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CONSECRATION OF NEW BISHOP OF TANGA
Walter Gould - Tanzania Link Coordinator - Represented Hereford during a visit in September 2011 and sent this report.
The Consecration of Bishop Maimbo William Mndolwa as the Second Bishop of Tanga was held in the grounds of Korogwe Teachers Training College on Sunday 4th September. The Archbishop of Tanzania, the Most Revd Valentino Mokiwa, presided and the Guest of Honour was Honourable Mizengo Pinda the Prime Minister of Tanzania.
The Diocese of Tanga was established on 26 November 2000 after the separation of Zanzibar to form a new diocese. The previous Diocese of Tanga and Zanzibar had been established in 1892. The Tanga Diocese covers a large area in the north-east of Tanzania including the Usambara Mountains, There are 92 parishes with many smaller churches in every parish, and these are served by 80 priests. More than 300 catechists assist in ministry to over 100,000 Anglican Christians. Many new churches are being built and others enlarged to accommodate the growing congregations.
Bishop Mndolwa was born in the village of Baamoyo, Ambangulu, near Korogwe in 1969. After schooling at Ambangulu and then in Dar es Salaam, he went to St Mark's Theological College in 1994 to take the 3-year Diploma course leading to ordination. He had brief periods of ministry in four different parishes in the Tanga Diocese. I remember meeting him at St Augustine's Church in Tanga in 1997 and thinking at the time, "Here is a fine young priest who might be a bishop one day"!
Between two spells of ministry in parishes in Dar es Salaam, he studied at Virginia Seminary in USA, and gained a Degree in Theology from Natal in South Africa. In 2008 he was appointed Acting Principal of St Mark's Theological College and Director of Theology and Religion. In 2009 he was deeply involved in the conversion of the College into a Teaching Centre of St John's Anglican University in Dodoma offering a wider range of Degree and Diploma courses in addition to Theology. In the past year he has been doing research for a PhD with the title "From Anglicanism to African Socialism: The Anglican Church and Ujamaa in Tanzania (1955-2003)".
At the Consecration Service in Korogwe the former Archbishop of Tanzania, the Rt Revd Donald Mtetemela, preached a powerful sermon about the qualities of Christian leadership based on I Timothy 3: 1 - 7. In his address the Prime Minister complimented Bishop Mtetemela on his sermon and remarked that he had said many of the things he himself had intended to say about the qualities expected of people in positions of leadership! Bishop Mndolwa spoke of the challenges facing the Tanga Diocese, and in addition to the spiritual concerns of mission and ministry, he also spoke of Diocesan involvement in Health Services, Education, Youth Work, Social Welfare and Development work. The Diocese has 3 hospitals at Muheza (linked with the County Hospital in Hereford), Korogwe and Kwamkono, the Nurse Training School at Muheza and a Polio Hostel at Kwamkono. It also has one church school, Hegongo Holy Cross School at Magila near Muheza.