The deaconess movement and the deacons on the inner mission model thrived into the twentieth century. In some regions, such as Europe, growth continued until after World War II, but by the 1950s the movement appeared to have peaked, although some groups modernized and fared better, switching from pocket money to salaries, making deaconess “garb” optional or modernizing it, educating deaconesses in colleges and universities, and allowing deaconesses to marry or to work part time. As more denominations accepted women pastors, deaconesses had problems with recruitment, although some DENOMINATIONS, especially if they did not ordain women pastors, had ongoing success with their deaconess movements. This was true of the LUTHERAN CHURCH-MISSOURI SYNOD, which did not have deaconesses until the twentieth century, but which now has deaconesses in the Concordia Deaconess Program, founded in 1980, and from the older Lutheran Deaconess Association at Valparaiso University. The Valparaiso deaconess has members in several Lutheran synods, including some who are ordained pastors.
Deacons and deaconesses organized on a world-wide basis. After World War II, the World Federation of Deaconess Associations became the precursor to DIAKONIA, an organization intended to further ecumenical relationship among diaconal associations of various countries. There are also five regional organizations including DOTAC (Diakonia of the Americas and the Caribbean). These have regular conferences.
Denominational affiliation could create obstacles for deaconess associations, and in the case of Norwegian Lutheran Deaconess, it may be what rushed them out of existence. Denominations could mandate that women be either pastors or deaconesses but not both at the same time, for instance, as is the case for the Deaconess Community of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (see LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA) headquartered at Gladwyne, Pennsylvania. Deaconesses who became pastors were removed from the deaconess roster, although they might have preferred to continue to participate in the deaconess community. The Gladwyne Community suffered from a five-year hiatus in new deaconess consecrations from 1988 to 1993 imposed by the church when the denomination was studying ministry.
The modern tendency is for deacons and deaconesses to be subsumed under one name, usually “deacon” but sometimes diaconal minister. In some de-nominations the title of deaconess has been dropped, or deaconesses have been allowed to keep their title but admit no new deaconesses. That is the case with the Church of England. Most Church of England deaconesses became deacons after 1987 when they were allowed to do so. Those who stayed deaconesses could keep the title, but there were to be no new deaconesses. Some female deacons went on to become ordained priests in the 1990s when it was allowed, if they had had the appropriate education. Some continued to live in community.
The UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IN AMERICA has allowed Methodist deaconesses to remain and recruit, although the denomination, at its 1996 General Conference, approved the “Deacon in Full Connection,” or permanent deacon. These are men or women, with the appropriate theological and professional education, ordained as deacons. Methodist deacons can preach, but not preside at the LORD’S SUPPER. The transitional diaconate was eliminated as a stepping stone to becoming an elder (pastor) within the Methodist Church, although a probationary period was not eliminated. Diaconal ministers already in office in Methodism were given the opportunity to join the order of deacon. In the year 2000 there were 1,000 permanent deacons among United Methodists and 35,000 elders.
Long before the Methodists, the AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH affirmed the permanent deacon in 1952 by adding a provision for perpetual deacons who were not transitional to the priesthood but who served permanently, after appropriate education, as deacons. An exciting development in the acknowledgment of a permanent diaconate was that of the Roman Catholic Church. In the Second Vatican Council in 1967 it restored the permanent diaconate and allowed men thirty-five years of age or older to serve in that ordained capacity even though they were married. Catholic Permanent Deacons have liturgical roles and can preach and serve the community in various ways. However, because they cannot preside over the Mass, they have not made up for the widespread shortage of priests.
The existence of the threefold ministry of bishops, pastors, and deacons has added a dynamic to ecumenical dialogue (see ECUMENISM) that is not easily resolved among church bodies that have a more unitary concept of the ministry as embodied in the pastor. On the other hand, church bodies with a unitary concept of ministry sometimes have a proliferation of “lay ministers” or workers, performing various tasks, many of which are appropriate to a deacon. The solution of the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, described in its Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry of 1982, was to encourage, for the sake of unity and because of historical precedent, consideration of the threefold ministry by denominations that did not have it.
In addition to permanent deacons, there are still, of course, congregationally elected deacons in some denominations or deacons who serve as governing boards of churches, and there are programs to train them in diaconal service such as the Order of St. Stephen, Deacon.
