New bishop for LCANZ’s Western Australia District

Pastor Peter Hage has been elected as the next bishop of the LCANZ’s Western Australia District.

The pastor of St Johns Lutheran Church in Perth, he was elected unopposed for an initial four-year term during last weekend’s District Convention of Synod at Concordia Lutheran Church Duncraig, in suburban Perth. Pastor Kim Kuchel, who has retired from Army chaplaincy and is serving part-time with the Katanning–Narrogin Parish southeast of Perth, was elected and installed as WA’s new assistant bishop during the convention.

Bishop-elect Peter will succeed Bishop Mike Fulwood, who has retired from the part-time role he has served in since June 2017. The pair will work together during a handover period over the coming weeks.

The assistant bishop of the district since 2018, Bishop-elect Peter will also continue to serve St Johns. A self-described ‘reluctant bishop’, he says he is excited to be able to continue in the parish role as well as supporting the WA District as bishop.

‘I say to people I was initially a reluctant pastor and I’m a reluctant bishop’, he said. ‘I just think of those words that Jesus said, “To him who is given much, much is required”. He says that in the context of the master giving servants various talents to serve with and in that context not everyone is given that same ability, but we just simply need to reflect on our gifts. While this has not been an aspiration of mine, I’ve had great encouragement from others that I should take on this role. So, with the encouragement of pastors and congregations and the support of people, I’ve accepted that God has led me in this way.’

Bishop-elect Peter said a significant factor in accepting the nomination for bishop was that he was surprised to also receive a nomination to serve as bishop of New Zealand the day before receiving the WA nomination.

‘Those two combined made me seriously consider these nominations realising that people do see in me something more than I had thought of myself because it wasn’t something I was looking for’, he said. ‘I’m happy to serve and I’m happy to support but to take the lead is a responsibility that needs to be covered by much grace.’

Excited, too, by the prospects for church planting in WA, along with what is already happening in the Rockingham–Mandurah area, Bishop-elect Peter believes his district role is also to give hope to congregations through changing times.

‘It’s very clear that the LCA is on the verge of significant changes, and in that uncertainty we need to keep trusting in God’s Spirit that he will lead us and guide us’, he said. ‘It’s God’s church, it’s not our church. We need not fear the future but move into the future expecting something different. It was appropriate that last Sunday’s gospel reading from John chapter 3 spoke of the Spirit being like the wind – you don’t know where it’s come from or where it’s going but you can see what it’s doing. And this, for me, is our moving forward in the church. We’re not sure where the Spirit is leading us but we know we’re being carried along by the Spirit.

‘I am happy to lead our District through a season of transition and change just trusting in the faithfulness of God and the promises that he gives to us that he is always with us.’

Ordained in 1990, he began his ministry in Papua New Guinea and served there for 10 years, before accepting a call to Freeling parish in South Australia in 2001. He also served at Mount Barker in South Australia and Mount Gravatt in Queensland, before beginning his ministry at St Johns Perth in 2017.

He and his wife, Lois, have two adult children.