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.Nafasi
za kazi tanzania.
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.
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