Bishop Maimbo's Election as Primate

(written in May 2018)

So let's go back to the primary reason for our trip to Tanzania this May.  We had heard that there would be an election for the next archbishop and primate of the Anglican Church of Tanzania, but we had not realized that Bishop Maimbo Mndolwa (Diocese of Tanga) was a candidate. What a surprise and delight it was to find out that he had been elected.

Bishop of Tanga elected as new primate of the Anglican Church of Tanzania (Anglican Communion News Service)

Here is the official press release:

press release - election of the Rt. Rev. Maimbo Mndolwa
as Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Tanzania
https://www.anglican.or.tz/images/latest_news-pdf/TAARIFA-KWA-UMMA---ASKOFU-MKUU-TZ-2018.pdf

Now, I will confess to a bit of concern at first, as I thought we would need to make new contacts right in the middle of a United Thank Offering grant application, but this was not the case.

In the Anglican Church of Tanzania, a primate also remains bishop of his own diocese. While taking on the responsibility of both jobs seems a formidable endeavor, Bishop - now Archbishop - Maimbo is a man of great energy and seems gifted in planning and vision.

Please join me in praying for him as he takes on this task.

April 2019: He's completing his first year. I'm sure these prayers are still needed! 

Holy Cross Magila

Holy Cross has long been an important spiritual center in the Anglican Church of Tanzania. During the tenure of Frank Weston as Bishop of Zanzibar and Tanga (1908-1924), Holy Cross was probably the most important center for Anglicanism in colonial East Africa.  The present Bishop, Maimbo Mndolwa  has produced a vision for the future of his diocese that includes the restoration of Holy Cross as a spiritual, education and retreat center. 

Fr  Joel 

Canon Joel Makame moved to Holy Cross in January 2012 to serve as parish priest and Archdeacon of Magila. He has been charged with leading the restoration and reinvigoration of Holy Cross Parish. Already, Canon Makame has begun to make improvements to parish life by starting a nursery school for parish children (pictured below). He has plans to start a tailoring school for women of the parish. All Saints Parish in Brookline has recently donated $1,000 to assist Canon Makame in implementing these plans. The funds will be used to provide a swing set for the children and 5 sewing machines for the newly established tailoring school.

Canon Makame is well known to us in the Diocese of Massachusetts. Bishop Shaw and brothers from SSJE met Canon Makame in 2006 when they visited the diocese of Tanga and he was priest at the parish of St. Alban’s in Mgombezi.  He has become a good friend of several members of the Friends of Tanzania. During his tenure at St Alban’s, Canon Makame developed and ran a program to support children orphaned by HIV/AIDS and other diseases and other low income/vulnerable children.  Over the past 5 years Canon Makame has fostered and supported 6 children – Yohana, Vincent, George, David, Rogers, Helen and Esther. Episcopalians from this diocese and the Diocese of Texas have provided funds to Canon Makame on a regular basis to pay tuition and other school expenses, general living expenses for him and the children, laptop computers for school, as well as gifts for birthdays and Christmas. 

The generosity of Bishop Shaw and two members of All Saints Parish, Brookline enabled us to sponsor Canon Makame’s visit to London and Massachusetts in September 2011. He was met in London by Dr Colin Johnstone and they spent 5 days visiting religious and historical sites, and later 9 days in Massachusetts. Canon Joel has a calling to the religious life. With the support of his bishop he plans to incorporate a community of men at Magila. Brother Mosuoe from the Society of the Sacred Mission in South Africa is currently spending 3 months at Magila helping Joel develop a Rule of Life and a plan for this proposed new community. The community will be named after Saint Anthony of Padua.

Fr Joel helps Rev. Sara vest for blessing the nursery school

The site for a new library to be constructed

A friend from Massachusetts tries out the swing set after Bishop Mark
Hollingsworth of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio offered a blessing

The Anglican Diocese of Tanga

The Anglican Diocese of Tanga

Weston's Grave

Rev. Frank Weston

Missionaries from the Church of England evangelized East Africa beginning in 1848. The most famous of these missionaries was Frank Weston, who arrived in Zanzibar in 1898 and was consecrated Bishop of Zanzibar in 1903. Bishop Weston had a vision of a vigorous African Church with her own theology. He trained African priests, was fluent in Swahili and became renowned as a missionary scholar-bishop, administrator and preacher and was much beloved by the people of his diocese. Bishop Weston died in Hegongo in November, 1924 at the age of 53 and is buried in Holy Cross Church, Magila.

The Diocese of Tanga was formed in 2000 when the mother diocese of Zanzibar (established in 1882) was divided into the Dioceses of Zanzibar and Tanga. The diocese covers an area of approximately 253,110 square kilometers in the northeastern part of Tanzania and includes the Tanga administrative region plus the Same district of the Kilimanjaro region. Diocesan headquarters and the Cathedral of St. Michael and All Angels are located in Korogwe. The diocese consists of approximately 100,000 people in 61 parishes. These parishes are clustered into 21 deaneries and 5 archdeaconries. The current, and second, bishop of Tanga, the Right Reverend Maimbo W. F. Mndolwa, was elected in September 2011.