Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa

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Hans Schreuder

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa ( Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa , ELCSA) is the largest Lutheran church in South Africa . Its approximately 580,000 members are distributed over 1,612 parishes in seven dioceses in South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland .

history

The ELCSA goes back to the Norwegian missionary Hans Schreuder and to the work of the Berlin Mission Society , the Hermannsburg Mission and other Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and North American missionaries of the 19th century. From 1960, four regional and independent churches emerged from the missionary work. The traditionally “black” church ELCSA was created in 1975 through the merger of the four churches, which then became dioceses with their own bishop . Paul B. Mhulungu was elected the first presiding bishop . The founding meeting in Rustenburg on December 17, 1975 was overshadowed by a bomb attack in which twenty people were injured.

In 1978 the church district of Botswana , which had previously belonged to the Western Diocese (ELCSA-WD), unilaterally separated from the ELCSA and founded the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Botswana (ELCB), which from then on existed alongside the congregations that continued to belong to the ELCSA diocese. The split was upheld by the court in 1979.

The ELCSA is a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Lutheran World Federation , Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa (formerly Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in South Africa) and the South African Council of Churches . It is also a partner church of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (EKBO).

Other Lutheran Churches in South Africa

Other Lutheran churches in South Africa are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Africa (Cape Church) , the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (Natal-Transvaal) , the Brothers' Union in South Africa , the Free Evangelical Lutheran Synod in South Africa , the Lutheran Church in South Africa , the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 2010 World Lutheran Membership Details; Lutheran World Information 1/2011 ( Memento from September 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Protestant press service, December 22, 1975
  3. ^ Protestant press service, October 16, 1978

Web links