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).
Lutheran Archives
About us
Lutheran Archives holds a harvest of stories that show God’s love coming to life – the stories of the congregations, departments and the people of the church. Lutheran Archives gathers and preserves these stories from all over Australia and the Pacific – wherever the church is involved. We share the stories of the LCA/NZ across the church and in the wider public. We enable others to encounter these stories through research, so they can share their stories and experiences of love coming to life.
A wide variety of people access these records: congregations, family historians, academic researchers, creative artists and filmmakers. These records help people to write congregation histories, fill gaps in family trees, understand our cultural diversity, further Aboriginal language research, and restore identity. The power of these records cannot be overestimated.
By depositing records at Lutheran Archives, the stories of your ministries can be encountered by members of the church and public, told and disseminated to a myriad of audiences. We are able to turn your records deposited at Lutheran Archives into new ministries by providing and enabling access to them.
How we serve
As a ministry support department, Lutheran Archives is here to support you in your ministries. We can assist you with:
- advice on managing your records
- caring for your permanent records that you no longer regularly access.
Managing your records appropriately enables you to focus on carrying out your current ministries – beginning with records in your possession and continuing into the future when they are deposited at Lutheran Archives.
Lutheran Archives identifies records to be deposited. We make those records accessible through arrangement and description, indexing, translation and digitisation, and we provide contextual understanding for researchers to interpret those records.
Through presentations, exhibitions, publications, seminars and events, we disseminate the harvest of stories throughout the Lutheran community and beyond. Join Friends of Lutheran Archives to feast on these stories.
Partner with us
You and your ministries are the foundation of our ministry.
1. Ensure you create records within your congregation, mission, auxiliary
or department, and of your personal experiences in the church.
2. Manage those records appropriately while you are using them.
3. Deposit those records (minutes, correspondence, artefacts, films, photographs) when they are no longer being regularly used.
The fact that people in the past took the trouble to preserve their story means that we are blessed today with their harvest. Take the time today to preserve this generation’s fruit, so that there will be a harvest of stories for our children and grandchildren.
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
Usual hours of business
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9.30 am – 4.30 pm
Closed Wednesdays, weekends and public holidays
Closures: 21-25 October 2019; 1 December 2019 - 3 January 2020; closed annually throughout December
NOTE: Fourth Street is closed for building works. Enter car park from Drayton Street and continue around to Fourth Street side. Pedestrian access also available from Gibson Street.
Lutheran Archives
Rachel Kuchel – Director & Archivist
Janette Lange – Archivist
Adam Kauschke – Archivist
lutheran.archives@lca.org.au
08 8340 4009