Lutheran Church vs Anglican Church — how the liturgies compare in Australia

By Vinay Koshy, Editor

Anglican and Lutheran are both liturgical Reformation traditions from different national streams. Anglican traces to the English Reformation of 1534 and the 39 Articles adopted in 1571. Lutheran traces to Martin Luther's Wittenberg Reformation of 1517 and the Augsburg Confession of 1530. Rev Richard Johnson arrived with the First Fleet in 1788, and Pastor August Kavel led Prussian Lutherans to Klemzig SA in 1838.

Last verified: 2026-07-05. Directory counts pulled live from the Australian Church Directory database. Census figures from the 2021 Australian Census.

Comparison at a glance

Aspect	Anglican	Lutheran
Reformation origin	English Reformation — Henry VIII's 1534 Act of Supremacy, consolidated under Elizabeth I via the 1559-63 Elizabethan Settlement. Church of England became a national church, Reformed in doctrine and Catholic in structure.	Wittenberg Reformation — Martin Luther's 95 Theses posted 31 October 1517. Doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone became the confessional centre. Spread rapidly through the German states, Scandinavia, and the Baltic.
Confessional standard	Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (1571 revision of Cranmer's 1553 Forty-two Articles) and the Book of Common Prayer (1662, with authorised Australian revision A Prayer Book for Australia 1995).	Book of Concord (1580) — Augsburg Confession (1530), Luther's Small and Large Catechisms (1529), Smalcald Articles (1537), Formula of Concord (1577), plus the three ecumenical creeds.
Australian arrival	26 January 1788 — Rev Richard Johnson arrived with the First Fleet as chaplain, celebrated the first divine service under a great tree in Sydney on 3 February 1788. Diocese of Sydney erected 1836.	November 1838 — Pastor August Kavel led Prussian Old Lutherans fleeing the 1817 Prussian Union Church to Klemzig SA. Further Prussian, Silesian, and Wendish migrations founded Hahndorf, Lobethal, Bethanien, and Toowoomba/Darling Downs congregations.
National body	Anglican Church of Australia — 23 dioceses in 5 provinces (NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA). General Synod meets every three years. Federated structure with strong diocesan autonomy.	Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA) — formed 1966 from merger of ELCA + UELCA after the 28 November 1965 Proclamation of Altar and Pulpit Fellowship. Since 2001 operating jointly with Lutheran Church of New Zealand as LCANZ. Six Districts.
Governance	Episcopal — bishops in apostolic succession govern dioceses. Each diocese has its own synod (bishop + clergy + laity). Primate of Australia is a rotating role held by one of the metropolitan archbishops.	Episcopal-synodical — a District Bishop leads each District, but pastoral authority is grounded in the pastor's call to the local congregation. The LCA Bishop of Australia is elected by the Convention.
Sacraments	Two dominical sacraments (Baptism and Holy Communion) with five other rites often called sacraments. Real presence taught with a spectrum from receptionist to transubstantiationist, depending on churchmanship.	Two sacraments (Baptism and the Lord's Supper). Sacramental union taught — the true body and blood of Christ are received "in, with, and under" the bread and wine (Augsburg Article X). Weekly communion is the norm.
Ordination of women	Yes, priests since 7 March 1992 (Archbishop Peter Carnley ordained the first 10 in Perth). Diocese of Sydney and aligned dioceses do not ordain women priests and hold a conservative view of 1 Timothy 2:12.	Yes, from 5 October 2024 — LCANZ 21st Convention voted 269-108 (71.3%) to remove the prohibition. Prior conventions (2000, 2006, 2015, February 2023) declined the change. "One church, two practices" arrangement lets traditional congregations retain the older position.
Same-gender marriage	Declined by General Synod. Individual dioceses have varied liturgical responses. No parish-level same-gender wedding rite is authorised nationally.	Marriage held between a man and a woman per the Augsburg Confession and Small Catechism. Not offered.
Liturgy in use	A Prayer Book for Australia (1995), plus continued use of the Book of Common Prayer (1662) in traditional-language parishes. Contemporary orders and traditional Rite A share the same broad shape.	Lutheran Service Book / Lutheran Hymnal with Supplement — the Divine Service ordo (Kyrie, Gloria, Word, Creed, Prayers, Sanctus, Verba, Communion, Nunc Dimittis). Regionally, older Deutsche Messe and Common Service settings still appear.
2021 Census	2,496,273 Australians (9.8%) identified as Anglican. Second-largest Christian denomination. Down from 3,101,185 in 2016.	Approximately 145,900 Australians (0.6%) identified as Lutheran. Down from 174,000 in 2016.
Directory listings (this site)	1,961 Anglican parishes. National distribution with strong NSW + Victorian concentration.	527 Lutheran congregations. Heavy South Australia + Queensland concentration reflecting Kavel 1838 SA migration and later Wend / Silesian Queensland migrations.

Reformation origins — English and Wittenberg

Both denominations trace to the 16th-century Reformation, but from different national and theological starting points. Lutheranism began first. On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar and Wittenberg theology professor, posted his 95 Theses against indulgences. The rapid spread of Luther's writings on justification by grace through faith alone, sola Scriptura, and the priesthood of all believers precipitated a wider European movement. The Augsburg Confession, presented on 25 June 1530 by Luther's colleague Philip Melanchthon to Emperor Charles V, became the confessional centre of the Lutheran movement. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the northern German states became Lutheran state churches, and the Book of Concord (1580) collected the definitive Lutheran confessional writings.

The English Reformation followed 17 years later on very different terms. Henry VIII broke with Rome via the 1534 Act of Supremacy over the papal refusal to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, but retained largely Catholic doctrine and worship at first. His son Edward VI moved the Church of England in a strongly Protestant direction (Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer 1549 and 1552, plus the Forty-two Articles 1553). Mary I reversed all this. Elizabeth I's 1559-63 Settlement drew a middle line — Reformed in doctrine (39 Articles adopted 1571, revision of Cranmer's 42), Catholic in structure (bishops in apostolic succession, historic threefold ministry of bishop, priest, and deacon), and worshipping in the vernacular through the Book of Common Prayer. This is the "Anglican way" that came to Australia in 1788.

Anglican arrival — First Fleet to 23 dioceses

Anglican ministry came to Australia with British colonisation. Rev Richard Johnson (c.1755-1827) was appointed chaplain to the First Fleet by the Church Missionary Society precursor movement and arrived at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788. On 3 February 1788 he conducted the first Christian divine service on Australian soil, preaching from Psalm 116:12 under a great tree. He also opened the first school in the colony. Samuel Marsden joined him in 1794, and the Church of England expanded with the colonies through the 19th century — Sydney (1836), Tasmania (1842), Melbourne (1847), Adelaide (1847), Newcastle (1847), and outward from there.

The Church of England in Australia and Tasmania was officially renamed the Anglican Church of Australia in 1981. Today it comprises 23 dioceses grouped into 5 provinces (NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia). Each diocese has its own synod, bishop, budget, and doctrinal culture, and this diocesan federalism explains why Australian Anglicanism is theologically diverse. The Diocese of Sydney is distinctively evangelical and low-church, holds the 39 Articles as a confessional standard, and declines to ordain women priests. The dioceses of Melbourne, Perth, and Adelaide sit closer to broad-church or liberal-catholic identity and ordain women at every order. General Synod meets every three years to legislate on matters of national interest, but many decisions remain firmly at diocesan level.

Lutheran arrival — Prussian Old Lutherans at Klemzig

Lutheranism came to Australia 50 years after Anglicanism, and by a very different route. In 1817, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia decreed a united Prussian Union Church that merged Lutheran and Reformed congregations under a single royal liturgy, over Lutheran objections. A minority of confessional Lutherans (the "Old Lutherans") refused the union on the ground that Reformed and Lutheran teaching on the Lord's Supper could not be reconciled. Pastor August Ludwig Christian Kavel (1798-1860) of Klemzig in Prussia became their leader, and after several years of harassment and imprisonment for holding unauthorised services, he sought a colony where his people could worship freely.

Kavel negotiated with the South Australian Company chairman George Fife Angas, through his agent Charles Flaxman, for a settlement site near Adelaide. The first Kavel group of about 200 Old Lutherans arrived in South Australia in November 1838 and founded the village of Klemzig on the River Torrens, naming it for their Prussian home. Further Prussian and Silesian migrations through the 1840s and 1850s founded Hahndorf (1839), Lobethal, Light Pass, Bethanien, and the wider Barossa German-heritage belt. Wendish (Sorbian) migrations from 1848 onward, and Silesian migrations from the 1860s, extended the Lutheran footprint into Victoria and rural Queensland (Toowoomba and the Darling Downs). This is why South Australia and rural Queensland remain the two dominant Lutheran regions today.

Confessional documents — 39 Articles and the Book of Concord

The clearest doctrinal marker between the two traditions is which set of confessional writings the church subscribes to. Anglican clergy historically subscribed to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (1571), a moderate Protestant statement in 39 short articles covering Scripture, the creeds, the sacraments, the church, and Christian life. The 39 Articles are Reformed on justification, sacramental efficacy, and the authority of Scripture, and Catholic on the historic threefold ministry and the sacraments as effectual signs. Modern Anglican churches vary in how strictly they enforce subscription — Diocese of Sydney treats the Articles as a confessional standard, while many other dioceses read them as historical context alongside the Book of Common Prayer.

Lutheran pastors subscribe to the Book of Concord (1580), a collection of ten documents that together define confessional Lutheran identity. The core is the Augsburg Confession (1530), which sets out Lutheran teaching on justification, the sacraments, the ministry, and abuses corrected by the Reformation. Also included are Luther's Small Catechism (1529) — a household teaching document that is still learned by every Lutheran confirmand — the Large Catechism, the Smalcald Articles (1537), the Formula of Concord (1577), and the three ecumenical creeds (Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian). LCA pastors subscribe at ordination without reservation.

The Lord's Supper — real presence, differently framed

Both traditions teach a real presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, but with distinct theological framing. Lutherans teach sacramental union following Augsburg Article X — the true body and blood of Christ are received "in, with, and under" the bread and wine by all communicants, believers and unbelievers alike, on the strength of Christ's words of institution. Weekly communion is the norm in LCA congregations, and the elements are handled with heightened reverence.

Anglican teaching runs on a spectrum rather than a single position. Article XXVIII of the 39 Articles denies transubstantiation but affirms that "the body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner" — a formulation closer to Calvin than to Luther. High-church Anglo-Catholic parishes teach a strong real presence and treat the reserved sacrament with adoration. Low-church evangelical parishes teach a more receptionist or memorialist view. All of these positions sit inside Anglican identity, and this doctrinal breadth is one of the things that distinguishes Anglican from Lutheran despite the surface-level liturgical similarity.

Ordination of women — a comparison

Anglican Church of Australia ordained the first women priests on 7 March 1992 at St George's Cathedral, Perth, when Archbishop Peter Carnley ordained 10 women in a single service. Adelaide and Melbourne followed within weeks. Sydney and a small number of aligned dioceses continue to decline the ordination of women priests, holding a conservative interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34, and this is a genuine internal divide in Australian Anglicanism rather than a settled national position. Women have been consecrated as bishops in Australia since 2008 (Kay Goldsworthy, Assistant Bishop of Perth).

The Lutheran Church of Australia declined women's ordination at four consecutive conventions (2000, 2006, 2015, and February 2023) before the 21st Regular Convention of General Synod voted on 5 October 2024 to remove the prohibition. The vote was 269 for and 108 against — a 71.3% majority of the 377 registered delegates, well clear of the two-thirds threshold. The resolution adopted alongside the vote created a "one church, two practices" framework so that traditional congregations and pastors could retain the older position without leaving the church. Ordinations of women pastors began in 2025.

Frequently asked questions

Are Anglican and Lutheran churches the same?

No, but they are close liturgical relatives. Both come from the 16th-century Reformation, both retain a full historic liturgy with weekly communion in most parishes, both practise infant baptism, and both hold that sacraments genuinely convey grace. Anglican traces to the English Reformation of 1534 under Henry VIII and the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559-63, with the 39 Articles (1571) and the Book of Common Prayer (1662, revised 1995 in Australia) as its formularies. Lutheran traces to Martin Luther's 1517 Wittenberg Reformation, with the Augsburg Confession (1530) and the wider Book of Concord (1580) as its confessional basis.

Which is bigger in Australia, Anglican or Lutheran?

Anglican is much bigger. This directory lists 1,961 Anglican parishes versus 527 Lutheran congregations. The 2021 Australian Census recorded 2,496,273 people (9.8%) identifying as Anglican and about 145,900 (0.6%) identifying as Lutheran. Anglican is the second-largest Christian denomination in Australia after Catholic. Lutheran has a much smaller footprint but a distinctive South Australia and rural Queensland concentration reflecting the German migration history.

When did Anglicanism come to Australia?

With the First Fleet in January 1788. Rev Richard Johnson (c.1755-1827) was appointed chaplain to the fleet and became the first Christian cleric on Australian soil. He conducted the first divine service in Sydney on 3 February 1788 under a great tree, preaching from Psalm 116:12 ("What shall I render unto the Lord"). Anglican expansion followed the pattern of British colonisation, and dioceses were erected as populations grew — Sydney (1836), Tasmania (1842), Melbourne (1847), Adelaide (1847), Newcastle (1847), and outward from there.

When did Lutheranism come to Australia?

In November 1838 with the Old Lutheran migration from Prussia. Pastor August Ludwig Christian Kavel (1798-1860) led a group of Prussian Lutherans fleeing the Prussian Union Church imposed by King Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1817. Kavel had negotiated with the South Australian Company chairman George Fife Angas (via his agent Charles Flaxman) for a settlement site north of Adelaide. The Kavel group arrived in South Australia in 1838 and founded the village of Klemzig (named after their home village in Prussia). Further Prussian and Silesian Lutheran migrations followed through the 1840s and 1850s, founding Hahndorf, Lobethal, Bethanien, and dozens of other Barossa-belt communities.

What are the 39 Articles?

The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion are the doctrinal formulary of the Church of England, adopted by Convocation in 1571 under Elizabeth I and given royal assent by Parliament that same year. They were a revision of Thomas Cranmer's Forty-two Articles of 1553, trimmed to 39 to reflect the Elizabethan Settlement's moderate Protestant identity. Anglican clergy in Australia historically subscribed to the 39 Articles at ordination. Modern Anglican churches vary in how strictly they treat them — Diocese of Sydney holds them as a confessional standard, while many other dioceses treat them as historical context alongside the Book of Common Prayer.

What is the Augsburg Confession?

The Augsburg Confession (Confessio Augustana) is the foundational Lutheran statement of faith, presented to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg on 25 June 1530 by Philip Melanchthon on behalf of the Lutheran princes and cities. Its 28 articles set out Lutheran doctrine on justification by faith, the sacraments, the ministry, and the Christian life, showing how Lutheran teaching agreed with historic Christianity while correcting abuses. Every Lutheran pastor in Australia agrees to the Augsburg Confession at ordination, together with the other documents of the Book of Concord (1580) — Luther's Small and Large Catechisms, the Smalcald Articles, the Formula of Concord, and the Athanasian, Nicene, and Apostles' Creeds.

How is the Anglican Church of Australia organised?

Through 23 dioceses grouped into 5 provinces (NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia). Each diocese is headed by a bishop, and one bishop in each province is the archbishop. The Primate of Australia is a rotating role held by one of the metropolitan archbishops. General Synod is the national body, meeting every three years, though many decisions remain at diocesan level because Australian Anglicanism is federated rather than centralised. This is why the Diocese of Sydney (evangelical low-church) can hold positions that differ substantially from the Diocese of Melbourne or Perth without leaving the church.

How is the Lutheran Church of Australia organised?

The Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA) is a single national body governed by a Convention of General Synod. It formed in 1966 through the merger of two prior bodies — the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia (ELCA) and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia (UELCA) — after the 28 November 1965 Proclamation of Altar and Pulpit Fellowship. Since 2001 it has operated jointly with the Lutheran Church of New Zealand as the LCANZ. The country is divided into six Districts (Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, South Australia and Northern Territory, Western Australia, and NZ), each headed by a Bishop.

Does the Lutheran Church of Australia ordain women?

Yes, from 5 October 2024. At the 21st Regular Convention of General Synod in October 2024, LCANZ delegates voted 269 to 108 (a 71.3% majority of 377 registered delegates) to remove the church's prohibition on ordaining women to pastoral ministry. The vote came after decades of debate and after prior conventions in 2000, 2006, 2015, and February 2023 declined the change. Individual congregations and pastors remain free to hold the traditional position under the "one church, two practices" arrangement adopted alongside the 2024 resolution.

Does the Anglican Church of Australia ordain women?

Yes, since 1992. Archbishop Peter Carnley of Perth ordained the first ten women priests in Australia on 7 March 1992 at St George's Cathedral, Perth. Adelaide and Melbourne followed within weeks. The Diocese of Sydney, and a small number of others aligned with it, do not ordain women as priests or consecrate them as bishops, holding a conservative interpretation of the 1 Timothy 2:12 texts. This is one of the sharpest divides inside Australian Anglicanism and has produced parallel structures for evangelical parishes in some regions.

How do Anglican and Lutheran services compare?

Both use a historic liturgy with a broadly similar shape — gathering, word (readings and sermon), sacrament (eucharist), and sending. Anglican parishes use A Prayer Book for Australia (1995) which draws on the Book of Common Prayer (1662, 1928 English revision) and provides multiple orders including a traditional Rite A and a contemporary Rite. Lutheran congregations use the Lutheran Service Book or one of its predecessors, following the traditional Divine Service shape (Kyrie, Gloria, Word, Creed, Prayers, Sanctus, Verba, Communion, Nunc Dimittis). Vestments, weekly communion, hymns, and the church year are shared. The vocabulary differs — Anglican "Holy Communion" or "Eucharist" versus Lutheran "Divine Service" or "the Sacrament of the Altar."

How do I find a local Anglican or Lutheran church?

The Australian Church Directory lists 1,961 Anglican parishes and 527 Lutheran congregations across every state and territory. Anglican is nationally distributed, with strong concentrations in NSW and Victoria. Lutheran is heavily concentrated in South Australia (reflecting the 1838 Kavel migration and the Barossa German-heritage belt) and Queensland (Wend and Silesian migrations from 1866 onward to Toowoomba and the Darling Downs). You can browse by denomination or by suburb.

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Sources

Australian Bureau of Statistics — 2021 Census, Religious affiliation. Anglican: 2,496,273 (9.8%). Lutheran: approximately 145,900 (0.6%).
Anglican Church of Australia — official site (anglican.org.au) for 23-diocese 5-province structure, General Synod, and Primate arrangements.
Lutheran Church of Australia — official site (lca.org.au) for the 1966 ELCA + UELCA merger, the 28 November 1965 Proclamation of Altar and Pulpit Fellowship, and the 5 October 2024 Convention resolution on ordination of women and men.
Australian Dictionary of Biography — Johnson, Richard (1755-1827) for the 3 February 1788 first divine service in Sydney, and Kavel, August Ludwig Christian (1798-1860) for the 1838 Prussian Old Lutheran migration to Klemzig SA.
International Lutheran Council — Lutherans in Australia and New Zealandreports on the February 2023 and October 2024 Convention votes.
Wikipedia — Anglican Church of Australia, Lutheran Church of Australia,Thirty-nine Articles, Augsburg Confession, Ordination of women in the Anglican Communion, Richard Johnson (chaplain).