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Serving our elders

With a Lutheran school in their area, the ministry focus of members at the Wyndham–Hobson Bay Multi-site Congregation in Melbourne’s west has long been on the young and families. But now that those who were founders of the congregation are ageing, the church is also setting out on a new ministry journey.

by Faye Schmidt

This year saw the celebration of 50 years of Lutheran worship in the Wyndham–Hobson Bay area and 20 years since the opening of the local school, Good News Lutheran College, Tarneit, which is now a thriving P-12 school.

Ministry to children and families remains a priority for the congregation, but we have recently also committed to a structured ministry to meet the needs of older members who have served St Philip’s Tarneit (formerly Werribee) and Martin Luther Altona North so faithfully for so long. There are times when these ageing members are in hospital, or confined to their homes, and may be alone and isolated. It is now time to recognise their service and to provide a ministry of service to them.

On the last day of Victoria’s Seniors Week in 2018, a week in which seniors are celebrated and there is a focus on their contribution to society and their needs, our church launched its Ministry with the Ageing program in Tarneit.

The Federal Government’s 2017 parliamentary inquiry into elder abuse identified neglect as an element of abuse most applicable to the ageing. This initiative is designed to ensure that as a congregation we don’t neglect the spiritual care of our elders.

Ministry with the Ageing needs to be recognised, deliberate and focused on the needs of the elderly and part of who we are as a church.

We have formed a team of interested people and identified services which will make up the ministry. These will apply to both of our worshipping centres and related elderly members but we will combine the activities where practical. All of these areas offer avenues of service for other members, too.

Wyndham–Hobson Bay Ministry with the Ageing services include:
• Pastoral visiting – regular home visits with holy communion and faith journey encouragement
• Engagement visiting – keeping contact with people and ascertaining any specific needs
• Social engagement – regular community lunches and devotional time/community worship

Faye Schmidt is the Facilitator of Wyndham–Hobson Bay Lutheran Church’s Ministry with the Ageing program.

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Out of the box!

Grace Lutheran Church Bridgewater in the Adelaide Hills is thinking outside of the box when it comes to bringing love to life for people in need at Christmas this year.

And the hope is that the Hills church will soon be ‘alive’ with a range of hand-made ‘animals’ representing the congregation’s donations to Australian Lutheran World Service’s Gifts of Grace program.

Pastor Michael Dutschke said two members, who had for many years organised the congregation to support another aid and development organisation, approached him wondering whether Grace could do something different in 2018 as it prepared to recognise God’s greatest gift to us in Jesus. The criteria was that they would support something that would be a ‘hand up’ to people overseas in difficult situations; that the project would inspire members to become involved; that it would be something they could do together and that it would be a bit of fun, Pastor Michael said.

‘We brainstormed some ideas that would fit those categories, and decided to support the work of ALWS through “Gifts of Grace”’, he said. ‘ALWS knows what
is the most beneficial for families and communities.’

Church members built a farmyard display and pen, and made piñata-style papier-mache animals to represent those that could be purchased for needy families overseas through Gifts of Grace. When members donate or fundraise money, they put that money into a money box, and place the appropriate ‘animal’ into the pen.

ALWS Community Action Officer Julie Krause, who recently helped launch Bridgewater’s appropriately named Gifts of Grace campaign, thanked the congregation for ‘thinking outside the box’. ‘Many things sent to people overseas – despite being sent with kind hearts and great intentions – never get to those people or are not appropriate to their needs’, she said. ‘Through Gifts of Grace, gifts such as chickens, pigs, clean water and long-drop loos not only help a family have a livelihood that goes on and on, but can also save lives.’

Grace church will tally up the animal projects funded and send the donation to ALWS just before Christmas.

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LCA first national church to Reconciliation Action Plan

The LCA will become the first national church in Australia to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), as part of its commitment to better hear, recognise and support Aboriginal people in the church.

At the church’s General Convention in Sydney last month, Synod called on the LCA’s General Church Board, formerly General Church Council, ‘to develop and implement a RAP that will:
• assist ongoing relationship building through listening to Aboriginal people in the LCA
• support non-Aboriginal people in the LCA to gain insight into what is important to Aboriginal people
• provide a culturally appropriate mechanism by which our church together with (inclusive of) Aboriginal people and communities within the LCA can address questions of recognition and representation and
• develop appropriate ways to encourage and enable Aboriginal people to serve and lead in all aspects of church life in the LCA’.

Synod also authorised the General Church Board (GCB) to commit the necessary resources to prepare and deliver the plan and requested a report on the plan’s implementation to be given to the 2021 General Convention.

LCA RAP Project Team Member Shona Reid, who is an Eastern Arrernte Woman and a member at Ferryden Park Lutheran Church in suburban Adelaide, said a RAP would provide a list of agreed practical actions to drive our church’s contribution to reconciliation.

She said it would allow the LCA to draw on ‘existing relationships, knowledge and resources; provide greater support to its existing Aboriginal mission areas; develop stronger respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and create opportunities for the LCA to work together, to grow strong in faith’.

‘At its core this proposal is about continuing to build upon our solid foundation of respectful and dignified relationships between the First Nations people and other Australians to enable us to come together and live reconciled in Christ’, Mrs Reid said.

‘The path to reconciliation is not a task that any one entity can undertake on its own. It is a joint movement of all people, places, races and identities.

‘We also believe that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. As a church we carry out this ministry by proclaiming Christ’s reconciling work to all people and pleading with them to receive the friendship of God. As church we further witness to reconciliation by living in unity and peace with fellow Christians from various cultures and classes, and by promoting justice and peace among all people.’

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‘The LCA is hurting’

The discussion, debate and vote on the ordination of women and men in the LCA was an emotional one for many people at Synod.

The first item of business on Saturday 6 October was to take time out to reflect on the result of the previous day’s vote. Of the 406 delegates registered at the 2018 Convention, 161 voted in the secret ballot against the resolution to ordain both men and women; while 240 supported it. Five delegates had left Synod by the time of the vote. The Constitution of the LCA requires a two-thirds majority of registered delegates to bring about a change in matters of a theological or confessional nature.

The next morning delegates gathered at tables to pray and listen while the district bishops moved among them.

Regardless of their views on the issue, it was clear from the delegates’ discussions that there was a broad sense of sadness. Reflecting back the feelings of the table groups, South Australia–Northern Territory Bishop David Altus, pictured, said, ‘If I could put it into my own words I would say that the LCA is hurting, and hurting very badly. She’s a broken woman, hurting in all parts of the body.

‘What we’ve been hearing is a profound sense of grief, sadness and loss. We are hearing that the church will be bleeding people this very day – this is a reality. The cross of pain is all the heavier today because of what we share in common.

‘What we value and what holds us together is extremely powerful. It gives us heart and hope, despite the heaviness of our hearts today.’

Western Australia District Bishop Mike Fulwood added: ‘I witnessed the body of Christ attending to itself. I heard people listening gently and attentively to one another, trying to heal some of the hurts, the grief. There was also a sense of frustration with our process and whether it is serving us well, and with the difficulty GPC [General Pastors Conference] has had in giving recommendations to Synod.

‘There was also some sense of frustration with the voting system. The vote was defined as a “no” to ordination, when most delegates voted “yes”. How do we sit in that uncomfortable space?

‘There was a desire to be able to explore a third way – not just a “yes” or a “no”. Are there other ways we can move forward together? What does it mean for us to live in unity and diversity – what would that look like?’

‘Delegates don’t want the conversation shut down’, Bishop Altus said. ‘It’s not three strikes and it’s over – that would not honour the body in this room. At the same time they don’t want so much time, energy and resources invested into this single issue.

‘We need to get the gospel out to people; there is so much to do; we need time, energy and space to do that.’

New South Wales Bishop James Haak* proposed a motion, which Synod passed almost unanimously and without debate: ‘that Synod acknowledges the deep hurt and harm to individuals and groups that has been occasioned over the past years in the course of the debate regarding ordination, repents of the hurt, and seeks forgiveness and reconciliation with one another’.

*Bishop James Haak died suddenly on 20 October.

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Held safely

General Convention worship texts and themes followed the journey of the Israelites, as recorded in the book of Exodus. With every step of faith they took away from slavery in Egypt towards freedom and future – through good times and bad – they were held safely in the hands of God. As are we.

… by God’s living word

The sermons of each day’s worship at Synod were based on a text from Exodus and preached by one of our bishops. You can read transcripts of the daily sermons on the Worship page of the Synod website here.Preaching on Exodus 3:8a at the opening service of General Convention, LCA Bishop John Henderson encouraged those gathered to ‘be ready to listen for God, and maybe to be surprised’. The opening and closing services were live-streamed. You can watch them here.

… we journey together in faith

South Australia–Northern Territory District Bishop David Altus preached on Exodus 13:17–22 – in which God leads the Israelites around the desert – as a metaphor for our own faith journey as church. Bishop Altus said: ‘It’s not about who we are and where we are going at all. It’s about who God is and where God is going. So we go into the unknown today with the God we do know: … who is always with us and one step ahead of us at the same time; … and who calls us to get in behind him and where he is going!’

… fed by prayer and his supper

Every day began with a holy communion service for those gathered as Synod. The Lord’s supper was served from an altar crafted in the dimensions of the altar in the tabernacle which journeyed with the Israelites. Prayer was integral, too, not just in worship, but also throughout the business sessions of General Convention. In his sermon, based on Exodus 12:13 about the Passover Lamb, Queensland District Bishop Paul Smith urged the congregation to pray the ‘Lamb of God’ prayer ‘not just on Sunday but especially throughout Synod, to pray it every day – and throughout the day’. He said this prayer ‘is not just about me – we don’t say, “Lamb of God have mercy on me” – it is “Have mercy on us”. This is a prayer that we pray for the church and the world – for each sister and brother beside you and around you.’

… washed clean by water

Entering the worship space, delegates, visitors, volunteers and staff walked between desert ‘rocks’ and rippling deep-blue velvet walls of ‘water’ – as a reminder of the Israelites crossing of the Red Sea – and could then dip their fingers in the water of the font as a reminder of the gifts of eternal life and faith received through baptism. In his sermon on the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14), New Zealand District Bishop Mark Whitfield told Synod that ‘we are water people’.

‘Whether we were part of that earliest of European exodus migrations to our nations in the 1800s … or whether we’re relatively recent arrivals … we’ve crossed water to be here’, he said, sprinkling water from a fern frond and encouraging delegates to daily ‘remember and be embraced by the grace and promise of our baptism’.

… in freedom won on the cross

As a reminder of the amazing undeserved love of God for his people, the cross was central to, and the focus of, every worship service at Synod. Preaching on Exodus 19:1–6, Victoria–Tasmania District Bishop Lester Priebbenow spoke of God’s great rescue of a disobedient Israel, reflected in Jesus’ death for us on the cross: ‘God seeks to draw us back to himself, saying, “Remember what I’ve done for you in Christ! Remember who you are and whose you are in Christ!”.’

… to praise and honour God

Once again delegates and visitors said worship was a highlight of Convention. Music styles and liturgies varied from day to day. Bands, a cantor, organists including Bishop Mark Whitfield, and the choir from Sydney’s Gereja Kristen Indonesia di Australia of Concordia Lutheran Church, were among those adding diversity and richness to the songs and hymns featured in the services.

… who leads us to future glory

Preaching on Exodus 29:45 in the closing service at Synod, Bishop John Henderson said that ‘there is still uncharted territory to cross’ for us as we journey towards God’s promised land. ‘God gives us the overall direction, but not necessarily a map of all the details. We have God’s Word as our guide’, he said. ‘By faith we will be able to do what we need to do … As we take the next steps, let’s be patient with God and kind to one another.’

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How green is my Bible?

by Neil Bergmann

The ecological damage being done to God’s good creation is an urgent issue facing all of humanity.

The earth’s resources, land, water, and air, as well as its rich diversity of plants and animals, are under increasing stress from unsustainable use, enabled by scientific and technological capabilities that were unthinkable a few generations ago.

The answers to this crisis are not simple or obvious. Those same technologies have given us vastly improved healthcare, lifted millions of people out of poverty, and provided many with meaningful and rewarding careers.

But something needs to change if there is any hope that this current generation is to leave the earth in better shape than we found it. Where can we, as Christians, look for guidance?

One of the key parts of the Lutheran Confessions, the Formula of Concord, begins with the statement: ‘We believe, teach, and confess that the sole rule and standard according to which all dogmas together with all teachers should be estimated and judged are the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and of the New Testament alone’. So does Scripture give us any help here?

Rather than a book about what we should and shouldn’t do, I think the Bible is much more about who we are and what kinds of people we are called to be. It is a book about our relationships – our relationship with God, our relationships with each other, and our relationship with God’s creation.

These relationships start in the creation hymn of Genesis 1, where the triune God is creator, and we humans are identified as part of God’s creation – a creation that is very good. Humanity has a special role in creation: ‘God created humankind in his image’ (v27) and then said to them ‘replenish the earth and subdue it’ (v28).

‘Subdue’ doesn’t sound like a very green relationship with the earth, but we get further explanation in the second creation narrative recorded in Genesis 2. ‘God formed an earthling from the dust of the earth’ (v7), emphasising that our bodies are made from the earth itself, like all the other animals and plants. However, unlike other creatures, our lives and our spirits came directly from God when God ‘breathed into his nostrils the breath of life’ (v7). We also get more information about what ‘subdue’ means when Genesis 2 tells us that the earthling was placed ‘in the garden to work it and to take care of it’ (v15). So right from the beginning we are intimately linked both to God and to the earth. We are inseparably part of one great and good creation, but we also have a special role to care for that creation.

When we look at the Bible through ecological eyes, even familiar stories give new insights. In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), instead of a wounded traveller, we can see a wounded earth, stripped of its clothes and left half dead. Surely, loving our neighbour as ourselves includes actively caring for a wounded creation. Or are we like the priest and the Levite, too busy or too holy to help a groaning world? It is not enough to blame others for today’s ecological damage; we are called to actively care for creation.

Looking at the parable of the Prodigal Son gives us even more insight. God’s good creation is an inheritance that has been given to us to care for and to pass on to future generations. But instead, it seems that our generation has ‘squandered [its] wealth in wild living’ (Luke 15:13). But this parable also gives us hope. For the prodigal son, it was a famine that brought him to his senses. For us, we need to open our ecological eyes to the current state of creation.

But rather than despair at the state of the world, we Christians can hope. As the prodigal son repents and returns to his father, so we can acknowledge that we are living beyond earth’s capacity to sustain our current lifestyle, and turn in repentance to a loving and always forgiving father.

Neil Bergmann worships at Our Saviour Lutheran Church at Rochedale in suburban Brisbane. He joined the LCA’s Commission on Social and Bioethical Questions’ Environmental Action Working Group because he has hopes for a higher profile for environmental issues within the church.

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Our call to care for creation

by Cathryn Hamilton

Am I a tree-hugging greenie? A caring grandmother? A steward of God’s creation? Or all of the above? Well yes, I love trees, but I love birds, orchids (like the Pink Fairy Orchids I photographed, above), food, and spending time with my grandchildren, too! These are all God’s gifts and they all need to be cared for.

Earth care is a topic that has long interested me. During my childhood near Murray Bridge in South Australia, my parents were market gardeners before venturing into raising chickens. I learned about sustainability, the value of recycling chicken manure, conserving water, buying local, and living simply and in community. I grew up in the Lutheran church. Many members were farmers, although I didn’t see evidence of environmental action in the 1960s and 70s.

Studying science at university, I heard about US marine biologist Rachel Carson, whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement, particularly regarding the impact of pesticides. My early work was agriculture-based – dairy research, soil and water conservation and plant quarantine.

A marriage, a mortgage and two children later, I took much-needed contract work with the department which is now SA Water, and at the SA Health Commission. I had also joined the Lutheran church in 1991 at Salisbury to help my children learn about Jesus.

While my work was all environment-related, my interests were turning to how the community could do more. In 2011, I finished a PhD researching carbon-neutral communities and realised we can’t rely on government to protect God’s creation – it’s a bottom-up task. While politicians struggle for agreement on climate change policy, in the meantime I believe we are called to act. As Christians, we have no choice but to care deeply about the life-giving planet we call Earth.

God calls each of us differently to use our gifts and his gifts – my story and his story. In my life I hope that others see the connection I feel to God’s creation, a respect for conserving resources by building an energy-efficient home, and my desire to share what I have learned with others through my work.

In 2015 I was asked by Tanya Wittwer, the chair of the LCA’s Commission on Social and Bioethical Questions (CSBQ), to nominate to the commission. The aim was to help the church experience ‘eco-reformation’ – that by its stewardship actions the LCA shows it values and cares for God’s gift of creation. My prayer is that, through the Holy Spirit, the work of CSBQ and its Environmental Action Working Group, with Lutheran Education Australia and Australian Lutheran World Service, continues and expands across the LCA/NZ to bring about some bottom-up action.

Dr Cathryn Hamilton is Convener of the CSBQ Environmental Action Working Group and a member of Salisbury Lutheran Church in suburban Adelaide.

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Shaping Convention worship … a joint task with pastoral heart

by Adrian Kitson

One of the roles the LCA’s Commission on Worship fulfills is to work under the church’s College of Bishops to plan and coordinate the worship life of the triennial Convention of Synod. We do this with a pastoral heart.

We also do this with the following values underpinning our work:
• The business of convention is critical for the wellbeing of the church now and into the future.
• Convention business and especially the decisions that
are made by convention are entered into wrapped in God’s word, as he meets us and serves us in word and meal.
• The people of God who take responsibility for the direction of the church need to do so as a praying people. Praying, singing, listening to God’s word and participating in his meal of life are primary each day that synod meets. The day is begun, continued and ended in prayer.
• The bishops of the church are always pastors of the church. To see them operating in their calling each day in leading the divine service is a strong affirmation of this calling to them and to the delegates of convention that brings all of us back to the core of our church – God working in and through his people by his gospel.

Convention planning is a major item of business for all commission meetings for the three years leading up to convention. The biblical theme of convention is a joint project of the College of Bishops and the Commission on Worship. It comes from much dialogue in the first year of the three-year synodical term.

This year’s logo, which incorporates the general theme faith. freedom. future, is inspired by the journey of the Israelites, as written in the book of Exodus. This biblical theme was borne out of the questions, ‘What is our future?’, ‘How can we make decisions about our church with confidence?’, and ‘How can we help our people find encouragement from Scripture as they participate in Convention, so that they can be people of hope, faith and love where they live?’

We pray that the 2018 Convention of Synod helps us walk together in God’s Spirit and see his love coming to life in each other and our local communities, families and places of work.

Pastor Adrian Kitson is Chairperson of the LCA’s Commission on Worship.

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Planting seeds of gospel

Every school day around 45,000 young Australians pass through the gate of a Lutheran school or early childhood service somewhere in Australia.

Many come with parents or grandparents who stay for chapel or get involved with other activities around the school.

They become part of the school community and give school leaders and staff wonderful opportunities to minister and touch people’s lives with the gospel.
Here’s just one such story from Lutheran Education Australia Executive Director Stephen Rudolph:
‘Recently I attended a Lutheran school’s 30th year reunion. I was a special guest – the founding principal! The weekend’s activities included a reunion dinner and a Lutheran church service. Arriving at the dinner, I was confronted by many young men and women – all graduates of this Lutheran school. They excitedly told me their life stories – marriage, jobs, courses, children, memories.

‘Lucy* was one of them. But she wasn’t bubbly – she just wanted to tell me her story. And she wanted to thank me and the people of the Lutheran school of the early 1980s.
‘After high school, Lucy went back to Sydney. She got involved with the wrong crowd. As she spoke, her weak smile showed her poor teeth. She told me that due to her teenage drug taking, her teeth had been damaged.

‘I noticed her wedding ring. She told me of her husband, her three children and of her reformed life.

‘She also told me of her Christian faith and reminded me of my guitar and singing skills during devotions. She remembered the musical Sam the Good Samaritan – and could still sing the songs.

‘Lucy then reminded me of her mother’s death and her funeral. I had forgotten. The upper primary class had all attended her mother’s funeral. The students said I played the guitar. I had forgotten. Lucy had this memory etched in her heart for the past 30 years. She just wanted to say thank you for the care shown to her and her family. I had forgotten.

‘And while I forgot the care shown to Lucy 30 years earlier, she hadn’t.

‘Let us all acknowledge the principals and staff of Lutheran schools and early childhood services as they care for and minister to their communities – especially their students.
‘The constant of Lutheran schools is to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Let us never forget that.

‘And Lucy, thank you for helping me remember this truth and how God uses each one of us to care, lead and serve.’

*Not her real name

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Centre at heart of church story

Did you know Central Australia is as ‘Lutheran’ as Toowoomba in Queensland or South Australia’s Barossa Valley?

Every week thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Lutherans worship in six different languages in around 40 communities dotted over an area larger than Victoria.

Every year, 28 Lutheran pastors – 20 of them Indigenous – conduct hundreds of baptisms and confirmations, hold many bush training courses for Indigenous church leaders, and sit, pray, worship, understand and teach. God’s hand has guided this amazing Lutheran story for 140 years.

Finke River Mission (FRM), together with Alice Springs Lutheran Church, Lutheran Community Care, Yirara College and Living Waters Lutheran School, brings God’s saving gospel to Lutherans in Central Australia.

FRM also operates a general store and the Historic Precinct at Hermannsburg, approximately 120 kilometres west of Alice Springs, both at the request of the local community.

From choir trips to Germany and the USA, to bush training and tertiary courses, pastors conferences and language resources, and hospital and jail visiting – Central Australia is a very busy place for the Lutheran church!

Thankfully each year dozens of people from congregations all over Australia give their time, money and labour to support our church workers and to help maintain places of worship and other buildings.

These opportunities are ideal for congregational or interest groups (men, women, youth) – and for grey nomads escaping cold winters elsewhere, but prayer and donations from afar are also important!

Whatever way you look at it, the Lutheran church in the ‘Centre’ is an important part of the wider LCA. We hope to see you soon!

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