SBLC Good Friday Worship Services
Bethany: 11:00am “Jesus Walk” @ Faith Senior College
Grace St John’s: 3pm
Langmeil: 8:45am HC &10:45am Pastor Paul Kerber
Lyndoch: 9:00am HC Pastor Graham Jenke
Tabor: 9:00am Pastor Peter Hartwich
SBLC Easter Sunday Worship Services
Bethany No Service. Join worship in other SBLC congregations
Langmeil: 6:45am HC & 8:45am HC Pastor Brian Schwarz
Grace: St John’s Cemetery 6am & St Paul’s 7am HC Pastor Paul Kerber
Tabor 9:00am HC Pastor Ken Pfitzner
Schoenborn: 9am HC Pastor Paul Kerber
Lyndoch: 9:30am Pastor Graham Jenke
Our partner churches of the Federation of Lutheran Churches Myanmar (FLCM) are working together to distribute aid and help those whose lives have been devastated, providing food, emergency supplies, tarpaulins, solar lights and other essentials.
Can you help? All money donated will go directly to our partner churches in Myanmar to support the relief effort on the ground, as their very presence alongside the people reminds survivors that they are not alone and that God is our present help in times of trouble.
You can donate at the LCA International Mission website or via the QR code. Select Myanmar Earthquake Appeal from the drop-down list under ‘I would like to donate’.
DONATE NOW
Understand spiritual wounds & mental health - Join us for this two-part workshop!
When Faith Wounds
Part A: Understanding Spiritual Abuse & Religious Trauma
Part B: Mental Health and Faith
A Tabor ASCEND Workshop Thursday 15 & 29 May 2025 5:30pm - 8:30pm 181 GOODWOOD ROAD, MILLSWOOD
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
Unsure of how to reconcile spirituality with mental health?
Part A: Understanding Spiritual Abuse and Religious Trauma
Nat Reuss - May 15, 5:30pm - 8:30pm
This session explores the origins, symptoms & effects of Spiritual Abuse and Religious Trauma. Participants will learn to recognise abusive behaviours and their impacts on an individual's bio-social-psycho-spiritual self. This knowledge will help attendees build empathy for themselves, others, and be equipped with resources for healing and building healthy church cultures.
Part B: Mental Health and Faith
Noni Potter - May 29, 5:30pm - 8:30pm
This session examines the relationship between mental health and faith. Participants will explore the impact of religious experiences on mental health and wellbeing. Attendees will gain insight into the role played by our spiritual beliefs and practices both as a contributing factors to mental health challenges, and as part of the restorative healing process, for themselves, and others within their spiritual contexts.
Tickets priced from just $195 including a light supper and complimentary tea and coffee
Register Here
ABOUT THE FACILITATORS
Nathanael Reuss serves as the Associate Minister at St Bart’s Norwood and is nearing the completion of a Master of Counselling, where he has developed expertise in the intersection of counselling and Christian ministry. His research, guided by Dr. Francis Ben, explores the recovery journeys of survivors of spiritual abuse and religious trauma, focusing on how faith-based resources contribute to resilience and healing.
Noni Potter is a qualified counsellor, psychotherapist and certified clinical supervisor, who specialises in working with counsellors and clients who wish to integrate their Christian faith as part of the healing process. She oversees the Bachelor of Counselling at Tabor Adelaide, lecturing in trauma therapy, grief and loss, pastoral counselling and relationship counselling. Noni also works as a clinical supervisor for professional counsellors. To learn more visit https://www.nonipotter.com/
He is risen! That’s worth shouting about
15 April 2025
by Bishop Paul Smith
‘As Jesus was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”’
Will the stones need to shout?
At the end of the Palm Sunday gospel reading, we hear a conversation between some of the Pharisees in the crowd and our Lord Jesus.
The Pharisees seem to be very worried that everything happening in front of them that day was proclaiming Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, as the long-expected Messiah. They knew the story of the Scriptures. From the dawn of time, when the man and woman had rebelled against their Lord God in the garden, a curse was spoken over humankind and on the serpent, but there was also a promise: one would come who would ‘strike the head’ of the serpent.
The prophet Zechariah had foretold, ‘Your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey’ (Zechariah 9).
We can hear the struggle of these Pharisees in the crowd. They would have heard stories of the miracle worker from Nazareth. They saw the crowds and heard the cries. They see the man on the donkey and conclude that this man could be acclaimed as the promised Messiah!
So, even though they politely refer to Jesus as ‘teacher’, they still call for the crowd to be silenced.
How does our Lord respond to that?
He makes a declaration about himself and the unstoppable work of salvation that is unfolding. He says, ‘If these were silent, the stones would shout out.’
Who can make the stones shout?
It is the Lord of creation. It is the maker of the stars and sea. It is one who can raise the dead. When the Lord responds with his message, ‘the stones would shout out’, he is pointing to his incarnation as ‘Immanuel’ – God with us!
This Easter Sunday is one of those moments in the worldwide Christian calendar when Christians of both the Eastern and Western traditions celebrate the resurrection of our Lord on the same day. (This is simply a historic disagreement about the means to calculate the date for Easter Sunday each year. But, serendipitously, the dates sometimes match.)
Our sisters and brothers of the Eastern tradition have an inspiring way of pointing to the gospel of the Lord’s incarnation as ‘God with us’. They paint icons of the face of our Lord Jesus, and around this head they write three letters in the Greek language, which spell out ‘Ho Oh N’. This means ‘the being one’. It is the Greek translation of the name given by the Lord God to Moses from the burning bush when Moses asked, ‘Who will I say sent me?’
With their letters around the painting of the head of our Lord, the Eastern Christians are declaring ‘Jesus is the Christ’ and at the same time, ‘Jesus is the great I AM who is and was and is to come’.
On Palm Sunday, our Lord tells the Pharisees that even the stones would shout out. The Lord of all creation could command that!
As we follow his journey to the cross, we are reminded that he is trustworthy and true and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He will take upon himself our sin and exchange our sin for his righteousness so that we would have peace with God. We are baptised into his death and are raised with him to walk in newness of life. There is nothing we can add to this work of salvation.
We are not told that the stones on the roadway ever shouted. Of course, they didn’t need to. The church has been shouting the gospel as we are sent by the Holy Spirit to the ends of the earth. You and I are the continuing voice of those who sang praises to the Lord of the cross and empty grave. Each year on Easter Sunday, we gather with the joyful shout, ‘He is risen indeed, Alleluia!’
God bless your faithful witness to all that our Lord has done for us. God keep you in the joy of salvation to the glory of God and for the blessing of the world.
Prayer of the Church
‘Lord Jesus Christ, as we remember your journey into Jerusalem to face the cruelty of the cross, give us voices to shout your gospel with boldness and conviction – to join with the church of all ages in the faithful cry: Hosanna in the highest! Amen.’
In Christ,
Bishop Paul Smith
Holy Week 2025
Friends of Lutheran Archives (FoLA)
Thursday 24 April at 7.30pm Immanuel Lutheran Church, 139 Archer St, North Adelaide SA 5006
Memories of Koonibba Mission
Speaker: Elizabeth Buck, who grew up in Koonibba on the West Coast of South Australia, where her father was a pastor missionary. She has wonderful stories to share.
All welcome. Supper, $5 donation.
The event can be watched on-line as it happens – or later.
Click here to LIVESTREAM on FoLA YouTube channel
The Greenock Lutheran Parish is seeking applications for a casual, average 10 hours per week position, commencing June 2025.
This position will provide administrative support to the 3 congregations of Nain, St Michael’s Gnadenfrei and St Peter’s, Greenock, the Greenock Lutheran Parish and the Parish Pastor.
For more information or to request a position description, please contact the Parish secretary via email 1sandra.nichols@gmail.com or mobile 0408 104 240.
Closing date for applications is Wednesday, 14th May.
SUNDAY APRIL 20 - EASTER DAY
Bethany No Service You are welcome to join worship at another SBLC congregation
Grace St John’s Cemetery 6:00am Pastor Paul Kerber. St Paul’s 7:00am HC Pastor Paul Kerber
Langmeil 6:45am HC Contemp. & 8:45am HC Trad. Pastor Brian Schwarz
Lyndoch 9:30am Pastor Graham Jenke
Schoenborn 9:00am HC Pastor Paul Kerber
Tabor 9:00am HC Pastor Ken Pfitzner
2025 Vintage Festival Events hosted by our local churches
Click here to download a listof Vintage festival events hosted by our local Churches.
St Petri Lutheran Church - Nuriootpa
Floral and Art Display Wednesday 23rd – Sunday 27th April
Click here for more information.