Bethlehem News

On Sunday, we celebrated a very special anniversary: the 70th anniversary of Pastor Clem's ordination.  Following his graduation from Immanuel Theological Seminary, Pastor Clem was ordained at his home congregation of Holy Trinity at Appila, SA, by his uncle, Pastor J Ernst Materne, on 4 April 1948. Pastor Stuart made a special occasion of this anniversary during our Sunday service, listing the many congregations Pastor Clem had served, including: The Lower Murray Home Mission at Murray Bridge;  The South East Home Mission at Bordertown;  Nain and the Tabor Lutheran Church in Tanunda, SA;  Bethania, QLD;  Temora, NSW; and  Ropeley, QLD. Margaret joined Pastor Clem in his service to God's people in 1951 and so was with him from his second congregation at Bordertown. Even after Pastor Clem and Margaret's retirement to Wagga, he continued to serve as locum pastor at many parishes across NSW (and even for a time in New Zealand) until he for...

Happy Easter everyone! Services were held at Wagga and Milbrulong over this Easter week, culminating today on Easter Sunday. Easter is always a happy day and our service today was full of cheer, with lots of songs, smiles, a film review (still not sure if it was a recommendation but if you're interested, you can watch the trailer here ) and of course, food (including chocolate eggs) afterwards.

Merry Christmas everyone! Just a little reminder that our worship services this week are as follows: Milbrulong Friday, 22nd December at 6.30pm Wagga Wagga Sunday, 24th December at 9.30am Sunday, 24th December at 7.00pm Monday, 25th December at 8.30am Below are a few photographs taken at the annual Christmas party we held last Sunday in Athol Street. Plenty of yummy food was provided for us, with lots of salads and cold meats, and of course there were just too many choices for dessert, meaning only those that had paced themselves during the first course could manage to go back for seconds. Elma was chosen this year to cut the Christmas cake, a piece of which we all took home. Thanks to the ladies that put on such a feast for us. Between the food, the singing and the christmas quiz, it was a lovely lunch and an entertaining afternoon.

Bethlehem Milbrulong hosted a Parish Picnic once again in October this year. From the expressions on the faces of those caught by our photographer, I'm sure you'll agree it looks like it was a pretty good day all round!

Bethlehem Lutheran Church members were very fortunate on Sunday to play host to the St Georg Chamber Choir from Nördlingen, Germany. The choir was on a whirlwind tour of Australia, singing in Adelaide, Melbourne, Geelong, Wagga Wagga and Sydney. Nördlingen is in Bavaria, Germany. It is a very old town, now over 1100 years old, with an intact medieval wall surrounding the older part of the town and the St Georg Evangelical Lutheran Church at its centre. St Georg's itself also has a long history - construction was begun after 1427, which means it pre-dates Martin Luther! Nördlingen has been a sister city of Wagga Wagga since 1967 and so, to mark this now fifty year old relationship, the St Georg Chamber Choir travelled to Wagga Wagga and took part in two joint concerts with the Ca ntilena Singe rs over the weekend. The Kammerchor Sankt Georg Nördlingen (St Georg Chamber Choir of Nördlingen) has a repertoire of mostly spiritual chorus music from across five centuries. The cho...

After Pastor Stuart and Julie laid down their ten pin bowling challenge, they were met at the Wagga Bowl by twenty Lutherans, ready to take them on. Adrian bowled everyone out of the water, taking out the winner's prize from amongst the men and Bec more than redeemed herself from previous years to become the best female bowler. The top 10 ten pin bowlers were: 1. Adrian (148) 2. Michael (111) 3. Reg (105) 4. Stuart (104) 5. San (102) 6. Neville (88) 7. Ian (86) 8. Bec (83) 9. Rachel (80) 10. Ange (79)

The Bethlehem Lutheran Pitch and Putt Perpetual Trophy has been played for and won once again.  The overall winner of the competition was Dennis, who graciously received the trophy after missing out in the playoffs in 2015; Dawn happily walked away with the ladies' trophy and Steph with the juniors. Carol was congratulated on her cricket score and Rhonda's ensemble was especially recognised with a Fashions on the Field award. Special thanks to our photographer on the day, Pastor Stuart.

Following the service, everyone made their way down to the Milbrulong Hall for lunch. The hall was full to bursting with people, food and reminiscences. Below are just a few of the friendly faces that were there...