New pastor for SA Yalata community

[Source: ‘The Lutheran’ March 2000 edition]

More than 200 people gathered to witness and celebrate the ordination of Lindsay Thomas as a Specific Ministry Pastor at Yalata in South Australia’s far west recently.

Ordained by LCA Bishop John Henderson and installed into his role by SA District Bishop David Altus at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Yalata, approximately 200 kilometres west of Ceduna on 26 February, Lindsay was presented for ordination by his sister, Sharon. The Yalata church Lindsay helped build during the service of the late Pastor Keith Peters, was ‘bursting at the seams’ with visitors and locals keen to be a part of the joyful occasion.

Pastor Lindsay moved to Yalata in the 1970s, when the Cundalee Mission at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, where his family had been living, closed. Confirmed by the Pastor Keith, he was commissioned as an evangelist in 2016, working with the Yalata community alongside Pastor Russell Bryant.

Pastor Russell began the ordination service with an Invocation spoken in the local Aboriginal language and led the meditation, based on the ‘Good Shepherd’ text, John 10:11–18.

Pastor Lindsay’s first official duty as an ordained pastor was to lead holy communion for his community and the assembled congregation.

Pastor David Kuss from Birdwood Lutheran Parish in the Adelaide Hills mentored Lindsay during his pastoral ministry study and was present at the service to support the new pastor.