Anglican Church of Tanzania
Anglican Church of Tanzania | |
---|---|
Holy Bible | |
Theology | Anglican doctrine |
Polity | Episcopal |
Primate | Maimbo Mndolwa |
Language | Swahili, English |
Headquarters | Dodoma, Tanzania |
Territory | Tanzania |
Members | 2,500,000 |
Official website | https://www.anglican.or.tz/ |
The Anglican Church of Tanzania (ACT; Swahili: Kanisa la Anglikana la Tanzania) is a province of the Anglican Communion based in Dodoma. It consists of 28 dioceses (27 on the Tanzanian mainland, and 1 on Zanzibar) headed by their respective bishops. It seceded from the Province of East Africa in 1970, which it shared with Kenya. The current primate and archbishop is Maimbo Mndolwa, enthroned on 20 May 2018.[1]
Name
The church became part of the Province of East Africa in 1960. From 1970 until 1997, it was known as the Church of the Province of Tanzania. Today it is known as the Anglican Church of Tanzania, or ACT.
History
Tanganyika
The church's origins lie in the
Zanzibar
The Diocese of Zanzibar was founded in 1892, and developed separately from that of Eastern Equatorial Africa. Whilst mainland Tanzania was largely under the influence of evangelical missionary societies, Zanzibar was evangelised by Anglo-catholic missionaries, and represented a far more high church form of Anglicanism. The mainland territories and Zanzibar were united when the Province of East Africa was formed.
The first bishop of Zanzibar was
Having fallen into poor condition, Zanzibar Cathedral was fully restored, at a cost of one million Euros, to reopen in 2016, with a world heritage visitor centre. The restoration was supported by the Tanzanian and Zanzibari governments, and spearheaded by the diocese in partnership with the World Monuments Fund.[6] The restoration of the spire, clock, and historic Willis organ are still outstanding.
Membership
Today, there are at least 2,500,000 Anglicans out of an estimated population of 61 500 000 in Tanzania. According to a peer-reviewed quantitative study published in the Journal of Anglican Studies by Cambridge University Press in 2016, the Church of Tanzania has more than 2 million total members and approximately 170,000 active baptised members.[7]
Independent associations open to members of the church include the Mothers' Union (MU), the Tanzania Anglican Youth Organization (TAYO) and the Anglican Evangelistic Association (AEA).
Among the Church's prominent educational institutions are the newly founded
The Central Tanganyika Press (CTP) and the Literature Organization (SKM, also known as the Dar es Salaam Bookshop), are autonomous church institutions with a prominent role in Anglican church life.
Structure
In common with other
Dioceses
- Biharamulo
- Central Tanganyika
- Dar es Salaam
- Kagera
- Kibondo
- Kondoa
- Lweru
- Mara
- Masasi
- Morogoro
- Mount Kilimanjaro
- Mpwapwa
- Newala
- Rift Valley
- Ruaha
- Rorya
- Ruvuma
- Shinyanga
- South-West Tanganyika
- Southern Highlands
- Tabora
- Tanga
- Tarime
- Victoria Nyanza
- Western Tanganyika
- Zanzibar
- Kiteto
- Lake Rukwa
Archbishops
The Primate of the Church is the Archbishop of Tanzania. The See of the archbishop was formerly[when?] fixed at Dodoma, but is now non-geographical. Whichever bishop is elected as Primate remains bishop of his own diocese, as well as becoming Archbishop of Tanzania. There have been seven archbishops since the Province of East Africa was divided into the Provinces of Kenya and Tanzania in 1970.[8]
- 1970–1978: John Sepeku, Bishop of Dar es Salaam
- 1979–1983: Mussa Kahurananga
- 1984–1998: John Ramadhani
- 1998–2008: Donald Mtetemela
- 2008–2013: Valentino Mokiwa
- 2013–2018: Jacob Chimeledya
- 2018–present: Maimbo Mndolwa
Other bishops
Alfred Stanway (called Alf; 9 September 1908 – 27 June 1989) was the third bishop of Central Tanganyika, 1951–1971.[9] He was made a deacon on St Thomas' Day 1934 (21 December) in St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne,[10] ordained a priest about a year later, and consecrated a bishop on Candlemas 1951 (2 February) by Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster Abbey.[11]
Doctrine and practice
The Anglican Church of Tanzania embraces the three traditional orders of ministry: deacon, priest, and bishop. A local variant of the Book of Common Prayer is used.
The center of the Anglican Church of Tanzania teaching is the life and resurrection of
- Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. He died and was resurrected from the dead.
- Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe.
- The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit". The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine.
- The two great and necessary sacraments are Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist
- Other unction.
- Belief in Jesus's return in glory.
The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way. This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of Richard Hooker, a sixteenth-century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason.[12]
Ecumenical relations
Like many other Anglican churches, the Anglican Church of Tanzania is a member of the ecumenical World Council of Churches.[13]
Anglican realignment
In December 2006 the ACT declared itself to be in "impaired communion" with The
The ACT is a member of the
The ACT was represented at GAFCON III, in Jerusalem, on 17–22 June 2018, by a 26 members delegation, which included former Archbishop Jacob Chimeledya. Archbishop Maimbo Mndolwa was registered to attend but wasn't able to come.[18]
The official branch of GAFCON Tanzania was launched on 14 August 2019, in a meeting held in Dar es Salaam, that reunited 10 bishops of the province, including former Archbishop Jacob Chimeledya, and had the support of one more absent bishop and the retired Archbishop Donald Mtetemela. The bishops represented agreed not the attend the Lambeth Conference in 2020, due to the Archbishop of Canterbury unwillingness in discipline the provinces that have rejected the Lambeth 1.10 1998 resolution on human sexuality. Bishop Mwita Akiri was elected branch chairman on the occasion. Current Archbishop Maimbo Mndolwa, despite having signed the Jerusalem Declaration, hasn't declared yet his formal support for GAFCON Tanzania.[19]
References
- ^ "I will be Maimbo" - New Primate of Tanzania honours past as he ushers in new era, Anglican Communion News Service, 21 May 2018
- ISBN 978-1-118-32086-0.
- ^ "NEW BISHOP APPOINTED". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 July 1947. p. 4.
- ^ ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 4 September 2019 – via UK Press Online archives.
- ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 28 August 2019 – via UK Press Online archives.
- ^ Progress report and photographs at this Archived 2017-06-28 at the Wayback Machine webpage.
- ISSN 1740-3553.
- ISBN 9781118320860. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
- ^ "Stanway, Alfred". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Australian Dictionary of Evangelical Biography - STANWAY, Alfred (1908-1989)".
- ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 6 November 2019 – via UK Press Online archives.
- ^ Anglican Listening Archived July 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Detail on how scripture, tradition, and reason work to "uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way".
- ^ http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3587 World Council of Churches
- ^ mmacdonald (2014-03-28). "Anglican Church of Tanzania mourns the passing of Bishop Mhogolo". Episcopal News Service. Retrieved 2021-09-26.
- ^ "Tanzania Ministry | The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia". www.thediocese.net. Retrieved 2021-09-26.
- ^ "ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF TANGA, TANZANIA". All Saints Parish, Brookline MA. 2018-08-14. Retrieved 2021-09-26.
- ^ Tanzania rejoins GAFCON, Anglican Ink, 19 April 2016
- ^ GAFCON III largest pan-Anglican gathering since Toronto Congress of 1963, Anglican Ink, 20 June 2018
- ^ Communiqué from Gafcon Tanzania, 14 August 2019, GAFCON Official Website
Further reading
- Anglicanism, Neill, Stephen. Harmondsworth, 1965.