July 25, 2008

IRINGA, Tanzania/GENEVA – Returning to Iringa, southern Tanzania, for the first time in 10 years, Bishop Mark S. Hanson, president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) said much progress had been made in higher education, health care and social services provided by Lutherans. But there are still many needs, local church and church-related organization leaders explained during Hanson's 21-22 June visit.

He first visited the Iringa Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) in 1998 when he was bishop of the ELCA St Paul Area Synod, which has a longstanding companion synod with the ELCT synod, led by Bishop Dr Owdenburg M. Mdegella. Companion synod partners pledge to pray for and provide support for each other.

Hanson's visit to Iringa preceded the 25-30 June LWF Council meeting in the northern town of Arusha. In the Illula locality, the LWF president was met by several hundred people, singing traditional Tanzanian songs while escorting him into the village and to the Lutheran church. "When I come to Iringa, my spirits are lifted because the Holy Spirit is alive in you," he told the congregation of about 600 people. Lutherans in the global South are "teachers and missionaries" for Lutherans in the North, because Lutherans here freely share their faith in Jesus Christ, and live out the gospel through the services they provide, he said.

Lutheran Hospital

The ELCT Iringa Diocese owns and operates Ilula Lutheran Hospital, which was started as a health care dispensary in 1938, becoming a health center in 1992 and a 70-bed hospital in 2007. The hospital served more than 24,000 patients in 2007, most of them as outpatients. In a report presented to Hanson, the hospital management explained it has 74 staff, but needs another 80 – physicians, nurses, medical technical staff and other professional staff – to meet minimum hospital standards. Future plans call for construction of dormitories, a nursing school and new staff housing as well as renovation of existing staff quarters.

Orphans

The LWF president visited the Huruma Lutheran Diaconal Center (HLDC), established in 1994 with support from local and international partners, including the ELCA St Paul Area Synod. HLDC accommodates homeless orphans and other neglected children between five and 17 years of age, many of whom had been living on the streets. Some 40 resident and nine non-resident children currently receive education and other training at the center, which plans to expand its services and increase capacity to 60 children. At the ELCT's Tumaini University campus, whose chaplaincy provides regular morning devotions and Sunday services for Protestants and Roman Catholics, Hanson laid a cornerstone plaque at the foundational site for a new ecumenical chapel – Luther Chest Chapel.

More information about the Tumaini University is available at: http://www.tumaini.ac.tz/.

Lutheran World Information
A contribution by John Brooks, ELCA News Service.