Walter Obare Omwanza is the former presiding bishop (in

apostolic succession Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bish ...

) of the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya ( sw, Kanisa la Kiinjili la Kilutheri Katika Kenya) is a Lutheran denomination in Kenya. It is a member of the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum, the Lutheran World Federation (which it join ...

(ELCK), which is a member of the

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 ...

and the

International Lutheran Council The International Lutheran Council (ILC) is a worldwide association of confessional Lutheran denominations. Member bodies of the ILC hold "an unconditional commitment to the Holy Scriptures as the inspired and infallible Word of God and to the Lu ...

Concordia Theological Seminary The Concordia Theological Seminary is a Lutheran seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It offers professional, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees affiliated with training clergy and deaconesses for the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). His ...

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

, a seminary of the U.S.

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The LC ...

(LCMS), awarded Obare an honorary Doctor of Divinity (Honoris Causa) degree in 2006.

Childhood and family life

Obare was born in Misambi village on 10 May 1947 in the Nyamira District of

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. He married in 1976 and has ten children and seven grandchildren.

Schooling and service

Obare studied at Matongo Lutheran Theological College (MLTC) and graduated with a General Certificate in Theology in 1981. He was ordained as a pastor in 1982, after which he served as a parish pastor in nine congregations simultaneously. In 1985, he was appointed by the ELCK to be Pastor for Schools, a churchwide position. In 1991, he again studied at MLTC, graduating with a Higher Diploma in Theology in 1993. In the same year he began a teaching career at MLTC. He was awarded a master's degree from the LCMS's

Concordia Seminary Concordia Seminary is a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Lutheran seminary in Clayton, Missouri. The institution's primary mission is to train pastors, deaconesses, Missionary, missionaries, chaplains, and church leaders for the Lutheran Chur ...

St Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which ...

. He came back to Kenya and continued at MLTC until August 2002, when he was called to the office of the Presiding Bishop of ELCK. He was consecrated a bishop on 24 November 2002 by bishop Samson Mushemba, the presiding bishop of the ELCT, assisted by bishop Francis Nyamwaro Onderi who is ordained by

Gunnar Weman Gunnar Weman (born 25 February 1932) was Archbishop of Uppsala from 1993 to 1997. Weman is the son of Henry Weman who was the cathedral organist in Uppsala. He was ordained in 1958 and was stationed as a priest in Sigtuna and later in Uppsala in ...

archbishop of Uppsala.

Apostolic succession

Walter Obare was ordained bishop on 24 November 2002 by: Samson Mushemba, the presiding bishop of the ELCT, who was ordained in 1984 by : Paulo Mukuta, bishop of Karagwe, who was ordained in 1979 by : Josias Kibira, assistant bishop of Bukoba, who was ordained bishop by : Bengt Sundkler, the first Lutheran bishop in Tanzania, who was ordained bishop by :

Bo Giertz Bo Harald Giertz (; 31 August 1905 – 12 July 1998) was a Swedish Lutheran theologian, novelist and bishop of the Gothenburg Lutheran Diocese from 1949 to 1970. By the time he became bishop, he was already quite well known in Sweden and elsewh ...

, bishop of Gothenburg (

Church of Sweden 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 Sw ...

)

Mission Province and Lutheran World Federation

On 5 February 2005, he consecrated a Swedish pastor,

Arne Olsson Arne Olsson (born 1930) is a Swedish Lutheran bishop. He is the Bishop Ordinary of the Mission Province. Olsson is a retired pastor in the Lutheran Church of Sweden, having been e.g. the parish priest of Habo. On 5 February 2005 in Gothenburg, h ...

, as bishop for a conservative group called

Missionsprovinsen The Mission Province ( sv, Missionsprovinsen ) is a Swedish independent ecclesiastical province founded by members of the Church of Sweden who are opposed to the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate. The province, which aligns w ...

, which opposes the

's policy on placing women and unrepentant homosexuals into the ordained pastorate. The Council of the

subsequently terminated a leadership position Obare held within the LWF on 1 September 2005.

References

External links

Why Are We Here Today
by Bishop Obare, 5 February 2005
Choose Life!
presented by Bishop Obare at the LWF Council meeting in Jerusalem, September, 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Obare, Walter Lutheran primates 1947 births Living people Kenyan Lutherans 21st-century Lutheran bishops Kenyan bishops Lutheran bishops in Africa Concordia Seminary alumni Bishops in Kenya