General Synod 2015 Prayer/Worship

Worship

WORSHIP SERVICES: The opening service (with holy communion) was held on Tuesday night, 29 September. Holy communion services were held every morning, and there was a Taize service on Friday night. The closing service was held with the Rochedale congregation on Sunday morning, 4 October. The opening and closing services were filmed and live-streamed at livestream.com/luthworship Both services are available for viewing now.
SERMONS: Each day’s sermon was published. Go to Sermons page.
PRAYER/WORSHIP COVERAGE: Visit the NEWS page for stories and pictures of Convention prayer and worship life.

Daily Devotion

Delegates and visitors were invited during the six days of General Convention to journey through St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. They were encouraged to find some quiet time every day to read one chapter. The bishop who preached on the text for the day had provided some devotional notes to guide their reflection and prayer time. They might also have found inspiration in the striking photos provided by the Commission on Worship. Members of congregations across the LCA/NZ were invited to journey with delegates during the six days. May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ ‘open the eyes of your heart, so that you may know him better’. Download the booklet here.

Our Theme

The tagline for the Lutheran Church of Australia, Where Love Comes to Life, was our focus again in 2015. In the months prior to Convention the LCA Bishop’s Office released resources to help congregations re-visit one of the most basic statements of Christian theology: God is love. We were invited to use the following three Bible studies for personal or group reflection. As we prepared for this Convention, we dug deep into what love coming to life looks like. Through Bible study, discussion and life application, we were re-introduced to who this God is and what he does among us.

Where love comes to life – Word version | PDF version
Where love comes to life – Word version | PDF version
Where love comes to life – Word version | PDF version

Call To Prayer

No matter who you are, or where you worship, the decisions made at the Eighteenth General Convention of Synod will affect you. They’ll affect all of us—and our children and our grandchildren. Therefore, even if you could not attend as a delegate or visitor, it was important that you prayed. LCA Bishop John Henderson had called the entire church to prayer during the weeks leading up to Convention. Our Lutheran brothers and sisters around the world were also asked to pray, as well as our ecumenical family here in Australia and New Zealand. The week-by-week prayers, as well as the introductory video message from Bishop Henderson, are on the Call to Prayer page.

Our Song

Our lively and easy-to-sing LCA theme song, Where Love Comes to Life, is very well known now across our church, and so delegates and visitors lifted the roof of the chapel when they sang it. You can listen to it, and download the PDF, Word or Powerpoint version of the lyrics, using the link below. Please pray for Pastor Adrian Kitson, writer of Where Love Comes to Life, as he recovers from bypass surgery (15 September). Due to this, he was not able to be at Convention to sing with us.