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“What a terrible thing it is to entrust one's children to such heathen teachers”: State and Church Relations Illustrated in the Early Lutheran Schools of Victoria, Australia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2017
Extract
The stormy history of church-state relations has often appeared in the history of education in various countries, and in this regard Australia is no exception. Additional complexity occurs when different denominations are involved. In the case of Australia's Lutherans internal splits were reflected in the creation of separate Lutheran synods and educational systems. This essay concentrates chiefly upon the educational efforts of those Lutherans, overwhelmingly German, who first emigrated to Australia's southern states during the period 1838–1850, taking their place amongst the original pioneers of that vast new land.
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References
1 Smith, C.N. Nineteenth Century Emigration of ‘Old Lutherans’ from Eastern Germany (mainly Pomerania and Lower Silesia) to Australia, Canada, and the United States, (McNeal, AZ: Westland Publications, 1980). Smith usefully summarizes the information contained in W. Iwan's Die altlutherische Auswanderung um die Mitte des 19.Jahrhunderts (Ludwigsburg: Eichhom Verlag, 1942).Google Scholar
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12 Art. XXLX, p.38, School Regulations 1856 (part of ELSVic Synod Reports of that year).Google Scholar
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28 Pella Lutheran School Minute Book 1901–1912, Meeting August 1906.Google Scholar
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35 See for example Christenbote 1878, June 1896. At the Twenty-Third Synod of the ELSVic in Bendigo the acceptance of religious instruction in state schools before school, given by the teacher or a minister, was ratified.Google Scholar
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46 Since then Lutheran schools and student numbers have steadily grown: in March 1999 Victoria could claim 11 elementary schools and 1 secondary; in South Australia numbers have climbed to 22 elementary and 6 secondary schools, of total Australian figures of 55 elementary and 14 secondary schools.Google Scholar