The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe (formerly the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Southern Rhodesia) is an

Evangelical 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 ...

church in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

, 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 missionaries. It has a membership of around 134,000 (as of 2006) and 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 ...

. Until 1934, it was a branch of the Swedish Lutheran mission in

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 ...

. 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