Zimbabwean Church To Consecrate Three New Bishops after Restructuring
On 1 January 2006, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe (ELCZ) will consecrate three new bishops, one of whom will become the church’s first presiding bishop. This follows a process that has led to the reconstitution of the church from deaneries into three dioceses.
During its 3 December 2005 meeting in the southwestern city of Bulawayo, the ELCZ church-wide Assembly elected three bishops for the newly-created dioceses. Eastern Diocese (Harare) will be led by Rev John S. Moyo, currently working with the Zimbabwe Council of Churches in its Mission, Youth and Child Survival Office. Central Diocese (Mberengwa) will be led by bishop-elect Naison Shava, presently dean of the ELCZ Eastern Deanery and coordinator of the Lutheran Development Service cooperative societies. Bishop-elect Stephen M. Dube, currently head of the Western Deanery and principal of Manama Bible School, will lead the Western Diocese (Matabeleland).
Shava will also become the ELCZ presiding bishop.
Incumbent ELCZ Bishop Litsietsi Maqethuka Dube told Lutheran World Information (LWI) that re-structuring the church into dioceses was one of the priorities when he assumed his five-year term in December 2001. Dube, 62, was the fourth black bishop to head the Zimbabwean church since its 1903 establishment by Swedish missionaries.
The 130,000-member ELCZ joined the LWF in 1963. (217 words)
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