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DESIGN & PRINT
Design & Layout Elysia McEwen
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The Lutheran is produced on the traditional lands of the Kaurna and Dharug peoples.
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LUTHERAN CHURCH
The Lutheran informs the members of the LCANZ about the church’s teaching, life, mission and people, helping them to grow in faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. The Lutheran also provides a forum for a range of opinions, which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor or the policies of the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand.
Making a stand
After a busy time ‘attending’ General Pastors Conference and General Synod at Concordia College in suburban Adelaide recently, Convention veteran ‘Marty’ gets set to relax with some reading material just made for him. The metre-tall replica of the statue of Martin Luther in Wittenberg, Germany, was a gift to the LCA as part of global commemorations of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.
Send us a photograph featuring a recent copy of The Lutheran and it may appear on page 2 of a future issue and on our website at www.thelutheran.com.au
People like YOU bring love to life
Supporting
Synod
The LLL really brought the LCANZ’s 21st Regular Convention of General Synod to life as the major sponsor of the triennial event – including through the gift of barista coffee to delegates, volunteers, staff and visitors during the four-day event (see also page 19). On hand – and all smiles – at one of LLL’s expo stands at Synod were Heidi Schalk (from LLL outreach ministry Lutheran Tract Mission), Marketing Manager Rhianan Strangways and Communications Officer Jason Phelan. Learn more about how LLL provides business and financial support to the LCA as a partner in mission and ministry at www.lll.org.au
Let the light of someone you know shine through their photo being featured in The Lutheran and LCA Facebook. With their permission, send us a good quality photo, their name and details (congregation, occupation and most treasured text) and your contact details.
EXECUTIVE
When I walked out of the business room at Convention for the last time, I asked to keep my lanyard and nametag, as a memento. It will be my last face-to-face General Synod. God-willing I’ll be retired by 2027. I took a long look back at the room, at people packing up, saying goodbyes. Some I’ll see again, many I won’t.
On the face of it, that room was just another school gymnasium transformed into a convention space, but the emotions sparked by the historic resolution of Synod that happened there will be etched on LCANZ people’s memories for a long time, perhaps as long as they live.
At the closing worship service that morning you saw some pastors reeling from the Synod decision. Confused, conflicted, shell-shocked, they still turned up to worship, some digging deep to hold it together. What will they do now? What is God asking them to do? Please pray for these men of God and all who are wrestling with life-altering questions.
Taking communion alongside them were some women who have longed for decades to fulfil their call to be pastors, now overwhelmed with joy, but holding that joy in tight restraint for the sake of their hurting brothers and sisters. They have been there, too; they know what the pain of a Synod decision feels like. What will they do now? What is God asking them to do? Please pray for these women of God and all who are discerning next steps. Everywhere you saw tears – brimming in eyes, rolling down cheeks, held tightly inside hearts. There were tears of exhaustion, tears of elation, tears of loss, and tears of heart-ripping grief.
And tears of togetherness.
If you’ve never been able to attend a General Synod worship service, you’ve missed something extraordinary. There you see the people of God in this little LCANZ of ours coming together with all their differentness, each with empty hearts to receive what God pours into them. There we are sinners and saints together. There we rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Despite all that’s been and all that is to come, there we see and know that we are one.
This is the gift of God. It's grace that unites us.
Whenever I hear Robin Mann’s Bread of Heaven I think of General Synod, where it is invariably sung at the closing communion service. Every time the tears well up as the lyrics sink deeply into my heart, as I look at my brothers and sisters with opposing opinions on various matters, who have spoken passionately on different sides of a debate, who have wept with joy and wept with grief – and here they are, side by side, together at God’s table. It’s the closest thing to heaven we’ll experience this side of it.
Jesus, Bread of Heaven, as we step into a new chapter of our LCANZ … give us new hearts, teach us how to love and share; all are equal at the table, make us equal everywhere. Bread of heaven, here you make us one, may it be a taste of what's to come, bread of heaven, for the life that never ends.
Synod enables ordination of women and
‘A space between the places’: a message for the church
LCANZ elects mission leader as Assistant Bishop
Gathering under grace –worship at Convention
Bishop’s report
Synod elects General Church Board
Board reports to General Synod – some key points
Training and accreditation authority approved
Congregations supported in mission
Offering to support Indonesian study centre
Young Lutherans share hope and inspiration
Thanks to our volunteers
Chaplains provide prayer and care
Because we bear your name: Bishop Paul’s letter
Our cover: LCA Queensland District Bishop Mark Vainikka leads the Holy Communion liturgy during the closing service of the Convention of General Synod.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following pages may contain images of people who have died.
PS – Thanks so much to Linda for writing this editorial while I’ve been busy putting the post-Synod edition together. Thank you, too, to Elise Mattiske and Beth Marsh for their support and to volunteer Convention photographers Andrea Winter and Anthony Bothe.
Photo: Anthony Bothe
BISHOP PAUL’S LETTER Because we bear your name
‘Concordia’ is the name of our Lutheran college in Highgate in suburban Adelaide, South Australia. It is where delegates from across our church, including those from across the Tasman Sea, gathered for the 21st Convention of our General Synod in early October.
Concordia is a Latin word which means ‘with one heart’. It is a historic name of our Lutheran Church as ‘Concordia’ was also the simple title of the original collection of writings that we know today as The Book of Concord.
The name ‘Concordia’ reflects the common purpose of those who gather. In the church, the idea of being of ‘one heart’ goes right back to the very first Christians who gathered together after the day of Pentecost. We are told in the book of Acts chapter 4, about those who were ‘of one heart and soul’.
So, it was fitting for us to gather at ‘Concordia’ for the decisions of our Convention, including the Way Forward proposal. Our General Pastors Conference and General Synod expressed the desire to go forward together, to be of ‘one heart’ as people of the Lutheran Confession both in New Zealand and Australia.
Some in our church are troubled by the outcomes of the Convention. They may not have voted in favour of some proposals. But we have gathered purposefully to be of one heart together, to serve one another and to listen to one another.
Following the Convention at Concordia, we have much to do. There are documents to prepare and support to give to one another. We received many reports, including some about the relocation of our Australian Lutheran College and Churchwide Office to our new building on Frome Street in the city centre of Adelaide, with the expectation that the move will be completed in 2025.
OUR GENERAL PASTORS CONFERENCE AND GENERAL SYNOD EXPRESSED THE DESIRE TO GO FORWARD TOGETHER, TO BE OF ‘ONE HEART’ AS PEOPLE OF THE LUTHERAN CONFESSION.
When I think of this ‘one heart’, I am reminded of the symbol of Luther’s Rose, in which the heart is at the centre, and at the centre of the heart is the cross of our Lord. To be of one heart is to be committed to serving together as witnesses to all that the Lord has done for us, to the ends of the earth.
At every baptism, the pastor repeats this image when he makes the sign of the cross over the forehead and the breast of the person to be baptised. Speaking the person’s name, the pastor says, ‘Receive the mark of the holy cross † as a sign that Christ the crucified has redeemed you’. Our hearts are changed by the good news of Jesus Christ. When the disciples on the way to Emmaus heard the gospel from the risen Lord, they declared, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us?’
We have much to do but with a common purpose with ‘one heart’. Let us pray to the Lord, for one another and for the world, as we go into the world as people of the gospel. We remember that, at all times, we bear Christ’s name, as in the words below.
In Christ,
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.
Help us receive each other, Lord, for you receive the least of us and come to us in them –because we bear your name.
Bless those who give us any gift, because they know that we are yours; reward them with your grace –because we bear your name.
Let us acknowledge those as friends who use your name to right a wrong but have not joined us yet –because we bear your name.
Let nothing that we do or say offend the weak so that they fall and lose their faith in you –because we bear your name.
Keep us from missing out on life; give hands that help, and single sight, and feet that walk your way –because we bear your name.
You are the salt that cleanses us, so clean us out, and make us fit for common life with you –because we bear your name.
REV PAUL SMITH Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand
292 All Together Everybody
One Licence Words: Dr John Kleinig Music: Dr Robin Mann
