Godfrey Mdimi Mhogolo (14 June 1951 – 27 March 2014) was an Anglican bishop and the fifth bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Central Tanganyika.

Education

Mdimi Mhogolo studied theology in Kongwa in

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

and at Ridley College (Melbourne), Australia (1976-1981) when Leon Morris was principal. Fellow students at Ridley College (Melbourne) found him deep and spiritual with a good sense of humour.

Ordained ministry

Mdimi Mhogolo was Principal of St. Philip's College, Kongwa in the 1980s where he worked with

New Zealand Church Missionary Society The New Zealand Church Missionary Society is a mission society working within the Anglican Communion and Protestant, Evangelical Anglicanism. The parent organisation was founded in England in 1799. The Church Missionary Society (CMS) sent missiona ...

(NZCMS) missionaries. Mdimi Mhogolo was ordained a bishop in 1989 for the Anglican Diocese of Central Tanganyika, in

, a huge diocese. As a connection between Ridley College (Melbourne) and Tanzania where Mdimi Mhogolo came from, Rt Rev Alfred Stanway was an Australian who in 1950 was appointed Bishop of Central Tanganyika by the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

before Mdimi Mhogolo. Alfred Stanway was later administrator at Ridley College (Melbourne) under Leon Morris and one residential hall at Ridley College (Melbourne) was named Stanway in honour of him. From 2001 bishop Mdimi Mhogolo was the first to ordain women in Tanzania of whom there are 40 in 2015 starting with Revd Canon Hilda Kabia who became first woman principal of Msalato Theological College in 2015 and first woman theological principal in Tanzania. Leon Morris was behind ordaining women in the

Anglican Church of Australia The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the R ...

including

Barbara Darling Barbara Brinsley Darling (17 October 1947 – 15 February 2015) was an Australian Anglican bishop. She was among the first women to be an ordained deacon in the Anglican Church of Australia. Darling was born in Burwood, Sydney, one of three ch ...

who was the first woman bishop ordained in

Anglican Diocese of Melbourne The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne is the metropolitan diocese of the Province of Victoria in the Anglican Church of Australia. The diocese was founded from the Diocese of Australia by letters patent of 25 June 1847 "As bishop, Mdimi Mhogolo fostered projects such as The Carpenter’s Kids for DCT’s most vulnerable children. He moved Msalato Theological College, founded by Australian bishop Ken Short in

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...

, from a Bible School to the degree level, enriched four primary and secondary schools, two hospitals, and the Mackay House Health Clinic where" a US missionary from the Episcopal Church of North Georgia Diocese of Atlanta worked with him. Mdimi Mohogolo spoke at

Anglican Church of Canada The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC or ACoC) is the Ecclesiastical province#Anglican Communion, province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French-language name is ''l'Église anglicane du Canada''. In 2017, the Anglican Church co ...

The Consultation of Anglican Bishops in Dialogue in June 2012 of which there is a YouTube recording of an interview he had with a Canadian professor. He spoke of church unity issues in the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

Global Anglican Future Conference The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) is a series of conferences of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders, the first of which was held in Jerusalem from 22 to 29 June 2008 to address the growing controversy of the divisions in the An ...

(GAFCON) and

Lambeth Conference The Lambeth Conference is a decennial assembly of bishops of the Anglican Communion convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first such conference took place at Lambeth in 1867. As the Anglican Communion is an international association ...

UK at which he participated. He said Canadian and African Anglican Churches differed in what they saw as important and that the Anglican Church needed to restructure to improve collaboration.

Death

Mdimi Mohogolo died in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

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 countri ...

from a severe lung infection. 2000 were at the funeral with cathedral overflowing.

Anne Makinda Anne Semamba Makinda (born 26 July 1949) is a Tanzanian politician and the first female Speaker of the National Assembly of Tanzania, in office from 2010 to 2015. She was the last Chairman and the first President of UNICEF at the international l ...

, speaker of the Tanzanian National Assembly, "said the late Bishop Mhogolo was the friend of everyone and that his death was a big shock."

Views on homosexuality

Mhogolo was a moderate on the issue of homosexuality compared to many African Anglicans who strongly condemned homosexuality or even denied its existence in Africa; he sought to avoid a schism in the church over the issue. In 2007 he wrote that homosexuality as an issue "is not fundamental to the Christian faith, although many try to make it that way". He also wrote on "Human Sexuality in the Anglican Communion" for the ''Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion'' (2013). In his Canadian interview in June 2012 he said in the Africa Anglican Church homosexuality was not as critical an issue as in the

Episcopal Church (United States) The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop o ...

and

Publications

He has written a number of books, mainly in Swahili, including: * ''Endelea kukua maadili ya kikristo'', Central Tanganyika Press, 1985 * ''Utawala Bora'', 2004 * ''Ibada'', 2012

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mhogolo, Godfrey Mdimi 1951 births 2014 deaths Tanzanian clergy Anglican bishops of Central Tanganyika