Bethlehem News

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 all too short a time with us, Pastor John and Carol Wilksch were farewelled on Sunday. They have been a welcome presence while they've been here in Wagga and we've loved getting to know them. They will be heading back home to South Australia first, then they'll be off on a well-deserved holiday. Making his last Sunday with us particularly special, Pastor John demonstrated his musical skills for us, performing three pieces on our Ahlborn organ. Pastor John first played a number of variations of "Whatever God Ordains is Good," a choral hymn by German organist and composer,   Johann Pachelbel   (1653-1706). His second piece was by another German composer,   Johann Sebastian Bach   (1685-1750), "Wake Awake". And for his finale, Pastor John played "Guide Me, Oh Great Jehovah", by   Paul Manz   (1919-2009), an American Lutheran organist and composer. And we must make a special mention of June, who played us out to some l...

Endless Praise, a faith ministry based in Sydney, shared some beautiful music with us at worship on Sunday April 14th. When Holy Communion came around they moved to the choir loft. The team were like "Angels from the Realms of Glory".