Sharing our Lutheran stories

LCANZ churchwide entities will share stories of Lutherans in Australia and New Zealand with the wider community through an exhibition, guided tours, workshops and presentations during South Australia’s History Festival in May.

The new Church House Exhibition Centre will open its doors at 139 Frome Street in Adelaide for the month-long celebration of history and community connections from 5 May. Visitors to the centre will be able to go on a nearly 200-year ‘journey’ focusing on the mission and service of Lutherans in Australia and New Zealand.

The ground floor space, which is designed to welcome members of the church and general public alike, will share stories through enlightening information panels, historic and current-day photos, interactive audio-visual displays and rare artefacts and artworks, with much of its contents being sourced from our LCANZ’s Lutheran Archives. Bookings are not required to visit the centre during its regular opening hours (Tuesday to Thursday, 10am to 4pm); however, emailing ahead to exhibitioncentre@lca.org.au is recommended for guided tours.

Lutheran Archives will also offer guided tours, as well as a course and workshops, among the more than 550 events that make up the annual festival. Archivists will guide walking tours entitled ‘German Adelaide: Culture’, ‘German Adelaide: Community’ and ‘German Adelaide: North Adelaide’ twice each, while also hosting a course over three weeks on genealogy for ‘absolute beginners’ and one-off workshops on the topics of ‘Reading German Documents: Fraktur and Kurrentschrift’ and ‘Researching German-Australian Family History’. The course and workshop will be held at the Archives’ base at 27 Fourth Street, Bowden, in inner-suburban Adelaide.

Friends of Lutheran Archives (FoLA) are presenting a talk titled ‘Home via Hermannsburg: William Wilkinson’s 847 Day Top End Red Centre Quest’ as part of the festival on 21 May at Immanuel Lutheran Church North Adelaide, while the Australian Lutheran College (ALC) Library will host special viewings and discussions on some of the rare books from its collection on 13 May at its 22 Pulteney Street site in Adelaide’s CBD.

More information, including how to book for the Archives and ALC Library events, is available online at https://festival.history.sa.gov.au/ by using the program search bar.

The Church House Exhibition Centre still has openings for volunteers, so if you live in Adelaide and would like to serve in this way, please email exhibitioncentre@lca.org.au