Australia 2016 - Easter in Adelaide

This morning we attended worship at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church. South Australia is littered with Lutheran churches, but we picked this one near where we’re staying because they had a really strong up-front statement on their website about ordaining women in the Lutheran Church in Australia. (One person told us that the Roman Catholics will ordain women before the LCA!)

So there we were at the 10 a.m. service, labeled “traditional,” the third of three. We were certainly in the right age group as the nave filled up. As I looked around I started thinking that maybe we should have gone to the Anglican cathedral after all. Maybe this was going to be more “traditional” than I thought.

The organ prelude was good, and we stood for the processional. (Oddly, the “March” from Scipione by Handel!) And then the opening hymn - “Thine is the Glory” - was introduced and the congregation began to sing. I said, “This is what Lutheran is - this powerful, amazing singing that fills room, and head, and heart.” As we talked later, Larry had noted the same. What a heritage of song with have with our sisters and brothers in Christ throughout the world.

The Children’s Word was very well done - a skit linking Christmas and Easter. Very funny moments and a well prepared cast. The sermon was really good. The pastor started out saying that all the Easter treats - bunnies, and so on - are pretty northern items. So Australia needs its own Easter symbol for the day being in Autumn. He offered the Granny Smith apple as the sign, and did a wonderful job talking about new life coming from the rubbish heap, just as the Granny Smith apple was begun from such a circumstance. And he had Granny Smith’s for each of us to take home with us.

After church we went to the South Australia Museum. We especially enjoyed the excellent presentations of Aboriginal Culture.

The day ended with snack for supper and the last Doc Martin (which we saw in England in October) and a Call the Midwife we’d already seen as well. But it was fine.