Church employees and sign language

The first ministers for the deaf were required to have a certificate from a school for the deaf to demonstrate their sign language skills. The information on these skills varies. Huugo Nyberg is known to have used sign language beautifully and he captivated his audiences with his sign language flavoured with humour. Tuomo Itkonen, who served as a minister for deaf people from 1918 to 1923, said that his fingers were clumsy, and he was not a first-rate user of sign language. He also said that a minister had to speak and sign simultaneously and emphasise the message with gestures because the parishioners attending the service had differing language abilities. Indeed, the language used by the ministers for the deaf has been described as signing complemented by spoken language.

The first deaconesses for the deaf had no actual training in sign language or working with deaf people. In practice, new deaconesses observed Eeva Malmila’s work in Helsinki for a couple of weeks. Tuition in sign language was not easily available and, therefore, the language was typically learned in practice. The first ‘deaf care courses and employee meetings’ were organised in 1956. These courses covered matters such as deafness, communication, sign language and social security. Later courses also contained information on the signing of hymns and Bible study groups. In the 1970s, more attention was given to additional training for the ministers for the deaf where matters related to deafness and sign language were discussed.

Ministers Lauri Paunu and Eino Savisaari worked actively to promote sign language. Paunu had been in contact with deaf people from an early age. Already in the 1940s, he stressed that people who used sign language formed a linguistic minority who had a right to their mother tongue. Paunu and Savisaari were members of the Association for the Deaf’s sign language committee and participated in the work to create a sign language dictionary.

Translation of religious texts into sign language was a continuous challenge for people who worked with the deaf community. In practice, employees had to translate the texts themselves when they prepared for any events. The ministers and the theologist for the deaf prepared materials to help with signing during church services and they also translated prayers, the creed and some hymns. In 1988, a video of the Gospel according to Mark in sign language was published and it became the model for translating the Bible into sign language. The work to translate the Bible continued and in 2007, the council of the church approved a sign language Gospel according to Luke, which for the first time ever, followed the structure of sign language and not that of signed Finnish.