Header: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania

Welcome to the website of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.

See below for Popular Links

VISION STATEMENT

A communion of people rejoicing in love and peace; blessed spiritually and physically, hoping to inherit eternal life through Jesus Christ.

THE ELCT MISSION

To make people know Jesus Christ and have life in it fullness by bringing to them the Good News through words and deeds based on the Word of God as it is in the Bible and the Lutheran teachings guided by the ELCT Constitution.

CHURCH FOCUS

The Church focuses on propagating the "holistic" Gospel serving man through spiritual, social, economic and environmental programmes /interventions in order to have a God loving community hence fulfilling God's mission in Tanzania. In serving human beings in a holistic way, The Church carries out mission work within and outside the country using all types of means and media.

It has a coordination office responsible for financial reports on church activities. It produces literature for Christian nurturing. The central office has a function of Capacity building, Advocacy and Facilitation (CAF) of the dioceses. The Church has common work institutions including: The Tumaini University Makumira that has 6 constituent colleges; Morogoro Lutheran Junior Seminary (LJS); Three schools for deaf children.

It has 23 Hospitals and more than 140 health centres and dispensaries spread across Tanzania. It is engaged in PHC, diakonia, HIV counseling, treatment and Palliative Care at national and Diocesan levels. ELCT has a number of water projects as well as poverty alleviation and environment protection projects. The implementation of these projects have had a significant impact on development in the communities.

HISTORY

The first missionary societies in Tanganyika

The Berlin III Missionary Society, also known as the Evangelical Missionary Society for East Africa (EMS), was the first to send Lutheran missionaries from German who planted the seed that eventually formed the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. Their first missionary station was opened at Kigamboni in Dar es Salaam in 1887.

The second team, Berlin I, was also from Germany. They entered Tanganyika from South Africa and settled in the Southern Highlands and opened their first missionary station in 1891 at Ipagika or Pipagika (Wangemannshöhe) in the area that later became ELCT Konde Diocese.

In 1890 Berlin III change its role and became Bethel Mission and settle in Tanga where it established a mission station at Mbuyukenda. In 1910 the missionaries opened a mission station in Bukoba, Kagera Region while they were planning to go to Rwanda.

The third mission society that worked in Tanzania was Leipzig Mission Society, again from Germany. This society entered the country in 1893 and opened its first station at Kidia, Old Moshi in Kilimanjaro region.

This mission activity continued to bear fruit in spite of the interruptions of the Hehe/German War in 1891, the Majimaji war of 1905/6, the 1st World War 1914-1918 and later on the 2nd World War of 1939-1945.

Formation of the ELCT

By 1938, there were seven churches in Tanganyika, as the country was known at that time. In 1938, the churches formed a federation known as the Federation of Lutheran Churches in Tanganyika.

On June 19, 1963, the seven Churches, under the umbrella of a federation, merged to become synods and dioceses of a single Church, known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanganyika. The following year, when the union with Zanzibar produced a change of the national name to Tanzania, the Church was renamed the Evangelical Lutheran church in Tanzania.

DIOCESES
The Church has 26 Dioceses as follows: 1) North Western Diocese 2) North Eastern Diocese 3) Pare Diocese 4) Northern Diocese 5) North Central Diocese 6) Karagwe Diocese 7) Central Diocese 8) Southern Diocese 9) Konde Diocese 10) South Central Diocese 11) Ulanga/Kilombero Diocese 12) Eastern and Coastal Diocese 13) Mbulu Diocese 14) Iringa Diocese 15) Dodoma Diocese 16) East of Lake Victoria Diocese 17) Diocese in Mara Region 18) Diocese of Meru 19) South Western Diocese 20) Morogoro Diocese 21) South East of Lake Victoria Diocese 22) South Eastern Diocese 23) Ruvuma Diocese, 24) Lake Tanganyika Diocese, 25) Mwanga Diocese, and (26) West Central Diocese.
For more information, click here.


Postal Address:
ELCT Head Office
P.O. Box 3033
Arusha, Tanzania.

General Information:
elcthq@elct.or.tz

For further information contact:
ELCT Communication Coordinator:
elobulu@elct.or.tz


Popular Links

Makumira University College icon
Tumaini
University
Makumira

Other Popular Links

Language & Orientation School
       (at Lutheran Junior Seminary Morogoro)
New Safari Hotel
Service Office
Tumaini University Makumira

        Dar es Salaam College
        Josia Kibira University College
        Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College
        Stefano Moshi University College

Press Releases
(Archives)

ELCT welcomes Martin Junge
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) has invited the General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, Rev. Dr. Martin Jungefor a four-day pastoral visit to Tanzania.
Click here
for details.

ELCT employs a new Education Director
(Press release is also in Swahili)

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) has appointed Ms. Christowaja Gerson Mtinda to take up the position of ELCT Education Director taking over from Mr. William Kivuyo whose term of office has ended.
Click here
for details.

ELCT hosts education ambassadors meeting
(Press release is also in Swahili)
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) will host the Second Education Ambassadors Assembly to take place in Arusha from 22 to 25 November 2018. A press statement issued by the ELCT Secretary General, Mr. Brighton Killewa, said that the gathering is one of the resolutions on Church reformation celebrations by churches in Germany.
Click here
for details.

‘Ubuntu’ philosophy needs to be Christ centered
“Acts of humanness have to be Christ-centered to avoid selfishness through the tendency of segregating others in the process of unifying one’s own community,” Rev. Dr. Fidon Mwombeki, the General Secretary of All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), said in a presentation at the first International African Lutheran Conference (IALC) held in Moshi, Tanzania recently.
Click here
for images and details.

The First International African Lutheran Conference has been launched
“It is important for Lutherans of African descent in America to re-connect with Churches in Africa to work together in order to help each other in fulfilling God’s mission,” Rev. Dr Wyvetta Bullock, the Assistant to the Presiding Bishop and Executive for Administration in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), said at the first International African Lutheran Conference (IALC) held recently in Moshi, Tanzania.
Click here
for images and details.

The ELCT is seeking to fill the following positions:
    Coordinator for Time Travel Method Project
(click here)
    Project Accountant for the Kizazi Kipya Project
(click here)
    Sales Person at the ELCT Book Shop in Arusha
(click here)

Conference on World Mission starts in Arusha
A joyous atmosphere marked the opening of a week-long conference on world mission in Arusha, Tanzania, on 8th March, 2018.
Click here
for images and details.

World Day of Prayer in Pictures
A collection of pictures showing how staff at the Head Office of the ELCT celebrated the World Day of Prayers on March 2, 2018. The theme: “God’s creation” (Genesis 1: 1-31).
Click here
for details.

Exhibition stalls available at WCC Conference
The Lutheran Investment Company LTD (LUICO) has invited interested parties to book an exhibition stall during the forthcoming World Council of Churches Conference on World Mission scheduled to take place in Arusha March 8-13, 2018.
Click here
for details.

Dr Mwaikali Consecrated as New Bishop of Konde Diocese
Reverend Dr. Edward Johnson Mwaikali was consecrated on 14 January 2018 to become the new leader of Konde Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.
Click here
for details.



©2002-2019 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania
Corrections to or questions about this page should be sent to: elcthq@elct.or.tz

 

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