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VIDEO: Partner Churches of St. Paul and Tanzania
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Historic Beginnings of the Kidamali & Shepherd Connection
1986: Arne Blomquist (member of Shepherd) was part of a group that visited the Iringa Diocese in Tanzania
1987: The first Companion Relationship was established between the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) ad the ELCT (Evangelical Luthera Church of Tanzaia)
Arne ad Mary Blomquist led groups on exchange visits
1993: Arne and Mary Blomquist left as missionaries to Tanzania to help establish learning institutions for leadership development in the church
1996 The government of Tanzania and the Church partnered to begin the Tumaini University. Tumaini means "hope."
1998 Congregation to Congregation Partnership established
June, 2000: The Iringa Diocese & the St. Paul Area Synod bring Shepherd and Kidamali together
June, 2000: The relationship begins...Lee & Ann Cunningham visit Kidamali on behalf of Shepherd (June 14 - July 12)
July, 2000: Pastor Kikoti signs conanent on behalf of Kidamali congregation
September, 2000: Pastor Nathan & Vera sign covanent on behalf of Shepherd
A Covanent is signed to walk bega kwa bega in ministry...Promises are made to not only support each other's ministry, but more importantly, to grow in relationship as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
 
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Words of a Lutheran Martyr
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The race question has been a real problem for American Christianity from the beginning. Today about one American in ten is black. The turning aside of the newly arising generation of blacks from the faith of their elders, which, with its strong eschatological orientation, seems to them to be a hindrance to the progress of their race and their rights is one of the ominous signs of a failing of the church in past centuries and a hard problem for the future. If it has come about that today the 'black Christ' has to be led into the field against the 'white Christ' by a young black poet, than a deep cleft in the church of Jesus Christ is indicated.
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We may not overlook the fact that many white Christians are doing their best through influential organizations for a better relationship between the races and that discerning blacks recognize the difficulties. Nevertheless, the picture of a racially divided church is still general in the United States today. Black and white hear the Word and receive the sacrament in separation. They have no common worship. The following historical development lies in the background. At the time of the arrival of the first large shipments of blacks in America, who had been plundered as slaves from Africa, there was a general rejection of the idea of making the black Christian, particularly by the white slave-owners.
Slavery was justified on the ground the the black was heathen. Baptism would put in question the permissibility of slavery and would bring the black undesirable rights and privileges. Only after a dreadful letter of reassurance from the Bishop of London, in which he promised the white masters that the external conditions of the black need not be altered in the least by baptism, that baptism was a liberation from sin and evil desire and not from slavery or from any other external fetters, did the slaver owners find themselves ready to afford the Gospel an entry among the blacks.
Finally it was even found to have the advantage of keeping the slaves more easily under supervision than if they were left to continue their own pagan cults. So it came about that the blacks became Christians and were admitted to the gallery at white services and as the last guests to the communion table. Any further participation in the life of the congregation was excluded; holding offices in the congregation and ordination remained reserved for whites. Under these circumstances worship together became more and more of a farce for the black, and after the complete failure of all attempts to be recognized as equal members in the community of Jesus Christ, the blacks began to attempt to organize themselves into their own black congregations.
It was a voluntary decision which led the black to this, but one which circumstances made inevitable. A number of incidents, particularly at the time of the Civil War, which brought about the abolition of slavery, gave rise to the formation of independent black churches. Since then the great denominations have been divided, a significant example of the make-up of a denomination in the United States.
The most influential contribution made by the black to American Christianity lies in the "Black Spirituals," in which the distress and delivery of the people of Israel ("Go down, Moses . . ."), the misery and consolation of the human heart ("Nobody knows the trouble I've seen"), and the love of the Redeemer and longing for the kingdom of heaven ("Swing low, sweet chariot . . .") find moving expression. Every white American knows, sings and loves these songs. It is barely understandable that great black singers can sing these songs before packed concert audiences of whites, to tumultuous applause, while at the same time these same men and women are still denied access to the white community through social discrimination.
One may also say that nowhere is revival preaching still so vigorous and so widespread as among the blacks, that here the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the savior of the sinner, is really preached and accepted with great welcome and visible emotion. The solution to the black problem is one of the decisive future tasks of the white churches.
Source: No Rusty Swords: Letters, Lectures and Notes 1928-1936 from the Collected Works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Volume 1. Edited and Introduced by Edwin H. Robertson. Translated by Edwin H. Robertson and John Bowdin. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1947, pp. 112-114
(termonology edited by Chris Center)
For More on Dietrich Bonhoeffer Click Here
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Church Links
Mwangaza
ELCA St. Paul Area Synod
ELCT Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania
Shepherd of the Hills ELCA
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