“Today we give thanks to God,” the Rev. Dr. Timothy Quill said March 14, “as we celebrate the graduation of the first pastoral and deaconess classes from the Bishop Makala Training Center” in Tanzania.
The next day, the 21 new pastoral candidates were ordained and seven deaconesses commissioned in a service with more than 1,000 worshipers at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania — South-East of Lake Victoria Diocese’s (ELCT-SELVD) Ebenezer Cathedral in Shinyanga.
Quill is director of International Studies and associate professor of Pastoral Ministry and Ministry and Mission for Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind. (CTSFW), whose faculty teaches in the two-year training-center program that stems from a partnership between the Synod and the ELCT-SELVD. That partnership developed after Bishop Emmanuel Makala of the diocese requested help in developing the training program in 2013 from CTSFW President Rev. Dr. Lawrence R. Rast Jr. Funding for the training program is made possible by a grant from the LCMS Global Seminary Initiative, which Quill oversees.
Makala preached at the March 15 service of ordination and commissioning. Following the service, he invited Rast, Quill, LCMS Office of International Mission Area Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Rev. Shauen Trump, and a group from the LCMS Mid-South District to offer greetings to the congregation. The Mid-South District provides financial support for the theological education of Tanzanian pastors.
Photographs by Erik M. Lunsford, staff photojournalist in LCMS Communications
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