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History of the Christian Church in Tanzania

History of the Christian Church in Tanzania

  • 1844 German missionary Johannes Ludwig Krapf arrived in Zanzibar as a worker of the British Church Missionaries Society [^3]
  • 1871 David Livingston explores Tanganika
  • 1887 German Lutheran missionaries open mission station in Dar es Salaam
  • 1897 Catholic and Anglican missionaries planted churches in Sukumaland in the northwest on their way to Uganda
  • 1909 the African Inland Church (AICT) took over 150 churches started by the Anglicans [^1]
  • 1927 Pentecostals from the Holiness movement reached Mbeya
  • 1927 East African revival and Charismatic form of Pentecostalism spread from Rwanda in the Balokole Movement
  • 1932 the Swedish Free Mission arrived in the Tabora region
  • 1938 Australian missionary Paul White starts hospital in Myumi Mission [^4] (the students say that this should be Mvumi)
  • 1938 the seven existing Lutheran churches in Tanganika formed the Federation of Lutheran Churches in Tanganyika
  • 1946 Elim Pentecostal Church arrived in Morogoro
  • 1949 the field of the Mbeya region that had been reached by the Holiness movement was taken over by the Assemblies of God.
  • 1953 Members of the Balokole Movement who felt that the mission churches were not radical enough in their approach, separated from the Evangelical Lutheran Church and started the Church of the Holy Spirit [^6]
  • 1955 The Swedish Free Mission was incorporated as a Mission Society under the Laws of Tanganyika.
  • 1959 Assemblies of God starts a Bible school in Mbeya
  • 1961 After Tanganyika’s political independence, the Swedish Free Mission volunteered to hand over the portfolio and did establish a Trust and executed a transfer of the Mission properties and those of individual missionaries, to the Trustees of the Pentecostal Churches Social Association in Tanzania (PCSAT) [^5]
  • 1962 by this time half of the members of the Church of the Holy Spirit returned to the official Lutheran church
  • 1963 the seven Lutheran Churches, merged to become a single Church, known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanganyika [^7]
  • 1986 the first of the yearly big 'power crusades' was held in Dar es Salaam as a collaboration between Assemblies of God, the Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church, and other churches [^2]

[^1]: Global Renewal Christianity vol. 3 pg. 167 [^2]: Questioning the Secular State: The Worldwide Resurgence of Religion in Politics pg. 223 [^3]: http://users.aims.ac.za/~angelina/Mypage/Philosophy_of%20ed.pdf [^4]: http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/1630.php [^5]: http://fpct.or.tz/the-church/ [^6]: https://books.google.co.tz/books?id=BO5G5BimsXIC&pg=PA182&lpg=PA182&dq=swedish+pentecostals+tanzania&source=bl&ots=l1mw3-xuO5&sig=VIf6HM_eG_huEdTbktF0z9DQKtg&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=swedish%20pentecostals%20tanzania&f=false [^7]: http://www.elct.org/

Leads to follow:

  • Emil and Marie Sywalka of AICT
  • Rurldluck (students mentioned him)
  • Bruce Olson