4. Introduction
4.4 The period of the birth of the Iringa diocese (1987-1999) In 1987 the Iringa district went for elections. Pastor Owdenburg
Mdegella, who served Ihemi congregation as a pastor, became Bishop- elect and Nicholas Mwachusi was chosen to be the Assistant Bishop.
Edward Mnyawami, who was once the Education Secretary of the
317 Interview with Juliana Muyinga, 23 November 2000, IIula, Iringa.
Uhehe district, held the office of General Secretary, while Gerson Munyi became the Treasurer.318
As these changes took place, the newly formed diocese had no plan for its personnel. There were only 24 pastors when the new diocese was launched, compared to 32 parishes which needed pastoral leadership.
During this time there was a strong spiritual revival in the diocese. The New Life Crusade ministry started to work with the new diocese at the same time. As a result of the revival movement and evangelization, there was a fast growth of the church. However, there were no plans to accommodate its growth both quantitatively and qualitatively. The shortage of pastors became a great concern for the pastors in the congregations and for the delegates of the Executive Council of the diocese. The problem kept on being raised at each meeting. In an attempt to solve the problem, a crash course programme to train pastors was launched in 1987.319 (This will be discussed in chapter five on the training of leadership). Despite the effort to train leaders in the diocese, the speed of the growth of the church in Iringa posed great challenges to the administration and to the few indigenous pastors.
The introduction of Theological Education by Extension (TEE) in the diocese brought about more preachers and the need for Christian nurture grew. The revival movement gave rise to many itinerant evangelists. This means that lay Lutheran Christians got involved in the preaching of the word of God in the diocese and this gave rise to new parishes in the villages. As a result of this numeric growth, another course was planned to train experienced evangelists to become pastors.320 Thus, in 1992 a group of eight evangelists from the Iringa diocese, three evangelists from the Dodoma diocese, two
318Dayosisi ya Iringa, Miaka 100 ya Injili Uheheni1899-1999 (Iringa diocese, 100 Years of the Gospel in Uhehe) (Dar es Salaam: Inter Press of Tanzania Ltd. 1999), pp. 4-5.
319Interview with Edward Mnyawami, 12 November 2000, Iringa.
evangelists from the South Central diocese and three evangelists from the Ulanga Kilombero diocese was admitted for two years of intensive theological training. The Dodoma, South Central and Ulanga Kilombero dioceses shared the same problem of a shortage of pastors in their respective places. After learning that Iringa was launching a two years intensive training programme that led to ordination, they sent their students for the course.
The author had the privilege to head the training, together with six other theologians. This training programme was favoured by the Executive Council of the diocese because it was cheaper and faster. It was cheaper because it was supported internally, with very little external support. Christians from Iringa, Mkwawa, Mlandege and Kihesa parishes were requested to accommodate the students for three months while plans were made to accommodate them in one location. Later on all of the students were transferred to Kihesa where they were accommodated. Parishioners of Kihesa supported the programme by providing food services and lodging. The class graduated in 1994 and was ordained on 31 July 1994, together with a Lambert Mtatifikolo from Makumira Theological College. The group consisted of three women and five men: Agnes Kulanga, Esther Chusi, Lena Muyenze, Yohana Mwachusi, Jocktan Kasuga, Israel Mbembe, and Saimon Msula.321 Although this programme helped to alleviate the shortage of pastors in the diocese, some of the students were too old for the programme, for most of them were in their fifties. The efficiency and ability for the ministry of some of them was low. One can argue that although most of them could not serve for a long time, some of them have played a very crucial role in pastoral service in their respective congregations. Agnes Kulanga was the first woman in
320 Interview with Bishop Owdenburg Mdegella, 11 November 2000, Iringa.
321Interview with Bishop Owdenburg Mdegella, 11 November 2000, Iringa
Tanzania to be elected as a district pastor, despite her limited education.
In 1992, four people graduated from Makumira and were ordained in 1993: Patrick Kikoti, Bethuel Mponzi, Winston Musitapakwe and Donald Kiwanga. In 1995 two more people were ordained Askali Mgeyekwa and Norbert Mwitula, while in 1996 a group of seven theologians was ordained: Laiton Muyinga, Gerald Gaifalo, Aikam Chavala, Patson Lubava, Bernard Kahwage, Timothy Kimbavala and Harrison Kisabugo.322 All of them, except for two, graduated from the Makumira Theological College. Phillip Kikoti graduated from the Moravian Theological College and Timothy Kimbavala from the Lutheran College at Iringa, presently called Tumaini University College at Iringa.
In 1994 eleven students were admitted to the Lutheran College, Iringa. It was a group of eight young men and three young women.
Seven of them had worked as evangelists in the diocese and the rest came directly from secondary schools. This group graduated and was ordained in 1998. Together with the group, two graduates from Makumira were ordained.323 This was the largest group to be ordained since the inception of the Iringa diocese.
As time went by, the number of students being admitted for theological education rose and higher entry qualifications for the programme were set. This created problems for some of the evangelists who liked to pursue theological education. They needed to have a secondary school certificate with at least three subjects with C grades and above. However, this is a positive move because it is very
322 Interview with Bishop Owdenburg Mdegella, llNovember 2000, Iringa.
323Interview with Bishop Owdenburg Mdegella, 11 November 2000, Iringa.
important for the church to have well educated pastors who can cope with the changing society.
In 1999 four people were ordained, making a total of 67 ordained pastors in the diocese. From 1987 to 1999 a total of 67 pastors were ordained as compared to twelve who were ordained when Uhehe district was under the Southern diocese. This difference may be in part due to the laxity of the earlier leaders, who had the wrong notion that the Hehe had no call for ordained ministry, to recruit students for theological education from the Uhehe area.
Chapter Five
The Iringa diocese (1987-1999) 5. Introduction
The -aim of this chapter is to examine the establishment of the Iringa diocese. There are different ways of looking at this development. Due to the growth in the population of Tanzania as well as the number of the Evangelical Lutheran Christians, the increase in dioceses, which resulted through division, can be seen as part of an organic process.
But it cannot be ignored that ethnic tensions, mother languages and traditions all played an important role in the division and reorganization of the dioceses. This was no different in the case of the Iringa diocese, one of the districts of the Southern diocese that was mainly dominated by the Bena tribe. I will discuss the factors which led to the beginning of the diocese, the claim to apostolic succession, the election procedure of its leaders and how it prepared its people for leadership. I will also discuss women's ordination, the Umoja wa Wanawake (Women's Union) and the youth movement and their contribution to mission work.