Lutheran Church Of Australia Nsw
Religious Organisations in Adelaide

Lutherans have been Australia and New Zealand for more than 150 years. In the 1830s insignificant groups of European Lutherans emigrated in search of religious freedom. It is liable that the many nonchurchattending Australian people who identify as Lutheran do so because of their association with a Lutheran school, childcare center or aged concern facility. Our tag line, Where Love Comes to Life, reflects the heart and soul of our mission. In every district and department of the Lutheran Church of Australia, in every congregation and school, in every Australian and New Zealander who identifies as Lutheran, we want to be the place where love comes to life. In other words, we want people to see the love, grace, forgiveness and compassion of Jesus Christ coming to them through every place and every person in our church. We also adhere to the three ecumenical (or universal) creeds of Christians around the world. However, our church is committed to the compassionate pastoral protection of all people, including those who identify as homosexual, and we are currently active on a statement that deals with the topic of human sexuality as a whole. The CA is 'synodical' church, meaning that every congregation 'walks together' with every other congregation, every district with every other district, and every department or agency with every other one. Every three years representatives of the CA's congregations confront for the Convention of Synod, which is our church's primary decision making body. For the purposes of effective governance and administration, the CA is divided into six regional districts, one of which is the LC NZ (which is also a church in its own right). The districts face every one or two years for their own Convention of Synod, where regional business is conducted and office bearers, including the bishop, are elected. With the expansion of settlement the German Lutherans began to spread out across the state in search of larger landholdings. German migration to Queensland began in large numbers in the 1860s. Only a few Lutheran congregations were established in Tasmania and Western Australia. Similarly, the language of the Lutheran Church was German in its worship and its business. In the early 1900s moves were made to introduce English, and this was hastened by the outbreak of World War I. The beginning pastors, Havel and Fritzsche, disagreed on a number of matters and in 1846 they established segregate churches. As a result, in the hasty 1900s there were eight partition Lutheran churches, plus some self-reliant Lutheran pastors. The provision of schools for their children was a priority for the hasty Lutherans. Many congregational primary schools were started in the 1800s. In the 1970s and 1980s there was a rapid expansion in the Lutheran school system and abundant primary and inferior schools were established, especially in Queensland. The CA also has associate membership in two international bodies: the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), which is a communion of about 95 per cent of Lutheran churches in the world, and the International Lutheran Council (ICC). Through these partnerships the CA also participates in ministry and mission in countries beyond the borders of our partner churches as they engage in mission with their close neighbors.

Even though he lived the life of a conscientious monk Luther felt that he was not able to please God, but as he studied the Bible he began to realism that its central message is about God’s overwhelming love for us in Christ. And so Luther began protesting against church practices of that time which gave people the impression they must contribute to their salvation. Appropriate works don’t earn us salvation, Luther taught, rather faith active in love is productive in a good life and good works. Luther’s teaching, sermons, and writings inspired others to join him in busy for reform of the church. The confession of Christian faith they presented to the emperor is known as the Augsburg confession, and this has become the charter of Lutheran churches all round the world. Those who followed Luther were nicknamed Lutherans’. Behind the Reformation, the Lutheran church went through times of inner dissension, and was beset by external perils of various kinds, culminating in the horror of the Thirty Years War. In these years Lutheranism had to define and defend itself, and this is called the period of Orthodoxy. Eventually it was agreed that people should basically follow their leaders: if the duke is Catholic, his people should be too if the prince is Lutheran, his people should trail him. Subsequent this pattern, various regional churches developed in Germany, whereas in the Nordic sphere whole nations followed their rulers in becoming Lutheran. When northern Europeans began to be involved in colonial expansion, those from a Lutheran background took their faith with them and over a period established new Lutheran churches. The faith communities that grew o