Archive for category: Columns

Bishop Paul’s letter

Rev Paul Smith
Bishop, Lutheran Church of
Australia and New Zealand

It has become more and more common in this century, to speak of the ’Lutheran ethos’ of a school or community of care in our church. This expression comes from the desire to point to the overall culture and purpose of a ministry that carries the banner ‘Lutheran’, but for some, it is not always initially clear what the words ‘Lutheran ethos’ mean.

I like to write the words ’Lutheran ethos’ in a pictorial way that highlights the heart of being ‘Lutheran’. I write the word ’Lutheran’ in a vertical line, then the word ’ethos’, horizontally across the word ’Lutheran’ connecting them through the letter h. When you do this, the words ‘Lutheran ethos’ make the sign of the cross.

In 1 Corinthians 2, the Apostle Paul focuses faith on the work of Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary. He writes, ’When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified’.

Dr Martin Luther explains why this witness to ‘Christ and him crucified’ is so central for faith. In his ‘Smalcald Articles’ in 1539 he described the first and chief article of faith: ‘That Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, “was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification” … Now because this must be believed and may not be obtained or grasped otherwise with any work, law, or merit, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us … Nothing in this article can be conceded or given up.’

These two ‘nothings’ from St Paul and Martin Luther explain everything we need to say about ‘Lutheran ethos’. To be Lutheran is to keep the work of the cross central in our witness and service.

When the cross is central, we expect sin to be at work in our world and lives. We also expect God’s means of grace to be at work for the forgiveness of sin. Where the cross is central, Christ is known as God and Lord, Saviour and friend. The cross is central where the word of God is properly distinguished as law and gospel and where God’s people strive daily to lead a holy life, even as Christ has made them holy. This is our Lutheran ethos.

In February 2023, we are gathering for the second part of our Convention of General Synod in Melbourne. Delegates will have significant matters before them, including proposals regarding whether only men or both women and men are to be ordained as pastors among us. Some are troubled about what is ahead for our church. What is the future of our ‘Lutheran ethos’?

Early on Sunday 28 November 1965, Lutheran leaders from two Lutheran churches in Australia and New Zealand gathered in a common church service to proclaim ‘altar and pulpit fellowship’ between their two churches. In this moment of our history, we received a good charter for our continuing work as Lutherans on both sides of the Tasman.

Firstly, Rev Dr C E Hoopmann, honorary president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia read a preamble, ‘By the grace of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia have been led together in the confession and unity of the one faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and of the one doctrine of his holy gospel. We accept this unity as an unmerited gift of our God, in sincere repentance for that which lies behind us since our fathers went their divided ways, and in humble gratitude for all that God in his mercy has done through each of us in the years since 1846. He has kept us and blessed us, and for this we magnify his holy name’.

Then the presidents of the two churches, Rev H D Koehne and Rev Dr M Lohe, each called on the people to this witness to Christ and his cross, when they gave identical exhortations: ‘I call upon all pastors and members of our church to practise such fellowship in the spirit of true brotherly love as the expression of our common faith and confession. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.’

Finally, during the Prayer of the Church, the people prayed for the unity of the church using a prayer written by William Laud in the 1600s.

As we gather for Synod 2023, we continue this united common faith of the ‘Lutheran ethos’ that we have received: to know Jesus Christ and him crucified. Nothing can be conceded or given up of this doctrine of the gospel. Please pray for those who gather in February, that the Lord would continue to build his church through our Christian witness and service, as people of the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand.

In Christ,
Paul

Lord Jesus, we belong to you,
you live in us, we live in you;
we live and work for you –
because we bear your name.

Going GREYT! 1 Peter 4:10

Over the years, this column has celebrated how God’s light shines through those who share their talents in his service. Those interviewed are but a small reflection of the many quiet workers in God’s vineyard. This month, as we observe All Saints’ Day, we bring you a posthumous Going GREYT! account of a couple recently called to their heavenly home, whose story shows how God works through the joys and heartbreaks of our lives and remains with us always.

by Helen Brinkman

Originally a shy farmer’s daughter from the Wimmera region of Victoria, Jill Schefe has been recognised for her efforts as a vibrant community connector through the Lutheran Church of Australia’s Servant of Christ Award.

Born Jillene Heinrich, the eldest of three children, she grew up on a wheat and sheep property in Kaniva, not far from the South Australian border. After finishing school, drought in the Wimmera led her to spend a year droving sheep.

Despite her grandmother’s belief that girls shouldn’t pursue further education, Jill, now 73, undertook two years of theological studies at Lutheran Teachers College in North Adelaide to become a deaconess. ‘The term “deaconess” comes from the Greek word “Diakonia”, which means servant’, explains Jill. ‘It is a ministry of word and service.’

The modest study cost of $450 included two years of tuition and board. On graduating in 1969, she was assigned to the Metropolitan Missions Committee for the next three years and worked six days a week across various parishes in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, including Tea Tree Gully, Cheltenham, Port Adelaide and Hampstead under four different pastors.

‘Every day was a new challenge, and my work changed all the time’, she says. ‘It helped me overcome my natural shyness. I realised that shyness was pride turned inwards, so reliance on my Lord was my call.’

Jill taught religious education in schools, led confirmation classes and Bible studies, the latter with the youth and women’s fellowships, as well as taking adult instruction in the Christian faith and visiting members or the unchurched and serving in other ways when required.

Her mentor and pastor of one of her first parishes, Clarrie Janetzki, had said at the time, ‘You are the only bible some people are ever going to know’.

‘I felt so enriched by working in different parishes. As they introduced me to different types of ministry, each pastor modelled different ways of ministering’, Jill says. ‘I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction into evangelism and later as a pastor’s wife. You were just all the time engaging with people.’

It was at a birthday party in April 1972 that Jill met her future husband Clarrie Schefe, who was a seminary student. Engaged in July of that same year, Jill completed a six-week course in preparation for her role as a pastor’s wife before they married in Tea Tree Gully in February 1973.

After their marriage, Clarrie was assigned to Ceduna as their first parish in 1974. During their three years on the west coast of South Australia, their first son, Paul, was born. After contending with the outback dust and even a dog urinating in the Koonibba church during a service, her husband was called to Biloela in Central Queensland in 1976 to establish a Lutheran nursing home and Lutheran primary school.

The Biloela parish was 250 kilometres long and included four congregations and a preaching place. ‘We spent nearly 11 years in Biloela’, says Jill. The couple had two more children, Warren and Cassandra, while there and now have six grandchildren. Jill continues to stay connected with her grandchildren and even teaches confirmation lessons to her granddaughter Jessica, 14, via video call.

Throughout her journey as a pastor’s wife in various parishes, including Dimboola in Victoria, Jill has found ways to connect with people. ‘In Dimboola I rode my bike for exercise incorporating visiting parishioners as well’, she says. Jill adds that it was ‘easy to chat over the fence’ in their front yards, or perhaps stop in for a cuppa.

She and Clarrie moved to the Glasshouse Mountains in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland in 2003, before he officially retired in 2010. And while Jill is officially retired, she still receives an honorarium for her care of the parish, including teaching, visiting the sick, aged and the isolated, as well as distributing private communion, hosting Bible studies and affirming folk in their faith.

Whether it be a women’s fellowship or a Bible study group, or organising confirmation classes and parish visits, she strives to keep in contact with members of the parish, even despite COVID restrictions over the past few years.

‘COVID can’t stop you in your spiritual growth, you’ve got to think outside the square’, says Jill. ‘During COVID, the parish has not had a full-time pastor and I started sharing the daily devotions, adding items related to our local parish, and adding hymns and images and sharing them.’

Jill also writes letters and designs cards as a tangible way of making connections. ‘Necessity is the mother of invention. I learnt to use my own resources to keep in contact with everyone when everyone was alienated’, she says. ‘My commission is to be adhesive.’

Jill feels blessed to have so many opportunities to share the gospel. However, she was overwhelmed to receive the Servant of Christ award. ‘I didn’t realise simple acts of kindness would be recognised’, she says. She was nominated by Glasshouse Mountains congregation for her unwavering dedication and service to their congregation and the wider church.

Last month, for the first time in five years, the whole family was able to come together (minus one ill member) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Clarrie’s ministry, and an early commemoration of Jill and Clarrie’s 50th wedding anniversary. It was a special moment for the couple, who have spent their lives connecting with and serving their communities.

Jill says Philippians 4:13 reminds her of the source of their strength: ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.’

Helen Brinkman is a Brisbane-based writer who is inspired by the many GREYT people who serve tirelessly and humbly in our community. By sharing stories of how God shines his light through his people, she hopes others are encouraged to explore how they can use their gifts to share his light in the world. Know of any other GREYT stories in your local community? Email the editor lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au