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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN) is a
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...
denomination based in
Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
. It has a total membership of over 772,398, mainly in Northern Namibia. Formerly known as the Evangelical Lutheran Ovambo-Kavango Church (ELOC), it played a significant role in opposition to Apartheid in Namibia and was part of the Namibian independence struggle.Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia
World Council of Churches, January 2006
Other Lutheran churches in Namibia are the southern based
Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia ) is a Lutheran denomination based in Namibia. It has a total membership of about 420,000. The ELCRN grew out of work done by the Rhenish Missionary Society starting in 1842. The denomination was established in 1957 as the Evangelical Lutheran Ch ...
and the
German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia The German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (known as GELC, GELK, or DELK) is a Lutheran denomination based in Namibia. It was founded in 1960, and has 4,434 members. GELC joined the Lutheran World Federation in 1963. It is also a m ...
(GELK). The current presiding bishop is Shekutaamba Nambala.


History

The church developed out of the work of the
Finnish Missionary Society The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (''FELM'', formerly ''The Finnish Missionary Society''; fi, Suomen Lähetysseura ry; sv, Finska Missionssällskapet rf) is a Lutheran missionary society formed on January 19, 1859, in Helsinki, Finland. ...
that began in 1870 among the
Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language *Ovambo people *Ovamboland Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland ...
and Kavango people in the northern area of what became German South West Africa. In 1954, an independent church known as the Evangelical Lutheran Ovambo-Kavango Church was established with Birger Eriksson as its first president. The first Namibian bishop of ELOC, Leonard Auala, played a notable role in the struggle for Namibia's independence. In 1971, an open letter was written jointly with Moderator Paulus Gowaseb of the Rhenish Mission's United Evangelical Lutheran Church in South West Africa (later known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia) to the
Prime Minister of South Africa The prime minister of South Africa ( af, Eerste Minister van Suid-Afrika) was the head of government in South Africa between 1910 and 1984. History of the office The position of Prime Minister was established in 1910, when the Union of Sout ...
,
B. J. Vorster Balthazar Johannes "B. J." Vorster (; also known as John Vorster; 13 December 1915 – 10 September 1983) was a South African apartheid politician who served as the prime minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978 and the fourth state presiden ...
, which declared their church's opposition to the continued rule of
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
and the acceptance of the recommendation by the
International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordan ...
for the withdrawal of South Africa's mandate and a transition period towards independence. In 1984, ELOC's name was officially changed to its current iteration, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia. Auala's successor, Kleopas Dumeni, also played an important role in highlighting the plight of Namibians under South African rule. Bishop Dumeni suffered personal losses in the struggle including the death of his 18-year-old daughter in a bomb blast in 1988. In 2007, ELCIN together with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia and the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) formed the United Church Council: Namibia Evangelical Lutheran Churches, with the ultimate aim of becoming one united national Lutheran church.


Structure

The church was originally led by a moderator elected from amongst the clergy. In the 1960s, the church adopted
episcopal polity An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance ("ecclesiastical polity") in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. (The word "bishop" derives, via the British Latin and Vulgar Latin term ''*ebiscopus''/''*bis ...
and was subsequently led by a bishop. In 1992, the church was divided into two dioceses, the Eastern Diocese and the Western Diocese, each led by its own bishop, and since 1996 a Presiding Bishop has been elected to preside over the whole ELCIN. There have been calls for the Western Diocese to be further divided into two, to create a total of three dioceses. Two further dioceses would be added by the proposed amalgamation with Namibia's other two Lutheran denominations, a process which is under discussion.


Moderators and Presiding Bishops

;Moderators of ELOC * Birger Eriksson (1954 – 1958) * Alpo Hukka (1958 – 1960) * Leonard Auala (1960 – 1963) ;Bishops of ELOC ''(episcopal polity adopted 1963)'' * Leonard Auala (1963 – 1978) * Kleopas Dumeni (1978 – 1996) ''(name changed from ELOC to ELCIN in 1984)'' ;Presiding Bishops of ELCIN * Kleopas Dumeni (1996 – 2000), consecrated 1978 * Apollos Kaulinge (2000 – 2004), consecrated 1996 for Western Diocese * Tomas Shivute (2004 – 2012), consecrated 2000 for Western Diocese * Shekutaamba Nambala, (2012 – 2022), consecrated 2012 for Western Diocese * Gideon Niitenge consecrated 2022 until the present for Eastern Diocese


Okahao controversy

Between 2012 and 2014, the Bishop of the Western Diocese was Josafat Shanghala. Shanghala attempted to move the parish pastor at
Okahao Okahao is a town in the Omusati Region of northern Namibia and the district capital of the Okahao electoral constituency. It is situated in the Ongandjera tribal area west of Oshakati on the main road MR123 (Outapi — Tsandi — Okahao). It is ...
, the Rev Hulda Shau-Aitana, to the parish of Okambebe. The pastor refused to move, claiming that the relocation was not for pastoral reasons, but rather a personal punishment. The issue became highly divisive within the church, and high-profile within Namibian news media. In October 2013, parishioners at Okahao petitioned Presiding Bishop Shekutaamba Nambala to have Shanghala removed from office. The Presiding Bishop attempted to intervene, and appointed two separate commissions to report on the growing public controversy, but the results of both commissions were rejected by the parish. The Presiding Bishop ultimately appeared to side with the parish authorities, leading to concerns being expressed for the future unity of the church. On 9 February 2014, Shanghala attempted to visit Okahao parish to preach at the Sunday morning service, but he was prevented from speaking by the congregation, who heckled him in the pulpit, and then ejected him from the church. The controversy was terminated when Shanghala retired in June 2014, aged 70.Retirement repor
Shanghala retires from ELCIN at 70
by Oswald Shivute in The Namibian.
His retirement ceremony was attended by dignitaries of church and state, including the Namibian Prime Minister. Shanghala was succeeded as Bishop of the Western Diocese by Veikko Munyika.


Affiliations

ELCIN participates actively in
ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...
work through its affiliation with: *
Lutheran World Federation The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; german: Lutherischer Weltbund) is a global communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish ...
**
Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa is a Lutheran church in South Africa. The church has 580,000 baptized members in seven dioceses in South Africa, Botswana, and Eswatini, and is (by a wide margin) the largest Lutheran church i ...
* United Church Council: Namibia Evangelical Lutheran Churches *
Council of Churches in Namibia The Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) is an ecumenical organisation in Namibia. Its member churches together represent 1.5 million people, 90% of the population of Namibia. It is a member of the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Afr ...
*
World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...


See also

*
Religion in Namibia Religion in Namibia is dominated by various branches of Christianity, with more than 90 percent of Namibian citizens identifying themselves as Christian. According to the United States DRL, in 2007 up to 75% were Protestant, including as much as ...
* Namibian War of Independence * List of Lutheran dioceses and archdioceses


References


External links

* {{Lutheran World Federation Churches 1954 establishments in South West Africa Lutheran denominations established in the 20th century Lutheran World Federation members Lutheranism in Namibia Members of the World Council of Churches
Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
Christian organizations established in 1954