Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa | |
---|---|
Classification | Protestant |
Orientation | Lutheranism |
Polity | Episcopal |
Primate | The Rt. Rev Bishop Myaka |
Associations | Lutheran World Federation, World Council of Churches, South African Council of Churches, All Africa Conference of Churches |
Region | South Africa, Eswatini, Botswana, Lesotho |
Origin | 1975 |
Congregations | 2,300 churches[1] |
Members | 589,582 members[1] |
Official website | http://www.elcsa.org.za/home.html |
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa is a Lutheran church in South Africa. The church has 580,000 baptized members[2] in seven dioceses in South Africa, Botswana, and Eswatini, and is (by a wide margin) the largest Lutheran church in the southern African region. It is a member of the Botswana Council of Churches.
The ELCSA was constituted from older churches in 1975, and became a member of the Lutheran World Federation in 1976. The presiding bishop's office is currently held by The Rt Rev Bishop Myaka of the South Eastern Diocese (KwaZulu-Natal Region).