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Lutheran -Tanzania become second largest in the World 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. According 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. Membership in churches belonging to the LWF in Africa over the past year rose by 1,233,413 or 7.1 per cent to a total of 18,520,690. Tanzania’s record increase in 2009 brings its current Lutheran Church membership to a total of 5,302,727, according to the LWF. Only Sweden, with 6.75 million members, beats it. Yesterday, the head of the Lutheran Church in the country, Bishop Alex Malasusa, would not comment on the report when contacted by The Citizen. Bishop Malasusa said he would not wish to discuss “sensitive” information about the church on the telephone. The record growth in the Lutheran membership is interesting, when viewed against the backdrop of the reported ascendancy of evangelical groups. In recent year, with the mainstream churches have been alarmed at the high rate at which they have been losing members to mushrooming evangelical sects. The Catholic Church, with a membership of 9.5 million members or about 25 per cent of the 36 million population, remains the largest Christian group in the country. The second largest LWF member church in Africa is the Ethiopian Evangelical Church, Mekane Yesus. The membership of the Ethiopian church community increased by 267,336 or 5.3 per cent to 5,279,822, making it the third largest Lutheran congregation worldwide. With its unchanged membership of around 3 million, the Malagasy Lutheran Church remains the third largest LWF member church in Africa. The fourth largest, the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, attracted 154,950 new members, representing a growth of 8.9 per cent for a total of 1.9 million. The other Lutheran church in that country, the Lutheran Church of Nigeria, reported 150,000 members, an increase of 15,000 or 11.1 per cent. Other LWF member churches reporting substantial increases, included the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Mozambique - up by 6,124 or 94.5 per cent to 12,606 total - the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Angola - up by 11,000 or around 38 per cent to 40,000 - and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia, which added 70,000 new members to bring its total to 420,000, an increase of 20 per cent. The Church of the Lutheran Brethren of Chad reported the highest percentage increase among non-LWF Lutheran churches in Africa, up by 92,379 or 434 per cent, to a total of 113,684. The membership of non-LWF Lutheran churches on the continent was 196,989, an increase of around 142,774. The Lutheran church has its historic stronghold in Northern Europe, mainly Germany and Scandinavia, where it has been dominant since the 16th century.

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