Lutheran Church of Australia

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WA elects new bishop

11 March 2017

by LCA Communications
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Pastor Mike Fulwood will be the next bishop of the LCA’s Western Australia District. Pastor Fulwood, who was elected at the district’s synod at Katanning, succeeds former bishop Pastor Greg Pfeiffer, who did not stand for a fifth term in the role and has retired from the ministry.
Bishop-elect Fulwood will serve as bishop half-time and half-time as a locum pastor, the location of which was yet to be determined by the district at press time. Most recently he has held the role of LCA Interim Pastor – Reconciliation Ministry, with his latest placement at St Luke’s Lutheran Church Parkwood, in suburban Perth. He said he was ‘humbled’ to be elected by district delegates to ‘a position of great trust’.
‘As I expressed at synod, it is a position which I can only accept and undertake “with the help of God” and I hope you will pray for me and my wife Narelle as we serve you in the coming two-year term’, Bishop-elect Fulwood said in a letter of introduction sent to Western Australian congregations. However, he said he was initially reluctant to stand for the position. ‘When I was asked to consider a nomination to the role I found myself thinking of many selfish reasons to say “no”’, Pastor Fulwood said.
‘Being a bishop is no easy task and trying to share this role with congregational responsibilities as well seems daunting. ‘However in talking with a fellow pastor about the decision I was encouraged to think of the call by asking, “Where do you see the cross in this?”. For me this was a helpful focus point. To be a bishop is to take up the cross of service in a different way and I realised I had no good reasons for refusing to be considered.’
Originally from country South Australia, Pastor Fulwood studied law at Adelaide University before entering pastoral ministry studies at the then Luther Seminary in 1981. He was ordained in 1987 and served as a parish pastor at Croydon, Victoria; Tuggeranong, Australian Capital Territory; and Rockingham/Mandurah, Western Australia; before taking on the interim pastor role three years ago. He previously has served both the New South Wales district and the Western Australia district as a vice-president and assistant bishop.

Pastor Fulwood also was part of the presidential team which served Western Australia in an interim period before Pastor Pfeiffer became district president (later bishop) in 2009. Meanwhile, Grace Lutheran Church Perth was officially welcomed into the LCA’s Western Australia District and the LCA, at the district’s convention by outgoing Bishop Greg Pfeiffer. Grace, which is a Chinese congregation based on the same site as St John’s Lutheran Church in the Western Australia capital, was constituted last year. Henry Fang, a lay person who has been licensed for Word and Sacrament ministry, was welcomed as the congregation’s first delegate to the Western Australia District Convention of Synod. Rev Fui Tshun Ku is pastor at Grace.

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