Engraved Trowel for laying foundation stone
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia (ELCA)
1903-1960
This trowel laid the foundation stones for 13 churches and halls in South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia.
It was first used to dedicate St Johannes School and Church in Perth in April 1903 – Pastor EH Fischer had been sent to the Western Australian mission field 2 years earlier as a church planter. The trowel was engraved with the details of the day in remembrance of the occasion. Sometime after this, it was deposited in the ELCA archives, at Concordia College Highgate.
Five decades later, beginning in 1951, it was used to lay the stones for a further 12 Churches and Halls across Victoria and South Australia. As WWII building restrictions were lifted, many new Lutheran houses of worship were built. These included churches and halls: halls were oftentimes used for worship.
The need for so many new places for worship was a result of both an influx of Post War migrants, many of whom came from Germany and the Lutheran Baltic countries, and a shift from a predominantly rural church in Australia to a more urban church as Lutherans began moving to the cities for study and work.
The first use was to lay the foundation stone for Colonel Light Gardens Trinity church on November 11, 1951. Ministry in the Colonel Light Gardens area (a suburb of Adelaide) had begun in the 1930s, with the establishment of a Sunday School by Pastor G Blaess. Sunday school was held initially in private homes and then in the Colonel Light Gardens Institute. As families began to regularly attend the Sunday School, it became possible to establish a congregation in 1935.
The congregation purchased land to build a church in 1937 – but WWII and the accompanying strict building restrictions prevented the construction. Building permission was granted in 1950, with the foundation stone laying on November 11 1951.
The full list of the trowel’s uses are as follows:
- 1903 April 29, Perth WA, St Johannes Church and School, by Rev EH Fischer
- 1951 November 11, Colonel Light Gardens SA, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, by Rev CE Zweck
- 1952 July 6, Warrnambool Vic, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, by Rev J Wiebusch
- 1952 November 9, Box Hill Vic, St Paul’s Lutheran Church, by Rev E Leske
- 1954 March 28, Glenelg SA, St Paul’s Lutheran Church Hall, by Rev CE Zweck
- 1954 May 9, Gawler SA, Zion Lutheran Hall, by Rev GO Minge
- 1954 May 16, Strathalbyn SA, Strathalbyn Lutheran Church, by FJH Blaess
- 1955 October 9, Blair Athol SA, St Paul’s Lutheran Church and Hall, by Rev Elmore Leske
- 1955 December 18, Moorabin Vic, St James Lutheran Church, By Rev E Leske
- 1956 May 20, Nhill Vic, St Paul’s Lutheran Church, by Rev EN Zweck
- 1959 June 28, Warradale SA, Grace Lutheran Hall, by Rev John Juers
- 1956 January 15, Zion Lutheran Church Horsham Vic, by Rev N Jaensch
- 1960 December 4, Hampstead SA, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, by EW Koch