-an introduction

. . . the ministry of the diaconate

CARING FOR THE NEEDS OF MAN

The word diakonia is Greek and means service.

Diakonia - the diaconate of the Church - is the communication of God’s care for man such as our Lord Jesus Christ has entrusted it to his Church.

The name “Saint Luke’s Foundation” is related to St. Luke, the physician and evangelist, and the Foundation is one of the various institutions working within The Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church.

In 1886 Ms. Isabelle Brockenhuus-Løwenhielm began Christian social work among poor children in the city of Copenhagen. Later a small hospital and a nursing school were founded.

In the year 1900 the work was consolidated as a deaconess community, named “The Deaconess House Saint Luke’s Foundation” situated in Copenhagen. In 1932 the community moved to its present site in Hellerup.

Nowadays most of the Danish social services are managed by the government. There is, however, still a need for diaconal service, as today’s efficient society neither has room nor time for it’s less fortunate members. That is why The Saint Luke’s Foundation is still working in the Church’s tradition of caring for those, who are weak or ill, the grieving, the lonely and the perplexed - the keywords being quality of life and the dignity of man - when caring for one another.

. . . the Christian foundation

OUR OBJECTIVES

· to train deaconesses and co-workers for diaconal service in the church and in society

· to provide diaconal care for people

· to participate in the diaconal ministry of the Church

· to participate in solving humanitarian problems in general

· to support research and education

The Deaconess House is the sisters’ home and the base from where the ministry goes out. As the spiritual center it both supports and prays for renewal in all activities both within and outside of The Saint Luke’s Foundation.

The Deaconess House - beautifully located in an old park - is open to co-workers, visitors from Denmark and abroad, as well as facilitating conferences, educational activities, etc. The Chapel is the unifying center of life and work with two pastors serving the congregation.

AND TASKS

The Deaconess House owns and maintains several institutions. These are in many ways similar to public institutions, but having their own identity based on the Christian foundation. St. Luke’s is involved in various church-based as well as society-related social services - working either independently or in co-operation with other organizations.

Our work is based on the Church’s diaconal tradition of care, teaching and counseling, which include the hospice and hospice home-care unit, the respite and convalescence ward, elderly, the social life and activity centre, pastoral and counseling services, a living place for young women with two-cultural background, the home for retired sisters and elderly people needing care, the chapel and the retreat centre Smidstrup Strand as well as running the Deaconess House.

. . . relief and empathy

QUEEN ALEXANDRINE’S HOUSE

Since the beginning late last century the major tasks of The St. Luke’s Foundation have been related to our hospital and nursing school. However, in 1991-92 the Copenhagen County Council decided to terminate its contract with The St. Luke’s Foundation regarding the hospital and nursing school, and as a result these activities came to a close - and new were initiated.

THE HOSPICE

The Hospice of St. Luke’s Foundation opened in 1992 and, being the first of its kind in Denmark, became a pioneer in the field of high quality hospice care. The work developed and expanded and in January 1997 a hospice home-care unit was established in co-operation with the County Council of Copenhagen.

Hospice care neither shortens nor prolongs life.

The philosophy of hospice care is being present and showing empathy in giving

· the best possible relief of symptoms caused by the disease

· attentive care and nursing in a secure and familiar environment

· help to live in spite of facing death

· support and help to relatives regarding illness and death

The hospice home-care unit (hospice-team)

is using the above mentioned principles in the home-based care of patients - and always in co-operation with the patient’s relatives, the local health authorities, etc.

Currently, a pioneering program and wide spread information on hospice care is being offered to the Danish health sector as well as the general public.

Queen Alexandrine’s House - with its facilities for the Hospice and the Hospice home-care unit - also has facilities for respite and convalescence wards, as well as guest rooms. The building accomodates a total of 40 people.

THE COUNSELING SERVICE

The staff, which comprises three qualified therapists, offer help, care, and counseling to any individual or couple, who are experiencing a crisis in their lives.

LIVING PLACE FOR YOUNG WOMEN WITH ETHNIC MINORITY BACKGROUND

Kastaniehuset is the name of an institution for 8 young women with two-cultural ethnic background. The institution is the temporary home of the women, who receive social- and psycological support and treatment in conflicts concerning generations and cultures.

THE MEETING PLACE

This day-center is a place for social life and open to the public every day of the year. In nice and comfortable surroundings people meet over a cup of coffee and everybody is welcome to join in the centre’s various activities during the day. The activities are set up according to the needs and interests of our guests.

Coffee, sandwiches, lunch, etc. are for sale daily - from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

. . .contact in a secure environment

LUNDEGÅRD

Caring for children has always had a high priority at the St. Luke’s Foundation. The day-care center “Lundegård” cares for 26 infants and 42 children in the kindergarten, as well as a small group of children with special needs.

In pleasant facilities - where the children feel secure - their growth and development become healthy and harmonious. Here each child is cared for individually - always in accordance with the parents’ wishes.

Children and their parents are invited to a monthly church service in St. Luke’s Chapel.

Also: generations meet. Once a week groups from the kindergarten visit “The Meeting Place” and enjoy different activities together with the guests, who act as “substitute grandparents”.

. . . a haven for rest and growth

RETREAT CENTRE SMIDSTRUP STRAND

A deaconess house is an open door community. And so is St. Luke’s retreat centre - with its large natural park and quiet sunny surroundings - by the sea in Smidstrup Strand, North Zealand.

The Centre itself is surrounded by old tall trees - yet still offering a superb view of the sea and magnificent sunsets.

Photos from the working fields can be seen in the danish part of the home page.

“Stenhuset” - the original thatched roofed beach-villa - has been the property of St. Luke’s Foundation since 1920. Adjacent to this a modern complex with 24 lovely rooms was built in 1988. The plain well equipped rooms (with bath and toilet) all have individual entrances off the patio. Each room has a small terrace, though the rooms that are equipped for wheel-chair users have a bay window instead.

The modern complex include a small beautiful chapel, conference facilities and rooms for informal gatherings.

The old house “Stenhuset” used to be the sisters’ holiday home - it actually still is. With the 1988 remodelling and addition of new facilities the estate became a haven of rest and growth for other people, too. Since then, a large number of people from Denmark and abroad have visited and/or stayed at the Centre which is open all year round.

The Centre is suitable for conferences, courses, retreats, and vacations. Tour groups, eg. congregational outings, are welcome. Some of the activities , such as conferences and retreats, are arranged by the St. Luke’s Foundation. Otherwise, many organizations (mostly church related) book the centre and run their own conferences and courses.

In short - “Smidstrup Strand” is the ideal place for both work and relaxation.

. . . caring - in word and action

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Parish work

Since 1997 St. Luke’s Foundation has been a partner in “Sogne- Diakonien”, a professional church-related education for training parish workers. This education was started as a joint venture between “Den Danske Diakonissestiftelse (The Danish Deaconess Foundation), De Samvirkende Menighedsplejer (The United Parish Aid of Denmark), and “Kirkefondet” (The Church Trust). Due to the growing demand for trained parish workers this education is continually being updated.

Pastoral Care and Counseling

In addition to the therapy and counseling done at the Counseling Office and the special care given at the Hospice - supervision as well as courses in pastoral care and counseling for pastors and church workers are in the process of being established.

Palliative Care

The Hospice staff has gained extensive professional, i.e. theoretical and practical, experience in palliative care. Through lectures and courses this is being shared with professional teams and other groups interested in hospice care.

The ongoing all-round information about caring for the seriously ill and dying covers work both at the Hospice as well as in the Hospice home-care unit.

. . . a ministry of love

THE DEACONESS COMMUNITY

The Christian Faith with its calling to a ministry of love and mercy towards people in need is the basis for the deaconess community, and St. Luke’s Foundation accepts women, minimum 20 years of age, as candidates for a theological-diaconal education enabling them to serve.

The community is both a spiritual fellowship and a fellowship of life and work. The Deaconess House is the centre for entry, education, and consecration of the sisters. From here the sister is sent to serve, and the community gives her lifelong support all the way through.

Nowadays the sisters are allowed to marry and have a family of their own. When working the sisters wear a special garb, while ordinary clothes may be used when not on duty.

In order to serve in one of the St. Luke’s Foundation’s areas of work the sisters are required to take a professional or vocational education/training in addition to the theological-diaconal education.

LINDELY

St. Luke’s Foundation’s home for retired deaconesses has 40 small apartments as well as several common dining and living rooms. The retired sisters are still integrated and contributing members of the community - participating in different activities within and outside the Deaconess House, eg. as volunteers in second-hand shops, in a visiting service or other kinds of social work.

THE DIACONAL YEAR / “Give a Year”

The diaconal year is a program for young people - 18 years and over. They are invited to live in the fellowship of St. Luke’s Foundation for “a meaningful year” while participating in some of the activities related to the Deaconess House.

This program is jointly managed by St. Luke’s Foundation and other church-related organizations and institutions, which are offering work to these young people, e.g. in nursing homes, various social services, children, youth groups, etc.

Since 1975 about 800 young people have been involved in the program and thus “given a year”.

ST. LUKE’S FOUNDATION

A Danish Deaconess Community

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A Historical Outline

1886 Miss Isabelle Brockenhuus-Løvenhielm begins work among poor children in the city of Copenhagen.

1888 The work is growing and consists of work among poor children, charity work among poor members of the local parish, vocational training of poor women, dress-making for the needy, and an orphanage

1894-95 A clinic for 13 patients as well as a nursing school and a ward for infant care

1900 The clinic has developed into a small hospital and all the work is consolidated as a Deaconess Community, which is founded May 8 and named St. Luke’s Foundation.

1905 The first sisters are sent to serve outside the Deaconess Motherhouse.

1906 The first six deaconesses are consecrated.

1910 St. Luke’s Foundation is admitted into the Kaiserswerther Generalkonferenz for protestant deaconess

motherhouses (approx. 20.000 sisters).

1914 A “Sisters’ Council” is organized.

St. Luke’s Foundation is represented at the Nordic Deaconess Conference.

1917 In Hellerup a large building site is bought.

1920 After World War 1, 16 Danish sisters from the German deaconess motherhouse in Flensburg join the deaconesses at St. Luke’s Foundation.

1925 The 25^th anniversary of St.Luke’s Foundation

75 sisters are serving outside the Deaconess Motherhouse. Many of them in Southern Jutland.

1928 The Nordic Deaconess Conference is held in Copenhagen. Approx. 3000 sisters in the Nordic countries -655 in Denmark.

1932 The new Deaconess House with church and hospital is dedicated May 8 at the site in Hellerup.

1934-36 The hospital is officially approved as a training hospital for nurses. The orphanage “Lundegaard” is opened and a new infant care institution is built.

1939 “Lindely”, the home for elderly sisters, is built next to the Deaconess House.

1944 St. Luke’s Foundation has its highest number of sisters (321), who work at the hospital, the office, the kitchen, the child care centres, etc.

153 sisters serve outside the Deaconess House as nurses, as parish nurses, at orphanages and old peoples homes, etc.

1947 The international association of Deaconess Communities /Houses “DIAKONIA” is founded at St. Luke’s Foundation.

1950 The 50^th anniversary of St. Luke’s Foundation

1961 A new building “Queen Alexandrine’s House” - with medical wards for 40 chronically ill patients - is opened.

1967-70 The new nursing school building with teaching facilities and student housing, as well as a new laboratory and x-ray unit are built.

1975 The 75^th anniversary of St. Luke’s Foundation

The infant care unit is converted into a child care day centre “Lundegaard”, and the orphanage is converted into a home for mentally and/or psychologically handicapped children - “Pilehuset”.

1982 Two of the hospital wards are set up as temporary living quarters for patients, while they are waiting to enter a nursing home.

1987 Support and care of female prostitutes, who are drug addicts, in co-operation with the Social Work Unit of the Y.W.C.A.

1988 The sisters’ holiday home at the northern coast of Zealand is opened to the public as a holiday and retreatcentre “Refugium Smidstrup Strand”.

1991 The nursing school is being transferred to the Copen- hagen County Nursing School. A counseling and crisis centre is established in the former school facilities.

1992 Copenhagen County Council decides to terminate its contract with the hospital, which, therefore, has to close down.

The first hospice in Denmark opens at the St. Luke’s Foundation, and the work here is pioneering in the field of palliative care of seriously ill and dying people.

Concurrently a wide information on hospice and hospice care is being carried out in hospitals, congregations, special interest groups, etc.

“Mødestedet” (The Meering Point), a unit for activities and social life, is opened.

1997 With the hospice at St. Luke’s Foundation being the basis, a hospice home-care unit is established in cooperation with the Copenhagen County Council.

Co-operation with The Danish Deaconess Foundation a. o. in training of parish-workers. Planning of future courses in diaconal work for church-workers and health care professionals.

The Deaconess House uses the former hospital facilities as offices for information and education. A number of humanitarian and health care organizations as well as doctors and therapists in private practice are renting offices in the building.

INFORMATION

Further information may be obtained by making contact with

· Diaconess Edy Kjærsgaaard, Directing Sister

· The Rev. Lars Eyermann, Director

Diakonissehuset Sankt Lukas Stiftelsen

Bernstorffsvej 20, DK 2900 Hellerup, Denmark

Tel: +45 3945 5200 - Fax: +45 3945 5300

www.sanktlukas.dk - E-mail: admin@sanktlukas.dk

Diakonissehuset Sankt Lukas Stiftelsen

The Deaconess House Saint Luke’s Foundation

Sister Edy Kjærsgaard                   The Rev. Lars Eyermann

Directing Sister                                   Director

Under the Patronage of Her Majesty Queen Margrethe