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Cambrai Lutheran Parish Inc. Home Page

Some Recommended Christian Reading:-

Christianity by C. S. Lewis
I Dared To Call Him Father by Bilquis Sheikh
Joni by Joni Eareckson
I'm More Than The Pastor's Wife by Lorna Dobson
Telling Yourself The Truth by William Backus & Marie Chapian
No Compromise - The Life Story of Keith Green by Melody Green
Forgive Me Natasha by Sergei Kourdakov
Blood in, Blood Out by Art Blajos
China Cry by Nora Lam
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Encouragement by Larry Crabb & Dan Allender
Here I Stand - A Life of Martin Luther by Roland Bainton

Some Recommended Lutheran Links:-

Lutheran Church of Australia
Luther Seminary - Australia
Lutheran Church of Australia Commission on Social and Bio-ethical Questions Statements
Lutheran Church-Canada
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) National Site - Index (Home) Page
Lift Up Your Hearts - Index (ELCIC worship liturgy spirituality arts)
The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - Home Page
Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland
Lutheran Media Ministry of New Zealand

This is a basic home page but it's a free service offered by Angelfire. This home page was designed by Anne Rasenberger (See also Anne & Frank Rasenberger's Home Page.)

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SeeCambrai Lutheran Parish Inc. Mission Statements

SeeCambrai Agricultural Museum Inc.

See Mud Map of Mid-Murraylands

St. John's Lutheran Church, Cambrai

Zion Lutheran Church, Black Hill

Pilgrims of Zion Lutheran Church, Sedan (side view)

Pilgrims of Zion Lutheran Church, Sedan (front view)

St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, Stonefield

These pictures were scanned courtesy of Michael Severino, Cambrai Area School - 1995-1998.

Index For This Page:-

Parish Membership & Activities

Background

Community Life Now

Other useful resources you may find helpful

Cambrai Lutheran Parish, is part of the Lutheran Church of Australia. It is located in the "Mid-Murraylands (The Murraylands and the Southeast) and is comprised of 4 small churches. These 4 churches are based in a rural area, about 100km north east of Adelaide, which produces mainly wheat, oats, barley, sheep and some pigs and poultry. The two main towns are Cambrai and Sedan, each with a population of about 100 people in the towns, with the basic facilities of schools (Cambrai Area School and Sedan Rural Primary School), a corner shop (Cambrai) and supermarket (Sedan), postal agencies, hotels and sportsfacilities, a garage (Cambrai), craft and 2nd hand shops and a swimming pool and council offices in Cambrai. Sedan is also nearby to "Yookamurra Sanctuary", which is part of "Earth Sanctuaries". Cambrai School/Community Library even has the internet available now for free public use (since the end of Term 3, 1999), as do most of the surrounding school/community libraries in Mannum, Murray Bridge and the Barossa Valley! We even have a local real estate agent residing in Black Hill, called Jim Havelberg.

Who's Who

Resources

Cambrai Area School email
Cambrai Area School homepage

Parish Membership & Activities

St John's Cambrai has a membership of 138 baptised and 126 confirmed, Pilgrims of Zion Sedan has a membership of 119 baptised and 90 confirmed, Zion Black Hill has a membership of 40 baptised and 36 confirmed, and St Stephen's Stonefield has a membership of 37 baptised and 27 confirmed. We are in the Barossa Zone for Ministers' Fraternal and Barossa North Zone for youth and Women's Guilds. Most of the workings of the parish/congregations are set in place, with some members being open to new ideas. The older membership is fairly prominent, with some eventually shifting when they move into homes/units or pass on, and the youth membership is also somewhat static at a certain age level, when some move on to the city or Barossa to find work or to study.

There are 3 women's guilds in the parish; at Cambrai, Sedan and Black Hill and a parish youth group. A small but active Bible Friendship Group exists, made up of women from Cambrai, Black Hill and Sedan. One Sunday School exists in Cambrai and a "Kids' Club" is held at Stonefield fortnightly on a Sunday. (A "Fun Club" was running at Sedan every fortnight but is currently out of action due to lack of teachers). An interdenominational "Kids' Club" is held at Cambrai Uniting Church during the week, bi-monthly. Religious Instruction (R.I.) will be continuing from 1999 onwards in the form of seminars every term at Cambrai Area School, by a mix of volunteers from Uniting and Lutheran Churches. (Previously, weekly RI classes were still being run at Cambrai Area School - which is outlawed in South Australia - but the Teachers Registration Board of SA adopted a policy on 28 August 1998, which restricts those who may be a "Religious/Spiritual Appointee in Schools". This policy restricts registration to those who have a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Theology, Bachelor of Divinity, Bachelor of Education or Bachelor of Economics.)

In the last year 2 men's health information evenings have been held in the Sedan and Cambrai Hotel dining rooms. A "Twenties and Thirties" (T'n'T) group was trialed from May 1998 - Nov 1998, with 2 people (one of whom left the area in Dec 1998) showing consistent interest and a couple more testing the waters with little interest. The parish also has the usual parish council and church councils and elders in each congregation, with the exception of Sedan who has one lay assistant. A parish band was formed in April 1995 and has had fluctuating membership of Lutherans, non-Lutherans and non-Christians since this time. We have played at all variety of parish/congregational informal, "Worship Today" and even "Sing The Feast" (Setting One by Tim Arnold-Moore) services since then.

The parish picnic takes place every April and has a moderate attendance, and the parish camp is held every June on the long weekend, with a faithful group and a couple new people each year. An annual Bible Sunday is held every October or November for the The Bible Society of Australia, organised by the Cambrai-Sedan inter-denominational branch and a yearly parish Advent service is also held which precedes the community "Carols By Candlelight" outdoor singing at Cambrai "Old Scholars" park, all with moderate attendance. Cambrai and Stonefield congregations also hold annual outdoor services followed by a picnic, and Stonefield have been having monthly Bible studies in 1998, with a small attendance. Once a month a "Messenger" is typed up by a volunteer of the parish on the parish-owned computer (which has Windows 3.11, Publisher 3.0, Works 2.0 and a colour printer) and an old "Konica" photocopier. It includes a pastor's message, events, calender, parish register, news and announcements, readings/colours, rosters and service times.

Background

The general character of the parish is comprised of traditional Lutherans whose ancestors settled in the Mid-Murraylands in the mid to late 1800's, (a climate of low rain-fall and hot, dry temperatures in Summer) after travelling over the hill from the Barossa Valley and there is still quite a strong association with the Barossa Valley socially. These people descended from those who, with great faith in God, migrated to South Australia from the Silesian district in Germany, in the mid 1800's to escape religious persecution. (One good resource to read on this part of history is "Barossa Journeys, into a valley of tradition" by Noris Ioannou, Paringa Press, 1997. Colin Thiele has also written many novels based on actual events that took place around this time, including "With Dew On My Boots", Walter McVitty Books, 1997. There are also many good books on family history, that sometimes include an outline of the history of these people. These are available at The Open Book.)

Community Life Now

In the last decade there has been an influx of new residents, who generally come from a different social perspective than those who have lived here all of their lives. This co-habitation in a small community has been a challenge for both groups of people. The more 'established' representatives of the population here love sports (football, netball, cricket, tennis, golf), community-based activities like Red Cross Country Women's Association, Country Fire Service - which sometimes works with St John's Ambulance - and the Lions Club Lions Australia. The women are actively involved in catering and hosting for these different groups, and the men's social centres are the hotels (pubs), particularly on a Friday night. Sometimes families also partake in a night out in the "Dining Rooms" of the local pubs. Cambrai Pub and Sedan Pub both have a "Social Club", and they regularly engage in leisure activities at a reduced rate, as a group. Both pubs also sponsor all local sports clubs, so members often congregate there after a home game. Overall the people here are 'down-to-earth' and easy going, and generally like to lead a 'simple' life.

South Australian Murray Darling Basin Website Community Action for a Sustainable Environment

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