Important dates

Date Event Location

27-29 Novem-

ber

Christmas Tree Festival—hand made decorations and gifts for sale

St James Lutheran Church Moorabbin

28 November 7.30pm

Taize Service, 7.30pm Cuppa, 8.00pm service

Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Knoxfield

29 November German Christmas Bazaar—German food, gift ideas and more

St John’s German Luther-an Church , Springvale

01 December District Office closed—retreat day

07 December Farewell Tandara Interns Tandara Lutheran Camp Halls Gap

14 December

Farewell for Pastor Ian Vainikka St John’s Lutheran Church, Southgate

14 December

10.00am

Thanksgiving Service celebrating the 50 year anniversary of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Mildura

28 December Farewell for Pastor Andrew Dockerill

St John’s Lutheran Church, Wodonga

Lutheran Church of Australia VIC/TAS

Ph (03) 9236 1200 Email admin@vic.lca.org.au

755 Station St Box Hill VIC 3128

End of Year Reminders

Don’t forget the NCLS Community Connections Pack

LCA will be requesting statistics soon. Has your

church appointed a statistician?

Have all the child and youth program volunteers

completed their training? Are all the programs docu-

mented on line?

Are the details for your church correct on LAMP?

District Voices News from the Vic/Tas District November 2014

20 November 2014

On October 12 the old St Paul’s Lutheran Church at Shepparton was decommissioned at an emotional service during which Pastor Matt Anker related the history of the church from it’s beginnings to the sizeable congregation it has now become. A sausage sizzle and a visit to the new church capped off a day of celebration

The original St

Paul’s building –

so crowded at

times one had to

exit the church

by the side door

after communion

because it was

impossible to

make your way

back to your

pew.

The new Church

where the members

joined on the day of

decommissioning

then celebrated

their new worship

space in a service of

consecration on

November 9th.

Upwards of 500

people attended

this service.

Endings and New Beginnings—St Paul’s Shepparton

From our Bishop...

Text: When the Son of Man comes in his glory… (Matthew 25:31)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

What a great District Convention we enjoyed at St Philip’s and Good News, Tar-neit! Now that’s behind us and we’re getting close to the end of the year. School is nearly finished and some of us are looking forward to a summer break. Times have their beginning, middle and end – calendar years, school years, service in a particular job, seasons of life and life itself. Our Lord is Lord of them all and tells us something about each of them, so we can know our origins and our ends while we travel in what is always the middle. How good it is that, before we celebrate Jesus’ birth, we hear in Sunday’s gospel that he will one day come in his glory, and all the angels with him. The end is his too, even though we know little about the details. How good that it is full of his grace for us too, making it a new beginning as well.

It’s this faith which sustains God’s people through good times and bad. I’m thinking especially of so many grain growers for whom good-looking crops have died without rain. Yields vary, but many are taking off nothing at all. Please Lord, sustain these yours servants through great disappointment and hardship.

In regard to recent news I’m delighted that we’ve been successful in securing graduate pastors for Gippsland (Tony Castle), North Tasmania (Nicholas Kitchen) and Wodonga (Jaswanth Kukatlapalli) where Pastor Andrew Dockerill is being reassigned to South Aus-tralia for family reasons. Congratulations to these parishes for their willingness to re-ceive beginning pastors. The big event of recent weeks has been the opening and con-secration of the new St Paul’s Lutheran Church building at Shepparton, which includes ‘African House’, a fine space for service-providers and community groups to use seven days a week. God has been very good to allow this project to unfold. So also the Pa-kenham-Lakeside Mission Project where school-pastoring and church-planting are being combined to bring the gospel to many. District Church Council meets this Saturday (22nd) and we will be welcoming new members David Bergmann (Croydon), Ralph Brink-mann (North Geelong) and Pastor Mathew Ker (Warrnambool). DCC exercises ultimate governance over District activities.

There are big stories and small stories in our life together. Please send District office news of your local events. Anniversaries and other celebrations are good to share so we can all recognise the grace and blessing of the Lord of beginnings, middles and ends.

God’s peace and love through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Bishop Greg Pietsch

District News

Prime Minister welcomed by Luther College.

Recently Luther College was privileged to

welcome the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, and

several parliamentarians to the school .

Pictured here, excited and slightly nervous VCE

students demonstrate experiments associated

with their VCE chemistry studies for Mr Abbott

and visitors.

Year 12 in 2015

Are you in year 12 or an equivalent next year or do

you know someone who is?

Please contact Jemimah Juers for a showbag of

goodies— email jemimah.juers@vic.lca.org.au

Raising of the Cross at

Greensborough.

On Sunday Nov 16 the cross was

raised at Calvary Lutheran Church

Greensborough, completing the

renovations at the church plant.

Congratulations

to Chelsea and Pastor Tom Pietsch of Grovedale on the

birth this week of baby Benedict, a wonderful gift from

God.