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Online worship makes legitimate connections

by Tim Stringer

In June 2017, I began my first round of intensive classes in St Paul, Minnesota, as part of the Doctor of Ministry degree in Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary there. It was a daunting prospect to travel to the other side of the world to undertake post-graduate study, yet I was excited to stretch myself in a field of ministry dear to my heart.

One aspect of the study was to write a thesis and I had begun to home in on an area of research. For many years I had been watching online preaching to learn the craft. On the way to St Paul, I travelled to Nashville and met with the production manager of a church whose streamed sermons I had been watching for several years. I wanted to know the motivation behind streaming sermons to multiple campuses and to discover what their joys and disappointments were.

As the thesis research project would need to be contextual, I shifted my focus to the streaming of worship, which has been happening in the Lutheran Church of Australia for many years. I met with Pastor Richard Fox of Lutheran Media and asked whether I could conduct an exploratory case study into the experiences of users of worship streams from St Michael’s Hahndorf, in South Australia, and Good Shepherd Toowoomba, in Queensland.

I was interested to discover where people were accessing the streams from, and whether there was a sense of community and connection with the congregations and pastors providing the streamed worship. My thesis title became, ‘Reaching the Diaspora: Streamed Worship in the Lutheran Church of Australia, Cultivating Koinonia and Ecclesia’.

One key finding of my research was that while people highly appreciate being able to access Australian Lutheran worship online, they desire to worship in person. We are a sacramental church and this is an aspect of worship missing online. At the time of my research, it was difficult to find doctrinal statements that addressed the challenges of receiving holy communion in the virtual realm. But soon every denomination needed to have a document stating their position.

As I read and talked with people in preparation for thesis writing, I discovered that most people considered that building community and connections in the online space was difficult and not ideal. Many also considered that gathering virtually was not true gathering.

I submitted my thesis draft in the week of 30 March 2020 – coincidentally when most churches around the world were forced to close due to the global pandemic. Pastors everywhere were rushing to find a way to deliver worship to congregations which could no longer gather in person.

Suddenly millions of people had become ‘diaspora’, dispersed from their traditional form of worship – face-to-face – on a Sunday morning. Of course, for most people, this was an alien experience. Most had never considered online services to be legitimate worship. And yet what we have found in these past months is the sense of connection and community that has been maintained, or even cultivated, through online worship. It is still probably not most people’s first choice, but many congregations have discovered people who have connected to worship in the online space and whom they have not seen in the physical worship space for some time. Some have never worshipped with the congregation before.

I think people are feeling vulnerable and in search of reassurance. It is much easier to step inside a virtual church than to face people who then want to talk to you. I know at least one of my fringe connections has engaged every week online, while in my seven years as pastor here has never attended in person other than perhaps for annual social events. For people like this, we need to continue to provide the streaming option.

I was blessed to have spent several years preparing my understanding of online worship being legitimate. In February 2019, I attended the funeral of a former work colleague from my mining days at Roxby Downs in outback South Australia. I sat at my desk in suburban Melbourne and connected via live-streaming to the funeral in Adelaide. I felt connected, both to the mourners present at the funeral home hundreds of kilometres away and to others with me online. My personal sense of being in community with those people again after almost 20 years was strong. At that time I wondered whether the same could happen for regular worship.

What I have seen in these COVID days is that people, who were perhaps not even aware that online or streamed worship existed, have been thrust into a space they were not ready for, and yet so many have accepted it and even thrived in it.

A couple of years ago I asked the seminary whether it might be possible to defend my thesis via Skype, then fly over for graduation rather than remain in the USA for the whole six-week process. I was told this could not be done.

But at 1.30am on 11 May, I successfully defended my thesis, from the other side of the world. Then on 31 May at 3.00pm US time – 6.00am on 1 June in Melbourne – I stood in my tracksuit pants, hoodie and ugg boots in my lounge room as I was ‘called forward to receive my diploma’ (on my TV screen via YouTube streaming).

What was once considered impossible was now a reality – I had defended my thesis and graduated with a doctorate from the other side of the world. It was legitimate and it was real. How quickly attitudes and realities can change when necessity becomes the mother of invention.

In a recent survey of my congregation 75 per cent were happy to continue to worship online. We have quickly learned that online worship is a legitimate option and the Holy Spirit is at work wherever we gather. It may not be perfect, but it is what we have. Praise the Lord!

Dr Tim Stringer is pastor of Victoria’s Greensborough Parish in Melbourne’s northern suburbs and a member of the LCA/NZ’s General Church Board.

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A revolution! Learning to be church in a pandemic

by Lisa McIntosh

The coronavirus pandemic has been a terrible global tragedy in the true sense of the word, with a huge death toll. It has also swallowed up jobs and businesses and sent economic shockwaves around the world.

And there are other less-seen costs, too, resulting from the isolation that lockdowns or restrictions have caused, in the areas of mental health, domestic and family violence, addictions and relationship stress.

Even for people not personally affected by the loss of loved ones, health or livelihood, the virus has taken away things many of us have taken for granted in our comfortable lifestyles in Australia and New Zealand. Work, school, family, social activities and even church life have been affected. No restaurants, no sport, no pubs or clubs, and no church on Sunday – at least, not the type of church we were used to.

All of a sudden, congregations were forced into the digital online world, streaming, meeting, or sharing worship via various internet platforms, emailing sermons and other faith-life resources to some parishioners and physically delivering them to others.

Amid all the suffering from COVID-19 though, God has given us some precious and, in the context of the 21st century, rare gifts. He has given us the gift of more time, less busyness and distraction, and the chance to rest in him and reflect on what it really means to be the body of Christ, his church in the world. In doing so, he has challenged us to look outside ourselves and what we have been used to.

Some of the LCA/NZ’s leaders in local mission believe these gifts present an opportunity too good to miss in fulfilling the Great Commission, and that many of us are looking for something other than a return to ‘normal’.

The South Australia – Northern Territory District’s Assistant Bishop for Mission, Pastor Stephen Schultz, says that, pre-COVID, many of us saw worship on Sunday as the be-all and end-all, and that we would offer worship only on our terms and expect community members to simply come to us and fit in with us. He says this model is flawed.

‘Basically, you’d rock up to church and tick a box to say, “Yep, I’ve done that, I’m a good little Christian”, and away you’d go’, he says. ‘And we’ve been thinking that model of church needed to break down. But that was going to require a culture change, and a culture change takes years, maybe generations.

‘And then “bang”, along comes COVID and what normally would take years, we’ve been able to achieve in months. So from my perspective, we don’t really want to miss this opportunity and the rhetoric we’re hearing from people is that we don’t want to go back to the way things were.

‘Of course, some people have seen this as a momentary disruption. But this is not a disruption, this is a revolution. This is an opportunity for us to rethink “church”.’

Pastor David Schmidt, Queensland’s ministry and mission director, says that, after speaking with and listening to many people from across the church, there is a view that many of us have ‘developed a very narrow understanding of what word and sacrament are about’.

‘My interpretation of what I’ve been hearing is that we’ve thought it’s simply about what happens in the sermon on Sunday morning and getting holy communion’, he says. ‘But what was reinforced from a conversation I had this morning with a bunch of pastors was that the word is actually incarnational. It’s got to be out there and transforming lives.

‘Some people have been wanting to go back to church for no other reason than to have holy communion. But it’s important to recognise that we are sacramental when we are engaged in the world around us and to start understanding that word and sacrament is not a narrow perspective in our Lutheran world. It’s actually
a broad perspective.’

Dr Tania Nelson, the LCA’s executive officer for local mission, says the restrictions and isolation of the pandemic have by necessity changed some of the ways we engage in discipleship. And, she says, recognising people’s limitations and responsibilities in the way we serve them is also important, as was reinforced by a recent conversation with an LCA/NZ church planter.

‘Generally, we might bring people together for a pastor’s study group one evening a week, but how can young families do that? They possibly can’t – let alone single-parent families. So this pastor started up a Bible study group online in the midst of COVID, and he’s reflecting that the group members probably won’t ever meet face-to-face because the online meetings have been so successful. That way you can put your children to bed and then meet, and husband and wife can take part. No-one really wants to return to a face-to-face group because this is more accessible for people. For busy people with commitments, it’s the perfect way to be discipled.’

Pastor Brett Kennett, who serves as the Victoria and Tasmania District’s pastor for congregational support, says there is a will among the pastors and leaders he supports to ‘change and adapt’ with what is happening in the world, making use of technology to enable us to reach more people, rather than to “snap back” into how things were done pre-COVID.

‘One of the regional pastors, even while being able to have a small live Bible study group, has put a big flat screen monitor at the end of the table and has combined that with Zoom so that his wife, with a little one at home, (and others) can join in the study. I asked him whether he saw this as a paradigm shift and he said, “No, but I see it as a major augmentation”.’

Pastor David says the enforced slowdown for many people has meant the chance to reflect on what is truly important in terms of home, work and church life.

‘People who want to go to church while they’re still at home provide our congregations with opportunities. But how do we engage with those people in meaningful ways, so that we don’t just teach them to be really clever Christians, but rather to engage with their next-door neighbours over the fence? I think that’s the key area that we need to work on.’

It seems that if the pandemic has proven anything, it is that God’s light and love can shine into even the darkest, most desperate situations and bring the hope of new life – and that he never rests from building and shaping his church on earth. We just have to be open to him working in us and through us.

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It’s time to act. Let’s cast the net!

by Craig Heidenreich

I feel blessed to join the LCA/NZ team in Cross-Cultural Ministry and would like to share my heart with you. During these early months in the position, two passages of Scripture have come alive for me.

The first is Numbers 13. Remember those 12 spies who go into the Promised Land and come back with a mixed report?

In verse 30, Caleb counters the doubt with this stirring statement of faith: ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.’ I can imagine Caleb shouting this out to the people who were listening. He and Joshua saw the reality of the promise, but the other spies saw only problems.

What does the ‘Promised Land’ mean for us? Is it our future heavenly home, or is it right here?

Jesus has been given all authority from his Father and he is establishing the kingdom of God among the nations. He has given his church the gift of the Holy Spirit and calls us to participate with him. Let’s say with Caleb ‘we can certainly do it’!

The other passage that has resonated strongly with me is John 21:1–11. The resurrected Jesus appears to some of the disciples while they are trying to fish without success, telling them to cast again on the other side of the boat (v6). The net ends up ‘full of fish’ (CEV).

As I reflect on this, I remember that when we fish for souls, it’s a corporate endeavour. We are net fishermen and our net is made up of all the threads of our loving relationships and our interdependence in the body of Christ. We work hard to mend the holes by guarding our relationships (John 13:35) and, by God’s grace, our net of love effectively ’catches’ those whom the Lord gives us.

I am also aware of the times when we cast a perfectly good net and catch nothing all night.

Can you hear what I’m hearing? Is our Lord saying, ‘Cast your net on the other side of the boat and you will find some’? Is this the time to try something new and fill our nets to bursting point?

I note in John 21:11 the statement: ‘Even with so many [fish], the net was not torn’ (NIV). I believe we are about to take in a big catch as we reach out in love to people of other cultures. This might strain our capacity to stay united, but our relationships will not be torn.

Our net is made up of all of us, with our different gifts and callings. Men, women, young and old, pastors, lay leaders and the rest of the body – introverts and extroverts, we are all needed to take in a catch.

And I’d like to exhort some of the threads to play your part.

Pastors
You are key leaders and key threads in our net – strengthening the strands around you.

Will you take up the slack again and cast into unknown territory? Will you risk the challenge of ‘cleaning’ all those extra fish? It might get messy.

Will you help us keep our eyes on Jesus and urge us to ‘have a go’ – even if we almost tip the boat over in our enthusiasm?

Will you remember how good it is to tailor your message for new converts? Will you preach and remind us that it’s always been God’s plan that Jesus receives his bride from every tribe and tongue and that we have the joy of being part of this great ingathering?

Seniors
Thank you, dear ones, for staying the course when others have left or gone to glory. We need you in our net. We need your wisdom and your endurance.

Perhaps your bodies are tired, but please pray. Pray for soft hearts inside and outside the church and, ‘Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’ (Luke 10:2b).

Even if you have ‘fished all night’ would you help us cast again? Would you be willing to be an honorary grandparent to a migrant family? You might feel like your race is nearly done, but maybe there’s a final lap to go.

Concerned citizens
I can hear you say – or at least think – that Australia and New Zealand are being overrun by strangers.

You may have had thoughts like:
‘I have to work with people I can barely understand.’
‘I wish those Muslim women wouldn’t wear headscarves.’
‘Those African young fellas look a bit menacing.’
‘Gee those census figures are a worry and I wish the “Christian” numbers would stop dropping.’
‘Maybe we can fix it if we vote in a Christian government?’

I’ve had all these thoughts and more!

Aussies and Kiwis, we need you in our net!

Would you lean into our Lord again and catch a glimpse of what is meant by John 3:16: ‘For God so loved the world’?

Can you give up some of the comfort of living among familiar people, imagining that, just maybe, our Lord has brought some of his special ones from other countries to live among us?

When we start to connect with these strangers, would you give your best to help them understand what makes Australia and New Zealand so good?

Pray for the Muslim woman when you see her at the bus stop wearing a headscarf. She may be lonely and a smile might go further than you think.

And those African lads – they’re probably just a group of friends (who stand out a bit). A fair percentage of their parents are probably Christians who are praying hard for their kids. Perhaps you can get through to one of them – while someone else reaches out to your kid.

Let’s feel the wind of the Spirit in our hair while we grasp the net again and say with Caleb, ‘We can certainly do it’.

We want to hear from you if any of this resonates. Our LCA/NZ Cross-Cultural Ministry team is small in number, but we would love to do the journey with you and hear what you are doing. Please email me at craig.heidenreich@lca.org.au and make yourself known – we are looking for champions.

Craig Heidenreich is the LCA/NZ’s Cross-Cultural Ministry Facilitator.

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Colour my world

by Matt Huckel

It’s quite hard to put into words what cross-cultural or multiethnic ministry at Trinity Pasadena in suburban Adelaide feels like. There’s something that feels wonderful and new, but also very normal at the same time.

Nine years ago in my job as a music therapist, I worked with a paralysed man with locked-in syndrome. We were able to make music together using an electronic machine to produce live sounds from his head movements, with me accompanying on guitar, piano, or lute. After a year, I discovered that he was experiencing spontaneous vivid colours in a condition called synaesthesia. Curiously, it would only happen when he moved his head to music and when I played live with him. When we added my music to his music a third thing was experienced: colour.

This is what our multiethnic ministry at Pasadena feels like because it brings a wonderful synaesthesia-like effect. When we combine the ‘music’ or cultural ingredients of a Lutheran community of European heritage with the cultures of Indonesian, Persian and African communities, you get the extra effect of experiencing colour, warmth and joy. I think it fills the Father’s heart with delight. I’ve learned here that God very much wants his diverse family to be together.

Over the past few years, our communities have been growing closer as we have been learning the art of blending cultural and spiritual ingredients in worship, social activities and fellowship. We are also learning to widen our lens to see more things from other people’s perspectives, challenging certain aspects of worship practice to better include and serve members of a different culture.

The real challenge and gift from God is for us to synthesise all these cultural colours together to better equip us for cross-cultural mission to reach the lost in the wider community.

In the photo with the sanctuary colours of our church is the lute, Djembe and an Angklung; each instrument representing European, African and Indonesian cultures. This photo represents both a spiritual and cultural synaesthesia; a church of colours, bonded together through the musical love of the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Matt Huckel serves at Trinity Lutheran Church Pasadena in South Australia.

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Learning from each other

by Greg Schiller

There is a significant number of people originally from Papua New Guinea (PNG) who live in Cairns in Far North Queensland and our Trinity Lutheran Church community is finding more and more ways to engage and connect with them.

We include PNG elements in our weekly worship services. Tok Pisin – one of the official languages of PNG and the most widely spoken – is incorporated into regular Sunday services. Everyone in our congregation has learnt to respond to our Tok Pisin blessing at every service with ‘i tru’, meaning Amen. We regularly sing Tok Pisin songs in worship. Sometimes these are translated verses of hymns and songs that the congregation already knows. I have also translated some PNG songs – written by PNG people with local tunes – into English. We all know ‘Our gracious and loving God’, which is a translation of ‘Long marimari bilong God’, and we love to sing it in both English and Tok Pisin.

PNG members at times hold fellowship purely in the Tok Pisin language. They meet together around food, song and Bible sharing. There are also special times to come together to support each other, such as when they are in mourning.

PNG Christians are extremely active at Trinity Lutheran and include a retired pastor, pastoral assistants, a congregation secretary, lesson readers and service leaders. They provide morning tea, clean the church, arrange flowers, and are synod delegates.

Papua New Guineans have special styles of celebrating – with processions and songs, and symbolic actions and our members participate in PNG community events in Cairns. Every year there is a special worship service to thank God for the gospel coming to PNG. In 2019, PNG women led us with the theme: ‘PNG women sharing the Good News’.

At special services such as confirmations, we include the PNG style into our congregation’s celebrations. PNG members decorate the church and prepare special meals and sing PNG-language songs.

Our Trinity congregation secretary Masio Nidung attended the cross-cultural conference hosted by the LCA/NZ in Melbourne in March 2019. She encourages us to continue to create an openness to diversity and acceptance of the cross-cultural diversity in our congregation, to ensure all people are included and to build relationships across cultures. ‘The challenges of different cultures, different languages, and different perspectives increases the need to create tolerance, acceptance and understanding of different people’, she says.

Insights from this conference prompted Masio and a team of others to plan a special event encouraging social interaction with food. So the Cairns Trinity Lutheran Church, in association with the local Mama Coco Café, held a PNG cross-cultural dinner and information event. Members and friends learned about the challenges of health problems in rural communities in PNG and to appreciate the work of the Lutheran hospital in Finschhafen.

It’s great that we learn from each other and appreciate each other’s gifts and blessings.

Pastor Greg Schiller serves Cairns Lutheran Parish in Far North Queensland, which also includes Our Saviour Atherton.

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Going social with gospel truth

The printing press was crucial to the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther is quoted as having said: ‘Printing is the ultimate gift of God.’ Social media is often viewed as today’s printing press. Is it a space we, as Christians, can better use for the good of the gospel? We asked online media consultant Rikki Lambert to share his views.

by Rikki Lambert

You may feel like Dorothy and her dog Toto in The Wizard of Oz, lifted into a technological whirlwind. This bewildering social media and internet-connected revolution is reshaping the world and relationships, even how we think and act.

This Information Revolution has gathered a socially transformative pace unseen since the Industrial Revolution, thanks to smartphones, cloud computing, data mining and a global COVID-19 lockdown.

If you’re of an older vintage, you might have dipped your toe into social media or Zoom to see your loved ones during times of isolation.

I am neither an expert nor an evangelist for social media. The Lutheran Church of Australia and Lutheran Education Australia engaged me to share insight into online media due to my qualifications and experience using those tools, particularly in politics.

Social media is no different to your mobile phone, car or chainsaw. It is a tool and, like all created things, can be used for good or evil.

Lutherans have a compelling story to tell from an earlier revolution – the combined power of the printing press and the Reformation. Back then, some considered it profane to use the popular or ‘social’ media of that day – the printing press, wood carvings and pub songs – to deliver God’s love and word into the hands, eyes and ears of commonfolk. We are all beneficiaries of the first Lutheran era of innovation.

Today’s social media might make you think of, say, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Facebook was launched to help university alumni to stay in touch and Twitter began as a micro-blogging platform for short thoughts on topics of the day. Instagram came along for more visual people. These morphed into social phenomena. Instagram was acquired by Facebook and now the proliferation of smartphones with good video capability sees those platforms – and TikTok – shifting social media into an emerging, video-based media.

In today’s race for global broadcast supremacy, there are two giants crushing media veterans such as TV channels 7, 9, 10 and the ABC in Australia, with another fast catching up. In the blue corner, Facebook and its partner, Instagram. In the red corner, Google and its partner, YouTube. Both giants originate from the USA, which is why a third is muscling in – video-based TikTok and Zoom, with strong Chinese links.

So the term ‘social media’ is a catch-all for a global broadcasting transition from radio, through TV, to the internet, as the trusted source of information. The church has followed these trends – remember the 1980s controversy about televangelists? Today’s pandemic quarantine now sees many local pastors and congregations reaching their people – and many others – via online video.

Like radio and television before them, internet-enabled devices may have been created for noble reasons. Like much of what humanity touches, all have been turned toward every good and evil use under the sun. There are many foul evils in this world, including abuse, degradation, addiction and exploitation. Those are all so much more accessible online to children and the vulnerable. Parents and grandparents would do well to talk with their children and grandchildren about how they use social media, their phones or other technology to interact with friends and strangers.

How should we 21st-century Christians engage with social media and the internet, accessible by this newfangled phone in our purse or pocket? Some avoid it completely, others plunge right in, while the wary trust only selected platforms. I believe everyone should act as their prayerful conscience directs.

The LCA/NZ now shares great content on Facebook and Instagram and has expanded its YouTube output, such as live-streaming worship. Sharing God’s truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is more important than ever. It can be as easy as sharing LCA/NZ content on your own Facebook account, liking a church department Instagram post, forwarding a link on an email, or telling friends about it.

Just as social media gives us the freedom to find things out fast, share things instantly and have our say to an ever-widening audience, it carries with it responsibilities. Our conduct on social media should reflect our values – if you wouldn’t say or do something face-to-face, don’t do it on social media. Seeking to understand one another – even bringing reconciliation – is a quality the world always needs.

We also need to look after ourselves. Some people shout, rant, or abuse others online. Social media, like Facebook, now allows you to mute someone for a while. Social media and video content are Dorothy’s Oz – they are not the real world. At best, they are a mirror. Spend time away from your phone. Go outdoors or communicate with family or friends. Stay grounded in reality, not in the virtual online world.

Before anyone had heard of COVID-19, I recommended that the LCA use more video, encourage Lutherans to reach out online and consider calling digital evangelists. These evangelists could reach out online to connect lost Australians to a local Lutheran congregation. Little did I know that we would soon be under virtual house arrest, unable (for a season) to physically meet as church. If we can, we should all reach out online in these strange times, remembering our salvation hope – and looking forward to meeting and embracing each other once again.

Pandemic isolation, children doing school from home, adults working from home and customers ordering online have accelerated the whirlwind Information Revolution. As church we talk about reaching the lost in this short-term lockdown, and longer-term in that paradoxically interconnected, anxious and lonely world.

If today’s Information Revolution is as bewildering as Dorothy’s Oz, then our ‘no-place-like-home’ Kansas is true community in Jesus. Instead of clicking magical red glittery shoes together, acts reflecting Jesus’ kindness and love can bring love and community to those who badly need it. Let’s encourage one another to do a simple, loving act in person or online to shine Jesus’ truth and love in this strange new world.

Facebook reshaped what ‘friend’ means and gave us the terrible term ‘unfriend’. Nothing will shake the truth of Jesus’ permanent friendship with humanity. In John 15, Jesus lives and teaches what true, self-sacrificial friendship looked like.

The right question is not whether to use social media, but: How can I be the type of friend Jesus is and wants us to be? And, can I use technology to be such a friend in these challenging times?

Rikki Lambert runs Lambert Creative, creating board games, fiction stories and consulting on his experiences in the law, politics and communications. He provided reports for the LCA and LEA during 2019 and is contracted part-time with Redeemer Lutheran School, Nuriootpa in South Australia for 2020. He is married with four children. www.lambertcreative.com.au

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Different walks, same goal

Thousands of refugee children will be supported to go to school in East African refugee camps, thanks to the commitment and generosity of our Lutheran family and friends.

As of 15 May, more than 2860 children were to be helped to go to school and that number is growing daily, as are the participants and supporters of ALWS Walk My Way. With the postponement of 26-kilometre group walks scheduled for Melbourne in April and South Australia’s Barossa Valley last month due to the coronavirus pandemic, more than 270 people had walked, wheeled, ridden, woofed, or played their own way, in their own time, to raise more than $70,000 for the kids by that date.

It costs just $26 to help a refugee child to go to school by providing teachers, textbooks and tables. The Walk My Way aim for 2020 is to raise $260,000 – enough to support 10,000 children. Go to www.walkmyway.org.au to take part or sponsor walkers.

In the rebadged Walk Your Way, in which participants set themselves a challenge which is to be completed within government COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions, those taking part have been innovative and dedicated to the cause.

Here are some of their stories …

My way, not the highway

In February, Peter Renner decided he would do the Walk My Way in Melbourne. Peter says he started walking with the idea of getting fit enough to walk 26 kilometres ‘without embarrassing myself’… and then he just didn’t stop! Since 2 March, Peter’s training walks add up to more than 750 kilometres! Peter says: ‘If you look at it in terms of a return trip from Melbourne to Adelaide, I’m now approaching Murray Bridge on my way back to Melbourne. I haven’t been fitter in the past 20 years. I had planned to ask people to sponsor me, but when COVID-19 happened, I didn’t feel right asking people for money. Instead, I’ll donate a dollar for every kilometre walked from 2 March to Easter.’ Peter hopes to ‘return to Melbourne’ by the end of June.

On your bike …

Dean and Josh (pictured) did a 26-kilometre bike ride from Tanunda to Angaston, in the Barossa, and back. Naturally, a stop at the Barossa Valley Cheese Company in Angaston was included.

Wet my way

Last year Peter Schubert completed Walk My Way in Darwin – this year it was in the cold of southern Adelaide. ‘I just completed my Southern Vales walk. Sharon Jaeschke joined me for the first half. Loved the challenge of 26 kilometres. Squally showers and quite cold (this former Top Ender has still not acclimatised!) especially in the morning. I kept thinking that my trials as a walker were nothing compared to those of the refugees we support.’

A toddle for Hazel

For any struggling walkers, 16-month-old Hazel has been an inspiration. The toddler has received her Walk My Way t-shirt and is now tearing around the block on her way to her target. As of 7 May, she’d raised more than $3000 – enough to support schooling for more than 120 kids! See Hazel go at https://vimeo.com/413428472

Special support

An ALWS supporter couple, with a background in education including in Lutheran schools, donated $12,500 to match dollar-for-dollar what was raised on the scheduled Barossa Valley Walk My Way weekend.

When asked why, they replied: ‘We are very honoured and humbled to be able to donate to ALWS, as the gifts that we have been given have been gifts from our loving God. We know our gifts are to be shared and to be used to bring his kingdom to earth.

‘We have had our hearts grown over the years for people in third-world countries. It is important to our family that our gifts help to educate, support small businesses, and build people and their communities up so that they are empowered. The slogan “teach a man how to fish” is our philosophy.’

 

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Pastoral care from a distance

The impact of COVID-19 has not by-passed Alice Springs or surrounding Central Australian Lutheran communities.

But we have been seeing many creative innovations in caring for and ministering to people.

The Lutheran church in Alice Springs has been directing people with internet access and who are comfortable speaking English to worship resources provided on the LCA website. We’ve also used our fence as a billboard.

However, for many in the Centre, access to reliable internet is limited and there are many who wish to worship in community languages. Households are being encouraged to consider themselves as mini-churches and make use of worship packs. These contain resources for a range of ages and needs, and help families to lead and be involved in worship. The packs include materials in Aboriginal languages and in English.

Being mindful of social distancing, Pastor Mark Thiel and I have driven around to deliver them to households, usually without leaving the vehicle! This interaction, albeit from a little further away, represents important pastoral care at a time when it’s easy for people to feel alone or abandoned.

Our pastoral assistants also have been keeping in touch with congregation members via phone and social media.

God bless you as you find new ways of proclaiming his word and caring for his people in your community, too!

– Suanne Tikoft, Aboriginal Women’s Support Worker

PS – If your church has Bible story books or posters which are no longer needed, these could bless household worship groups in Central Australia. Please email suanne.tikoft@lca.org.au

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Reconciliation action is everyone’s business

by Marilyn Wall

The Lutheran Church of Australia’s vision for reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians is inspired by the gospel of reconciliation in Jesus Christ and is empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit.

That vision, as expressed in the LCA Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Vision Statement 2020, is ‘to bring to life an expression of our ministry that helps all peoples understand, value and respect the histories, cultures, lands and contributions of First Nations peoples; to recognise and honour our common humanity and for equity in opportunity to flourish, so together we can grow as God’s people’.

This is not new. On a personal level, our life as Christians calls us to do this very thing as we express ourselves as God’s children in our relationships with one another. We serve and are served equally, as we all were created and baptised in Jesus’ name.

The church’s commitment at the 19th General Convention of Synod in 2018 to embark on a RAP is a pledge to use a tailor-made planning tool to assist in our journey of reconciliation. This planning tool has been developed by Reconciliation Australia, the lead body for reconciliation in the nation. Across all areas of our ministry, this Synod resolution focuses on recognising the reconciliation journey thus far and seeks to further strengthen respectful relationships with First Nations peoples. We will all do this in our unique ways. Raising awareness in this space is an important step.

Understandably, many people are unfamiliar with the notion of a RAP. A RAP focuses on intentional and affirmative actions that can assist in breaking down unfamiliarity about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their histories, cultures, connection to land and contributions, in particular as they relate to our church. This leads to increasingly meaningful relationships with First Nations peoples.

There are three core pillars to any RAP – relationships, respect and opportunities. RAP actions and achievements, known as deliverables, fall into one of these three pillars – each pillar strengthening the other. Our RAP requires the identification of a small number of actions and a commitment to aligned deliverables that focuses on:

Relationships: Relationships are at the heart of reconciliation. The primary purpose of the LCA RAP is to develop churchwide opportunities for the church to build upon its solid foundation of respectful and dignified relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the broader LCA community.

Respect: Understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, rights and experiences underpin progress toward reconciliation.

Opportunities: When we work together to craft culturally appropriate solutions to matters that are relevant to First Nations Peoples, we can help create the right environment to identify a range of possibilities and opportunities.

The LCA General Church Board (GCB) has oversight of the RAP process. The church has first embarked on developing a Reflect RAP. This scoping plan sets out the steps to be taken to prepare for reconciliation initiatives, laying the foundation for progression onto further RAPs.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, having continued to engage in conversation and hearing from a breadth of voices, our church will be in a more informed position to proceed to the second or implementation stage – an Innovate RAP. An Innovate RAP outlines actions that work towards achieving the church’s unique vision for reconciliation.

An external RAP Working Group, which is inclusive of both First Nations and other Australians, is formed in preparation for the Innovate RAP. Among this group’s priorities is to propose actions and strategies to support non-Aboriginal people to gain insight into what is important to First Nations peoples. It will also aim to create opportunities to encourage and enable the meaningful service and leadership of First Nations peoples in all aspects of church life in the LCA.

So where are we now? The first draft of the LCA Reflect RAP has received GCB’s approval and has been conditionally endorsed by Reconciliation Australia. We are now in stage two of the endorsement process, which likewise requires the approval of GCB and endorsement of Reconciliation Australia. Once finally endorsed, the RAP then will become a public declaration of the commitment made at the 2018 Synod.

A particular strength of the RAP process is the inbuilt accountability that requires regular progress updates towards identified commitments.

Reconciliation is a journey, not a destination. It is the good news of Jesus’ saving love that makes reconciliation everybody’s business and our mission to share that gospel invites us to share this journey.

You can follow the progress of the RAP via the LCA’s RAP website.

Marilyn Wall is the LCA’s RAP Project Officer.

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Accessing records can be key to identity

by Janette Lange

I handed her the photo. Taken in the early 1900s at Koonibba Mission on South Australia’s west coast, it showed a young Aboriginal man on his confirmation day. She looked at it for a few moments, taking in the image of her grandfather, then tears rolled down her cheeks. ‘Thank you! This is just what I’ve been looking for!’ Such can be the power of the records we hold at Lutheran Archives.

Hundreds of photos like this capture life at Lutheran missions in South Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland. These are securely maintained in our Adelaide archives. But, for many Aboriginal people, distance means they can’t browse the photos and viewing them online may not be an option. So Lutheran Archives is building partnerships with communities to find other ways to provide access.

An important step is making personal connections and discussing how to go forward together. It has been wonderful to have Aboriginal elders and traditional owners from Koonibba and Wujal Wujal – site of the Bloomfield River Mission in Far North Queensland – visit Lutheran Archives as part of this process.

In 2016, we digitised 800 photos and films relating to Koonibba Mission and these are now available through community centres in Ceduna and Koonibba. Likewise, a project with the State Library of Queensland and the Wujal Wujal and Hope Vale communities has seen almost 1500 photos digitised and provided to those communities. We hope these images will jog memories, spark stories and provide opportunities for people to feed information back to Lutheran Archives.

We hope to build similar partnerships with other Aboriginal communities, as access to personal information is vital to healing and to establishing identity.

Last year Lutheran Archives renewed its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Nunkuwarrin Yunti of South Australia’s Link-Up SA program, which assists survivors of the Stolen Generations to access records.

However, there is more to be done. Hundreds of pages of mission records are yet to be indexed and there are more mission photos and records to digitise. So hopefully we’ll hear those words again, ‘Thank you! This is just what I’ve been looking for!’

Janette Lange is Acting Director of Lutheran Archives.

More details: phone 08 8340 4009, email lutheran.archives@lca.org.au or visit the website at www.lca.org.au/archives

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