Church News
Alice Springs Lutheran Church
49 Gap Road, P: 8953 2432
Sunday Service 9.30am
New Pastor at FRM (Finke River Mission)
We are pleased to welcome Stephen and Ondre Radke back to Central Australia. Pastor Stephen was a vicar at the Alice Springs Lutheran Church and served at Papunya in the 1980's. He will be installed on Sunday at the Lutheran Church on Gap Road into a new role as an FRM Pastoral Support Worker. You are welcome to join us at 9.30am followed by a sausage sizzle lunch.
ALC partners with Finke River Mission (FRM) to provide 2 separate weeks of training for Aboriginal pastors and evangelists each year. Dr Andrew Pfeiffer led the most recent training and shares this reflection. Australia is a vast continent. I was reminded of that reality when teaching at the latest Finke River Mission (FRM) bush camp. This time it was held in Kaltukatjara (Docker River) from April 7-11. Kaltukatjara is 682km west of Alice Springs, 8km from the WA border and about 100km north of the South Australian border. The road trip took us about eight hours but some of the pastors and trainees travelled a few hours just to get to Alice before setting off. Lindsay Thomas from Yalata joined us with the help of Pastor David Kuss, who travelled the farthest from Murray Bridge to be our cookie extraordinaire. There were participants from 5 language groups represented, which added to the complexity of teaching and communicating at this camp: Arrante, Anmatyerr, Alyawarr, Pitjantjara, and Pintupi Luritja. The camp included indigenous pastors, trainees and visitors, FRM translator/support workers, our cook, and four guests. In addition, women from the local congregation came to listen to two of the sessions and showed particular interest in working with the pastors to offer confirmation instruction for the young. The topic for the week was The Role of the Pastor. The pastors and trainees attending were very engaged. We studied the Scriptures, the LCA Ordination Rite and an FRM outline on the pastoral role in their context. We spent a day developing our preaching and experimented with group language discussions and a closing Q&A session, both of which seemed to go well. At the closing HC service, trainee Bernard and Pastor Lindsay led the liturgy with assistance from support worker Malcolm Willcocks, and I preached. As usual there were some interesting side highlights. The landscape was spectacular, including seeing Uluru on the way. A bull camel greeted us on the last section of the dirt road and a few horses farewelled us on the way home. Two local dingoes made themselves at home, especially around the ‘kitchen’. The spread of the Gospel in central Australia is a remarkable story. However, the task needs to be re-claimed and embraced by each new generation. Please pray for the many community congregations, the indigenous pastors, those in training to be pastors, support workers Malcolm Willcocks, Neville Doecke and David Strickland, all who work in support of Finke River Mission, and for those being challenged to serve God in the various vacant roles. |
From time to time, ALC partners with the LCANZ’s International Mission to provides training for overseas partner churches. During April, ALC’s emeritus lecturer, Dr Stephen Haar was invited to lead a 2 week intensive course on ‘Lutheran Theology’ and ‘The Augsburg Confession’, at the Luther Study Centre (LSC) in North Sumatra, Indonesia.
This invitation came at the request of 13 Lutheran World Federation member churches (representing 8 million members), who conveyed a need to grow in their expression of ‘Lutheran identity’. Fifteen representatives from these member churches attended the course.
The LSC aims to strengthen theological understanding and leadership, assist pastors and church workers to better proclaim the saving work of Christ among those they serve and equip local churches for effective mission in a majority Muslim country.
The practice of Christian faith in Indonesia can no longer simply exist in church buildings, as increasing numbers of people feel prevented from worshiping in their buildings, by violence and sometimes legal order. In some regions, faith means simply suffering - even death. The stark reality of this experience was echoed in conversations with those who attended the intensive course.
Dr Haar said, ‘I return home with a greater awareness of the challenges and needs of the church in Indonesia, as well as being inspired by their spirit, faith, hope and reliance.’
Lutheran churches in Indonesia are experiencing challenges in their life due to their common relationship with other believers and social political problems. These include the challenge to be open and changing churches: making the confession and teachings of the reformation both relevant and authentic for their current context and time.
The ALC Library has in its rare book collection, a recently restored ‘Erasmus of Rotterdam’ – a translation into Latin from the original Greek of the Epistles of St Paul published in Basel 1522. Prior to restoration, the book was severely damaged by various botched attempts to repair it over the last couple of centuries and was in pieces with separated glued together pages. Thanks to a grant from the History Trust of South Australia, the book is now functional, with text previously unseen for a couple of hundred years, now accessible. This treasure has been remarkably repaired and is now available for viewing by appointment. Email: library@alc.edu.au or phone (08) 7120 8270.
Yirara College
Check out what has been happening at Yirara College via their first term newsletter and Yirara TV
https://www.yirara.nt.edu.au/index.php/category/newsletter/
https://www.yirara.nt.edu.au/index.php/category/yirara-tv/
Exciting News
The calendar competition is now open. Thank you to all our past supporters who have entered the calendar photo competition. We would like to invite everyone to enter with the 1st prize winner a guaranteed $250. As a celebration of our 80th year we are creating a special calendar for you all with bible readings, verses and beautiful imagery from Australia and New Zealand. We would love you to be involved in this. The competition closes end of business on Friday 31st May and all winners will be announced by 1st August 2024. Please see the link below or click on the image above on how to enter and our guidelines on entering.
Calendar Competition – Lutheran Media
We are excited to see your creativity come to life!