the consistory that
three ladies of the congregation should be chosen and ordained to the
order of deaconesses, with absolute control of the income of said fund
for the purposes and duties as practiced in the early days of the
Church.[80] This, and the action of the Lebanon Classis in 1867,
requesting the synod "to take into consideration the propriety of
restoring the apostolic society of deaconesses," seem to have been the
only steps taken by those connected with this denomination.

In the Protestant Episcopal Church of America the bishop of Maryland
first instituted an order of deaconesses in connection with St. Andrew's
Parish, Baltimore, Md. Two ladies gave themselves to ministering to the
poor, and, with the sanction and approval of the bishop, a house was
obtained and given the name of St. Andrew's Infirmary. In 1873 there
were four resident deaconesses and four associates.[81] An early report
of the infirmary says: "The deaconesses look to no organization of
persons to furnish the pecuniary aid required by the demands of their
position. Their first efforts have been for the destitute and sick. At
the home they minister daily to the suffering and destitute sick
wherever found; some requiring only temporary medical aid and nursing;
others, whom God has chastened with more continuous suffering,
requiring, in their penury, constant care and continual ministration."
There is also under their charge a church school for vagrant children,
and one also for the children of those comfortably situated in life.

The "Forms for Setting Apart Deaconesses," the "Rules for
Self-Examination," and the "Rules of Discipline" in the order of
deaconesses in Maryland are largely patterned after the Kaiserswerth
rules. In truth, the general questions for self-examination in regard to
external duties, spiritual duties to the sick, the conduct of the
deaconesses or sisters to those whom they meet, and the means for
improving in the duties of the office are in many cases selected, and
but slightly altered, from the series prepared by Pastor Fliedner.[82]
The influence of the devout German pastor is indelibly stamped upon the
deaconess cause in whatever denomination it has developed during the
nineteenth century.

In 1864 the deaconesses of the Diocese of Alabama were organized by
Bishop Wilmer. Under the supervision of the bishop the three deaconesses
with whom the order originated were associated in taking charge of an
orphanage and bo