Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church Immanuel Deaconess Motherhouse and Training School

See also AUG 42 Administrative History.

The Immanuel Deaconess Association (IDA), prior to 1899 when it merged with the Evangelical Immanuel Works of Mercy Association, had a constitution printed in the association's annual reports. The constitution addressed the objectives of the association, membership in the association, the board of directors, executive committee, duties of the directing pastor and directing sister, and association meetings. When the IDA and the Works of Mercy merged the IDA constitution was revised to include the Works of Mercy association and no longer pertained solely to the deaconesses, the motherhouse, and the training school.

It is not known exactly when the diaconate first created its own constitution separate from that of the Immanuel Deaconess Institute (IDI). A separate constitution for the diaconate was created circa 1951. There is reference in a 1950 issue of The Deaconess Banner that the deaconess conference requested it be allowed to revise its constitution for inclusion in a deaconess handbook available in 1952. There is also a reference in the 1952 Deaconess Manual that a constitution for the "Augustana Diaconate" was adopted in 1951. What is not known is if this was a revision of an earlier constitution. There is no indication in any annual reports or other Immanuel publications that a separate constitution for the diaconate existed prior to 1951. In Article I of the post-1951 diaconate constitution, it states that the organization "shall function under the provisions of the Constitution of the Immanuel Deaconess Institute of the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, which has its headquarters at Minneapolis, Minnesota." The IDI regarded this diaconate constitution as an "auxiliary constitution" and the diaconate itself would be governed by this constitution and the IDI constitution. In 1964 the diaconate separated itself and its assets from IDI, at that point known as Immanuel, Inc. At the same time the diaconate incorporated itself as the Immanuel Association of Lutheran Deaconesses of Omaha, Inc.

From the description of Articles of Incorporation, Constitutions and Bylaws c. 1952-1965 (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Library). WorldCat record id: 62873132