Joyful praise has rung out among Lutheran communities across Australia and in New Zealand in recent months, as the LCANZ has welcomed seven new pastors – bringing to eight the total of ordinations so far this year.
Seven people joined the LCANZ’s ordained ministry ranks within six weeks in April and May, including three women in what has been a first for the church.
Following the decision by the Convention of General Synod in October last year to remove from the church’s teaching a paragraph that previously prohibited women from being ordained, Maria Rudolph, Sue Westhorp and Tanya Wittwer were determined by Australian Lutheran College and the College of Bishops as properly prepared for the rite of ordination and became the church’s first female pastors.
The octet, who are now serving in five of the church’s six districts, also includes a Mandarin-language pastor and two First Nations pastors.
Following the ordination of General Ministry Pastor (GMP) Sean Hotinski by LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith at Blair Athol, South Australia, on 16 February, Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) Mark Tung and GMPs Maria Rudolph and Sue Westhorp were ordained in April.
Pastor Sean has begun an assignment serving Queensland’s Goombungee/Maclagan Parish, while Pastor Mark has been installed to serve Botany Lutheran Church, Auckland, in Aotearoa – New Zealand, a predominantly Mandarin language-speaking community. He was ordained in Auckland on 6 April. Pastor Maria was ordained on Palm Sunday, 13 April, at Concordia College, Highgate, in South Australia. The church’s first female pastor, she has been assigned to serve St John’s Lutheran Church Perth, alongside Western Australia District Bishop Peter Hage. She and her husband, Pastor Michael Rudolph, who serves at Duncraig in suburban Perth, are the first pastor couple in the LCANZ. Two weeks after Pastor Maria’s ordination, Sue Westhorp joined the Roll of Pastors through her ordination on 27 April at Luther College Croydon in Victoria. Pastor Sue has been assigned to serve St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Box Hill, in suburban Melbourne, alongside Pastor Neville Otto.
In the following fortnight, four more pastors were welcomed by the church. Justin Allen was ordained as Pastor to the Papunya community in the Northern Territory on 3 May at Papunya NT, while Abraham Poulson was ordained as Pastor to the Utju community NT on 4 May at Areyonga NT.
Dr Tanya Wittwer was next to be ordained as a GMP on 10 May at St Stephen’s Adelaide, where she also has been assigned to serve; while Adam Morris was ordained on 11 May at Aberfoyle Park SA, where he will serve as Specific Ministry Pastor.
All eight candidates were ordained by LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith, who encouraged the church to pray for the new pastors.
‘In our Lutheran Confessions, we declare that those who bear these offices stand in the stead of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ he said. ‘Please pray for these newly ordained pastors that they would faithfully nourish God’s people with the gospel.’
