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
Lutheran Archives acknowledges and pays our respects to the Kaurna people, the traditional custodians whose ancestral lands we gather on. We acknowledge the ongoing deep relationship of the Kaurna people to country and we respect and value their past, present and ongoing connection to the land and cultural beliefs.
Lutheran Archives opening hours
Our public opening hours are weekdays (except Wednesday) from 9.30am - 3.00pm. We offer two research sessions per day: 9.30am-12 noon, and 12.30pm-3.00pm.
COVID Policy: Please note that bookings are essential if planning to visit for research or to deposit records. Face masks may be worn according to personal discretion.
Please ring us on (08) 8340 4009 or email us before a visit to Lutheran Archives to make an appointment.
See our protocols and advice for:
Please do not drop off or send us deposits without speaking to us first.
Please do not enter Lutheran Archives if:
- you are sick, have a cough, fever, sore throat, or any cold or flu symptoms, no matter how mild OR you share a household with someone who is sick or has those symptoms
- you have been diagnosed with COVID-19, are a close contact of someone diagnosed with COVID-19, or you are awaiting PCR test results
- you have been told to isolate or quarantine.
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
Bookings are essential if planning to visit for research or to deposit records. Face masks may be worn according to personal discretion.
The opening hours for Lutheran Archives are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (closed Wednesday) from 9.30am to 3.00pm.
Please contact us to arrange your visit.
Lutheran Archives
Rachel Kuchel – Director & Archivist
Bethany Pietsch - Reference Archivist (Monday and Tuesday)
Benjamin Hollister - Reference Archivist (Thursday and Friday)
Angela Schilling - Collections Archivist
lutheran.archives@lca.org.au
08 8340 4009
