Next meeting. Thursday 22nd May 2025, 7.30 pm, Immanuel Lutheran Church, 139 Archer Street, North Adelaide. Talking Together: Schürmann’s

Mission Diary, Adelaide and Port Lincoln 1838-45. Speaker: Greg Lockwood $5 donation, supper, all welcome.

LIVESTREAM on FoLA YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@friendsoflutheranarchives9644/live

On his first day ashore in Adelaide, Schürmann remarked on the vivacity of the Aboriginal people, noting: If you meet up with a group, their immediate question is: ‘Your name?’ If you answer, they make their comments accompanied with jokes and laughter. Living among the Kaurna on the Native Location, Schürmann’s familiarity with their culture grows as he plants gardens, attends a funeral, joins a hunt, records their speech, teaches, and preaches.

In Port Lincoln he begins anew with the Barngarla, speaking fire-light with a group of 9 old men, none of whom wore a shred of clothing. Schürmann defends the embattled Barngarla in tense times, learns, teaches, and preserves their language too in his Parnkalla dictionary.

Dr Greg Lockwood, retired ALC lecturer and Schürmann descendant, presents moments from his new complete translation of the diary, to be released by Wakefield Press in May: Schürmann’s Tagebuch: the diary of a German Lutheran missionary in early South Australia.

Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendour is above the earth and the heavens (Psalm 148:13).

Read Psalm 148

Imagine the psalmist is a conductor with a huge orchestra or choir in front of him. Imagine that this orchestra or choir is the whole cosmos!

He begins by calling on the heavenly beings to praise the Lord. Then he calls on the heavens – the sky, sun, moon and stars – to praise the Lord. After that, he calls on the forces of nature and all creation on the earth, sea, storm, wind, mountains and the animal kingdom to praise the Lord.

And finally, he calls on all human beings, all classes, women and men, and people of all ages, to praise the Lord.

Can you imagine such a magnificent and awesome event? What a hallelujah chorus!

And why should they praise the Lord? Because he is greater than all, and (this is the most important point) because he, despite his greatness, has come down to his people to save them.

This great choir still exists and still praises God. And we are part of it! And we have even greater reason to praise him than our Old Testament counterparts. We sing our praises to and for the Lord, because in Christ, he has come near to us, nearer than at any time before. And he is still near us. He has table fellowship with us, who are sinners.

God is the greatest of all. And although he is above the heavens and the earth, he has come near to us and given us the most precious gift: his only Son.

Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forevermore. Amen.

Mark Lieschke is a retired pastor living on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He served in parishes in South Australia, New Zealand and New South Wales before being elected as bishop of the LCANZ’s NSW and ACT District. Mark enjoys spending time with family and friends, travelling, walking on the beach and relaxing.