Synod pastors, while asking the LCMS Council of 
Presidents, with the faculties of both seminaries, "to assess the wisdom 
and effectiveness of the present certification process."

The Synod s president, five vice presidents and 35 district presidents make 
up the Council of Presidents.

Delegates asked the council to report, with any recommendations for change 
in the present process, to the Synod at its 2004 convention.

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