Who are we?
We are a small but ever-growing congregation from various cultural backgrounds and life stages. We are made of families, retirees, young adults; some are Lutherans by birth or by joining us later on.
We worship God in the confessional Lutheran tradition handed down to us, which means you can expect God to rejuvenate you in a rich liturgical form of worship that is truly biblical and historical.
Most importantly, all of us are joined together by being the forgiven children of God by his grace through faith. And that makes us all part of the Body of his Son, Jesus Christ.
With heavy hearts or joyousness, sadness or gladness, God uses his Church to comfort and bless all his children with the living waters that is faith in his Son, Jesus Christ.
So no matter who you are, you are welcome at Living Waters and we would love for you to visit us soon!
What do Lutherans Believe?
"We believe in one God"
Lutherans believe in the Triune God (also called the Holy Trinity), God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The three persons of the Holy Trinity are coequal and coeternal as one God.
We believe that the Holy Bible is the word of God, and it is the only inerrant source of inspiration and teaching. God comes to us and serves us through hearing the word of God and through the means of grace – including Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.
We believe that we are saved 'by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith'. In other words, there is nothing we can do to earn God's favour or to gain eternal life. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ has won all this and more for us.
We finally accept as true standards of the Christian faith the three universal and historical creeds received from the early church; namely the Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed and Athanasian Creed.
The Divine Service, where God serves us
Living Waters worships with a liturgical service, called the Divine Service, in which the Sacrament of Holy Communion is celebrated whenever our parish pastor is present (currently fortnightly). We accept that in the Divine Service, also known as the Mass or Divine Liturgy, that God serves us through his Holy Absolution, in his Holy Word spoken and preached aloud and through the grateful reception of his Holy Communion.
On Holy Communion:
As Lutheran Christians, we believe that at all times there must be and remain one Holy Christian Church. It is the assembly of all believers among whom the Gospel is purely preached and the Holy Sacraments are administered according to the Gospel. For this is enough for the true unity of the Christian Church, that the Gospel is preached harmoniously according to a pure understanding and the Sacraments are administered in conformity with the divine Word.
We believe that in the Lord’s Supper the bread and the wine are the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, given for us to eat and drink, according to Jesus’ own words (see Matthew 26:26-28; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Therefore, those who participate in the Lord’s Supper at our church should be in agreement with our confession of faith and affirm what we believe about this Sacrament (Augsburg Confession, Article VII).
If you are visiting us and wish to receive the Lord’s Supper, please speak to the Pastor before the service. If you have any further questions about our practice, you are welcome to discuss them with him after the service.
Thank you for respecting our confession of faith.
"The true expositions of the word of God"
Living Waters, as with confessional Lutherans worldwide, accept that the Lutheran Confessions, contained in the Book of Concord of 1580, are the true expositions of the word of God. These documents are:
- the three ecumenical creeds (confessed by Christians around the world): the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed,
- the Augsburg Confession,
- the Apology of the Augsburg Confession,
- the Smalcald Articles,
- the Small Catechism of Luther,
- the Large Catechism of Luther,
- the Formula of Concord.
Everyone is welcome to visit Living Waters or any Lutheran Church for any Sunday worship service.
If you would like to become a member of Living Waters and the larger Christian Church, we ask that you please speak to our pastor who will be able to meet you with the right care, help and information for your personal situation. Living Waters offers Holy Baptism, Confirmation or Christian classes and other pastoral care to anyone who is interested in joining the Christian faith.
You can speak to our pastor after one of our worship services or by contacting him here. We pray for God's blessing upon your journey of discernment in joining the Christian faith.
Our History: Liverpool and Sydney
Living Waters' History
The Living Waters congregation moved from Cabramatta to its current location at Flowerdale Road, Liverpool in 1962. The original church building was small and wooden. Over the next 30 years, our congregation saw steady growth and the little wooden building was soon outgrown.
In 1988, plans to build a new multi-functional worship centre were set in place. Construction began in 1990, and for two years we worshipped down the road at a nearby public school.
The new church was dedicated and consecrated on 5 July 1992 and it has served our the changing generations of Living Waters ever since!
Sadly, with the restructuring of the Holsworthy Army Base , we lost a significant portion of our congregation. But in recent years, we have welcomed local residents wanting a new church home as well as people seeking a faithful Lutheran community from all over the Sydney area.
Lutherans in New South Wales
There were Germans among the earliest European settlers in New South Wales, certainly from Lutheran families, although it was not until the 1860s that the first congregations were formed and churches built.
German farmers and vine growers at Grafton formed a congregation in 1866, while in Sydney in 1873, a German congregation formed and continues to this day as the German Lutheran Church in Goulburn Street.
St Paul’s in central Sydney began around 1915. Apart from the earliest churches, in urban Sydney and Canberra, most Lutheran congregations were formed after World War II in order to serve the thousands of migrants arriving from Europe. St Peters Memorial in Canberra and Concordia Yagoona in south-west Sydney each began in the 1940s, and other urban congregations followed soon after.
Today the Lutheran Church of Australia NSW and ACT District is culturally rich and diverse. This is not only present in our congregations and parishes but also in our schools and aged-care facilities.
Learn more at the NSW & ACT District website here.
Pastor Bruce Flanagan
Pastor Bruce currently serves both Living Waters, Liverpool and Good Shepherd, Sutherland. He has done so since moving to Australia in 2025 after more than two decades of mission in Vietnam. Formerly a minister in the Assemblies of God, Bruce converted to Lutheranism after meeting a Lutheran missionary in Vietnam. With God's blessing, he served and planted several churches there. Bruce speaks both English and Vietnamese fluently - and can be often spotted in Cabramatta enjoying phở.
