With an increase of about 670,242 new members last year, Tanzania now has the second largest Lutheran Church congregation in the world.The Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) of Tanzania, which is affiliated to the largest Lutheran World Federation (LWF), recorded a growth of 14.5 per cent last year.
This phenomenal growth has seen Tanzania claim the top position in Africa, for having the highest number of followers of the Lutheran Church, and the second place in the world after Sweden.
ccording to figures released on Thursday by the LWF, and reported in several church-based newsletters, Tanzania’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) registered 670,000 new members in 2009.
Even though all the Lutheran churches in Africa were shown as having recorded high growth rates, Tanzania had the strongest showing.
According to the statistics, Asia also showed considerable growth, while the numbers are declining in the Americas. The total number of members in churches belonging to the LWF rose by 1,589,225 last year to just over 70 million.
The Citizen for more