Diaconal Coordinator for Central America appointed

Dcn. Olga Groh

CANADA – Lutheran Church–Canada’s (LCC) Committee for Missions and Social Ministry has appointed Dcn. Olga Groh as Diaconal Coordinator for Central America.

For many years, the training of Lutheran deaconesses has been an important part of Lutheran Church–Canada’s international mission work. Deaconesses—a special class of deacons—are female professional church-workers who have been trained to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ through works of mercy, spiritual care, and teaching the Christian faith.

Dcn. Groh is a LCC-rostered deacon who trained as a deaconess in The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). Her work on behalf of LCC came about through a serendipitous dinner encounter at a restaurant in Managua, Nicaragua a decade ago. That encounter led to Dcn. Groh’s service developing annual seminars and retreats on the sacraments and diaconal life for the deaconesses of the Lutheran Church Synod of Nicaragua (Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua – ILSN) as part of LCC’s continuing education program for ILSN church workers. The success of that experience prompted LCC Missions to ask Dcn. Groh to take on the development of a Christian education program for ILSN children.

In 2019, LCC invited her to serve on a broader basis as Diaconal Coordinator for Central America. The position combines the two previous LCC endeavours with new responsibilities coordinating Christian education affairs and diaconal training in the ILSN, in collaboration with LCC missions and the ILSN.

Dcn. Groh brings to the position a wealth of experience. She is a psychotherapist and LCMS-trained deaconess, and fluent in Spanish. She formerly served as Project Management Director in Latin America and the Caribbean with LCMS World Mission and LCMS World Relief and Human Care. Dcn. Groh’s competence, experience, knowledge, and theological acumen are undergirded by her profound attitude of servanthood, evident in all she does in the Lord’s church.

The responsibilities of the Diaconal Coordinator are defined by LCC Missions as follows:

The Diaconal Coordinator (DC) is a called deacon of Lutheran Church–Canada. She is a deaconess who is a witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through works of mercy, spiritual care, and teaching the Christian faith. The DC is bilingual in English and Spanish, has cross-cultural ministry experience and possesses skills that will support the ministry partnership in the following areas:

1. The Diaconal Coordinator will oversee the catechesis and spiritual formation of deaconesses and diaconal candidates in Central America. 
2. The DC will develop a curriculum for the training of deaconesses, and guidelines for their spiritual care through formal consultation with, and within the guidelines of, LCC.
3. The DC will plan workshops, seminars, and retreats for deaconesses and candidates (family members, friends and women in the community may also attend certain events at the DC’s discretion).    
4. The DC will also offer consolation and encouragement to ILSN deaconesses currently serving the Church in Central America. 
5. The DC may assist pastors and deaconesses in developing plans for catechesis in the local congregation, as well as assist church workers in developing programs of spiritual care for women, widows, orphans, and young children. 
6. The DC may also be asked to assist congregations in assessing community needs and implementing mercy projects. 
7. The DC may also draft project proposals and present them to LCC for approval.  
8. The DC will foster a spirit of sisterhood grounded in Word and Sacrament and mutual encouragement within the ILSN diaconate sisterhood, by the deaconesses themselves.

Lutheran Church–Canada encourages its members to remember Dcn. Groh’s work on behalf of LCC and the ILSN in their prayers.

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