The Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa celebrates thirty years of “walking together”
(LWI) - The member churches of the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa (LUCSA) held their 11th Assembly 19 – 22 September 2022, under the theme “This is my body.” LUCSA also celebrated its 30th anniversary at the Assembly.
LUCSA President, Bishop Dr Joseph Bvumbwe opened the event, together with LUCSA Vice President, Bishop Mothusi Jairos Letlhage and LUCSA Executive Director, Rev Lilana Kasper, who co-chaired the proceedings. Delegates of 13 member churches participated in the assembly.
“This LUCSA meeting was a time of celebration, joy and reunion after the COVID pandemic kept us apart. In celebration we sang and danced together as a living body,” recalled LWF Regional Secretary for Africa Rev. Dr Samuel Dawai.
The assembly recognized LUCSA’s efforts toward gender and youth inclusion in leadership. It celebrated the appointment of LUCSA’s First Female Executive Director of LUCSA in September 2020; the election and consecration of the First Female Lutheran Bishop in Africa (ELCSA) in May 2021; and the ordination of the First Female Pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi in September 2021.
“My prayer is that God will continue to bless and guide LUCSA in the noble vocation to God’s mission in our African subregion,” encouraged Angelene Swart, the first woman and layperson to serve as vice-president of LUCSA.
Highlighting social challenges of the subregion, Executive Director Kasper reported that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to negatively affect the lives of Southern African people and churches, that there is instability within some of the member churches, and that despite gender justice advancements of LUCSA, Gender-Based Violence remains a problem in the subregion. She named specifically corruption in many of the Southern African countries, xenophobia, youth unemployment, and teen pregnancy as challenges for people in the subregion.
“Lutheran churches in Southern Africa like to identify with one another. We like to hold hands and walk together because we face similar challenges in our way of witnessing for Christ, therefore we like to come together,” said Bvumbwe.
“We offer encouragement and support; we make pastoral visits to our member churches. LUCSA is here to support them and to offer them advice,” Bvumbwe said.