The Anglican Church of Tanzania

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In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, we pray for the Anglican Church of Tanzania, which is the product of two missionary societies from England: the Church Missionary Society (CMS), which is Evangelical in piety, and the Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), which is Anglo-Catholic. The first CMS missionary was in fact a German Lutheran pioneer named Johann Ludwig Krapf who arrived in Zanzibar with his wife Rosina in 1844 and then moved to Mombassa in Kenya, where Rosina and her child tragically died. After translating the New Testament into Swahili, Krapf was joined and eventually replaced by the Rev. Johannes Rebmann, who was the first European to lay eyes on Mount Kilimanjaro.[1] Rebmann laid the groundwork for what later became the Diocese of East Equatorial Africa, established in 1884 with James Hannington as the first bishop and Mombassa as its headquarters. Although Hannington was assassinated (by Kabaka Mwanga II of Buganda) two years after the diocese was established, the mission continued to grow and expand into several dioceses, representing the evangelical expressions of Anglicanism in Kenya and Tanzania.

In 1864, Bishop William Tozer, along with the Rev. Edward Steere, set up the first UMCA station on the island of Zanzibar, where the Rev. Steere began translating the Bible and hymnal into Swahili. Steere’s hymn book known as “Nyimbo za Dini” (religious hymns) remains the primary hymnal for Anglo-Catholics in the church. In 1926, the Rt. Rev. William Vincent Lucas became the first bishop of Masasi (in southern Tanzania) and advocated for the use of local cultural rituals in mission to root the faith of the converts in their own culture.[2] Phanuel Mung’ong’o and Moses Matonya explain, “Inculturation and indigenization of the Gospel compels the Anglican Church to incorporate some cultural practices into Christianity. Traditional musical instruments and traditional ways of singing are allowed [and even encouraged] in the Church. Traditional styles of blessing farms and praying for the livestock … are adapted, in the name of Christ.”[3]

The Anglicans in Tanzania were initially part of the Anglican Province of East Africa, but in 1970 the province split into the provinces of Kenya and Tanzania. Theological differences between the CMS and the UMCA were imported from England to Tanzania, dividing the church into two traditions, with Evangelical expressions in the northern part of the country and Anglo-Catholic expressions in the south. One of the tasks of the Anglican Church of Tanzania (or ACT) has been finding ways to unite the diverse church, which they have attempted to do by using one shared liturgy and prayer book.[4]

The ACT is composed of 2 and a half million members across 28 dioceses (27 on the mainland and one in Zanzibar). Social concern and action, especially in the areas of health, education, and relief work have gone hand-in-hand with evangelism.[5] As the province works towards unity among its Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic members, it struggles to remain in full communion with western provinces of the Anglican Communion that support same-sex marriage due to disagreements regarding the interpretation of Scripture.

Fun fact

The Anglican Cathedral in Stone Town, Zanzibar is called Christ Church. Like most buildings in Stone Town, it is made of coral stone and was inspired by the vision of the Rev. Edward Steere (the third bishop of Zanzibar), who died of a heart attack soon before it was completed (1882). It was built where the biggest slave market of Zanzibar used to be located and the altar stands at the exact place where the main “whipping post” once stood. The cathedral was constructed to celebrate the end of slavery and the glory of Christ the ultimate Liberator.
[1] Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single mountain above sea level in the world, located in northeast Tanzania, near the border of Kenya.

[2] Phanuel L. Mung’ong’o and Moses Matonya, “Anglican Church of Tanzania” in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion (Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), 207.

[3] Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion, 208.

[4] Although the Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics emphasize different aspects of the prayer book’s liturgy, they both use the same prayer book today. Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion, 207.

[5] Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion, 208.