FILM DIGITISATION APPEAL
Here's your chance to save a film!
Become our friend!
Interested in history? Enjoy a good story? Want to learn more? Join our enthusiastic group of supporters by becoming a Friend of Lutheran Archives (FoLA). We encourage the collection and preservation of archival material and to promote the work of the Lutheran Archives.
LCA Ministry Support
Lutheran Archives is a department of the Executive Office of the Church, also known as Ministry Support. It is one of five departments exercising the 'enabling' functions outlined in our Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA) Strategic Direction 2015–2018. Working with us are:
Together we provide the support services for LCA and Lutheran Church of New Zealand (LCNZ) agencies and congregations that enable them to focus on their mission and ministry activities (the 'go' and 'grow' priorities in our LCA Strategic Direction).
Please support us
This link takes you to our LCA online donation site, where you can pay securely via credit card.
Lutheran Archives
About us
Lutheran Archives gathers and tells the stories of God at work through Lutherans in Australia – the stories of the departments, the congregations and the people.
We preserve those stories and makes them accessible to the Lutheran Church and the wider community through documents, artefacts, photographs and books of the present church and the earlier Lutheran synods which have since amalgamated.
How we serve
Lutheran contingents first came to Australia in 1837, 1838 and 1841 from eastern Prussia in search of religious freedom – they were Australia’s first refugees. At the same time, Lutheran missionaries arrived to work among Indigenous Australian people in Queensland and South Australia.
Many Prussian/German Lutherans followed as migrants, settling initially in the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley (SA), Victoria, southern New South Wales and south-east Queensland.
Bringing God’s word to Indigenous Australians was important to Lutherans, and missions were established in southern and central Australia, Queensland, New Zealand and in New Guinea.
Ministries beyond worship and congregational life encompass social welfare, media and Christian education.
The Lutheran Archives collection is comprised of congregation records from all around Australia. It covers the records of national and district agencies and departments of the church, including New Guinea mission records and some New Zealand material. We hold significant collections of Bibles, Luther’s works and other religious books, as well as artefacts and photographs.
As a church we are blessed with a wealth of material, making Lutheran Archives the largest national religious archive in Australia.
These are your stories, our stories. These are the stories that show how God's love comes to life through us.
Events
Congregation records – guidelines
This document provides information on what records congregations should keep and how to protect them. Click here to download.
'Stepping Stones'
Read the stories from one of The Lutheran's most popular columns.
Services
Scope of collection
Where to find us
Lutheran Archives
27 Fourth Street, Bowden SA 5007
In King William Street or North Terrace, catch the tram to the Entertainment Centre at Hindmarsh. Cross Port Road (walking away from the Entertainment Centre) and walk south to Gibson Street and then north-east to Fourth Street. Note: this is a free service.
Usual hours of business
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9.30 am – 4.30 pm
Closed Wednesdays, weekends and public holidays
NOTE: Fourth Street closed - enter car park from Drayton Street.
Lutheran Archives
Rachel Kuchel – Director & Archivist
Janette Lange – Archivist
Adam Kauschke – Archivist
lutheran.archives@lca.org.au
08 8340 4009
