LCANZ churchwide entities shared stories of Lutherans in Australia and New Zealand with church members and the wider community through an exhibition, guided tours, workshops and presentations during South Australia’s History Festival in May.
The new Church House Exhibition Centre opened its doors at 139 Frome Street in Adelaide for the first time on 5 May in time for the month-long celebration of history and community connections. Dozens of LCA members, as well as people with no connection to the church, visited the centre in its first six days of operation to explore exhibits focusing on the mission and service of Lutherans in Australia and New Zealand.
The ground-floor space, which is open on an ongoing basis, shares stories through information panels, historic and current-day photos, interactive audio-visual displays, and rare artefacts and artworks, with much of its content sourced from Lutheran Archives. Bookings are not required to visit during regular opening hours from Tuesdays to Thursdays (see www.lca.org.au/exhibition-centre for current times); however, emailing ahead to exhibitioncentre@lca.org.au is recommended for guided tours and group visits.
Lutheran Archives staff provided guided tours, workshops and a course among the more than 550 events that comprised the annual history festival last month. Archivists led walking tours on German Adelaide culture and community, while also hosting a three-week genealogy course and workshops on reading historic German documents and researching German–Australian family history. The course and workshops were held at the Archives’ base in Bowden, Adelaide.
Friends of Lutheran Archives (FoLA) presented a talk titled ‘Home via Hermannsburg: William Wilkinson’s 847 Day Top End Red Centre Quest’ at Immanuel Lutheran Church, North Adelaide, while the Australian Lutheran College (ALC) Library hosted special viewings and discussions featuring rare books from its collection, with one session booked out.
The Church House Exhibition Centre still has openings for volunteers. If you live in Adelaide and would like to serve in this way, please email exhibitioncentre@lca.org.au
For more information, visit www.lca.org.au/exhibition-centre
