The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe (formerly the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Southern Rhodesia) is an Evangelical Lutheran church in Zimbabwe, founded in 1903 by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

and

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

missionaries. It has a membership of around 134,000 (as of 2006) and is a member of the Lutheran World Federation. Until 1934, it was a branch of the

Swedish Lutheran The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Swed ...

mission in South Africa. It became an independent church in 1963, as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Southern Rhodesia. Its last missionary bishop was Sigfrid Strandvik, who retired in 1975. He was succeeded by a Zimbabwean, J. C. Shiri.

Literature

*Hugo Söderström: ''God Gave Growth. The History of the Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe, 1903-1980'', 1984. *Hugo Söderström, Sten Bergman, Tore Bergman: ''The History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe 1903-2003'', Church of Sweden, 2003. , https://web.archive.org/web/20160304220513/http://www.fjellstedtska.se/ELCZ_100years.pdf

References

{{World Council of Churches Lutheranism in Africa Protestantism in Zimbabwe 1903 establishments in Southern Rhodesia Lutheran World Federation members