The Evangelical Lutheran Synod Of Australia: A Brief History (2)
© Rev. Kenneth Fischer
THE LONG SEARCH FOR PASTORS BEGINS
"Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel - all whose knees have not bowed down..." 1 Kings 19:18
With the resignation of Pastor Keith Hunter, the little flock of Faith Ev. Lutheran Parish felt "almost total devastation." They must have felt somewhat isolated and alone. But the Lord had not forgotten his promises. "I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing." (Jeremiah 23:4) A long search for another pastor lay ahead, but in the meantime God would comfort them with the discovery of other confessional Lutherans whom the Lord had reserved for himself in Australia. Even before Pastor Hunter left for America, the Lord set his plans in motion. A confessional brotherhood was growing!
When he resigned from the ministry, Pastor Hunter first moved his family to South Australia where Norman Pfitzner, a farmer who lived near Keith, S.A., contacted him about fellowship questions. Although Keith Hunter was not interested in establishing any fellowship, eventually, Norman made contact through him with the congregations in Queensland.
It happened this way. One day, a member of the Maryborough congregation, Noel Priebbenow, received a phone call from a complete stranger, Norman Pfitzner. He had heard there were some people in Queensland who had not joined the merger. He wanted to contact them about a special visitor who would be traveling to South Australia--Pastor Thomas E. Dudley of Hillsboro, Oregon. It just so happened that Noel Priebbenow, who owned a coach company in Maryborough, would be driving through the area on the exact day Pastor Dudley planned to arrive. Norman Pfitzner arranged a meeting at Noel's motel with Pastor Dudley. It would start an important link to confessional Lutheranism for the members of Faith Ev. Lutheran Parish.
As the Priebbenow's see clearly today -- "Here is a marvelous example of God being faithful to his promises and caring for his church on earth!" The meeting, which also involved other Lutherans from South Australia, went quite well, and all parties concerned felt that not a single doctrinal difference existed between them. This was the beginning on lasting and vital contacts with Pastor Dudley.
THE LINK TO PASTOR DUDLEY IN AMERICA
Unbeknownst to the members of Faith Ev. Lutheran Parish, while they were struggling to remain confessional in Queensland, much had also been happening in South Australia. God works in ways that defy human logic. Just how did Norman Pfitzner come into contact with Pastor Thomas Dudley? In the early 1970s, Dr. Al Schoennauer, W.E.L.S. member, moved from Portland, Oregon after receiving an appointment to teach at the University of Adelaide. Several years earlier another W.E.L.S. family by the name of Guelker (friends of Dr. Schoennauer) had traveled to Western Australia from the Portland area to start a restaurant which eventually failed. At the same time, a young man from South Africa named Siegfried Koehne came to the Luther Seminary in Adelaide because he had been informed it was a conservative seminary. Dr. Schoennauer comments, "If my assessment is correct, the players in the scene had now been assembled by the Lord, unbeknownst to any of us."
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