Australian Lutheran College in historical perspective

Shortage of pastors and teachers in Australia
Peripatetic training
College in the hills
Theological education in Australia on hold
Another brief flutter
A new overseas player
Another Australian attempt, this time lasting
A second Lutheran seminary in Australia
A new church brings new theological institutions
Yet another theological school
Luther Seminary
Australian Lutheran College
HEP status

Shortage of pastors and teachers in Australia

From 1838, when the first group of German Lutheran settlers arrived in Adelaide, South Australia, adequate supply of pastors and teachers was of concern. People were needed to pastor scattered German immigrants, and to teach confessional schools attached to many congregations. Needs exceeded supply.

Peripatetic training

Initially, Lutherans attempted to train pastors and teachers within Australia. Using a peripatetic or tutorial approach, Pastors Gotthard Fritsche and August Kavel took turns in theologically educating two prospective pastoral students. This joint approach collapsed in 1846 when the two Lutheran leaders, and their congregations, parted company over theological and related issues.

College in the hills

Fritsche now developed a small college at Lobethal in the early 1850s to continue theological education of suitable people for pastoral and teaching ministries. The college concept made it possible for students to be together in residency, but since Fritsche continued to be parish pastor as well as theological educator, the teaching strategy was still basically tutorial. Students accompanied Fritsche on his journeys between congregations in his parish, and he taught them as they walked or rode together. Three pastors and several teachers graduated from the college in the hills in the mid-1850s.

Theological education in Australia on hold

With the death of Kavel in 1860 and Fritsche in 1863 the ability to provide theological education in Australia diminished. A number of factors, including continued German migration and renewed interest in bringing the gospel to Aboriginal peoples, heightened the need for suitably educated people. Lutherans in Australia looked to Europe. From the 1860s through the turn of the century, pastors were sought from the Hermannsburg Mission Seminary, the Basel Mission Seminary, and the Neuendettelsau Mission Seminary.

Another brief flutter

For a short time in the late 1870s the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia attempted to use teacher W.T. Boehm's Hahndorf Academy/College as a training institution for pastors and teachers. Financial and staffing difficulties cut this program short.

A new overseas player

Europe was prominent in the supply of pastors for Australasia in the second half of the 19th century. Recognition of theological like-mindedness, disillusionment with some pastors trained in Europe, and personal contact induced the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia to look towards North America for a supply of pastors and teachers. As a result, colleges and seminaries of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod supplied pastors and also trained Australians for ministry in Australia.

Another Australian attempt, this time lasting

Despite its ability in the late 1800s to obtain pastors from North America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia maintained its interest in providing theological education for Australians in Australia. A theological seminary for pastors and teachers took shape in Murtoa, Victoria, in 1892. Pastor J.F. Kunstmann of Concordia Seminary, St Louis, became a professor of this institution in 1893, and the following year it became known as Concordia College and Seminary. This institution and name continued until 1966 when the new Lutheran Church of Australia was formed.

A second Lutheran seminary in Australia

When five small Lutheran synods came together in 1921 to form the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia, advice was given by Dr F. Richter, president of the Iowa Synod in the United States of America, to form a seminary. He believed this would help to cement the union. For a brief period Wartburg Seminary appeared in Tanunda with Pastor Johannes P. Loehe as its director. With the purchase of suitable buildings in North Adelaide, Immanuel College and Wartburg Seminary moved to this location. In 1923 the institutions were reopened as Immanuel College and Immanuel Seminary. This second seminary continued until 1966 when the new Lutheran Church of Australia came into being.

A new church brings new theological institutions

After extensive intersynodical negotiations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia amalgamated in 1966 to form the Lutheran Church of Australia. The young church was committed to the formation of a single seminary to replace the existing Concordia and Immanuel seminaries. The new seminary was to educate pastors. Since lay people, particularly teachers and deaconesses, had received part of their education in the former seminaries, the new church resolved to create a new institution to meet the need. The end result was the formation in 1968 of Lutheran Teachers College on the site of the former Concordia Seminary. Luther Seminary, designed to train pastors, was sited on the campus of the former Immanuel Seminary in North Adelaide, and commenced operation in 1968. Dr Elvin Janetzki headed up the college, and Dr Siegfried Hebart led the seminary.

Yet another theological school

Over the years Lutheran Teacher College increasingly focused on the development of teachers, and found little time to devote to theological education of other laity, which had been part of its original charter. To fill this gap the Lutheran Church of Australia founded the Lutheran School of Theology in 1994. For the next four years the three independent theological schools of Luther Seminary, Lutheran Teachers College, and the Lutheran School of Theology occupied the same North Adelaide site and operated under a cumbersome umbrella structure titled Luther Campus.

Luther Seminary

Operating with a vision that depicted co-ordinated and integrated vocational education offered in a single institution for all those who wish to serve in the church, the Lutheran Church of Australia closed the three existing tertiary schools and formed a new Luther Seminary in 1998 to provide theological education for vocation and life. The emphasis was on vocational formation of people to meet the needs of the church in a post-modern society no longer literate in the Christian faith. An ancillary function of the institution is to offer theological degrees and awards that have educational integrity. Dr John B Koch was appointed as the first principal of the new Luther Seminary.

Australian Lutheran College

In 2000 the church set up a task force to consider a new name for Luther Seminary. The church wanted a name that would indicate the full scope of the Seminary’s task as the tertiary institution of the LCA. A proposal was put forward at the General Synod in October 2003. Synod approved the new name, Australian Lutheran College, to become official from the 1st January 2004.

HEP status

ALC has been registered by the Federal Government as a Higher Education Provider [HEP] since the commencement of 2005. ALC students can access FEE-HELP income contingent loan assistance provided by the Commonwealth Government. ALC is a unique and distinctive higher education provider, delivering nationally accredited qualifications/award courses in Lutheran theological education for pastors, teachers and lay people.

Updated: 30/09/2009 [1.02]

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