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An Historical Perspective
By Bishop James Tengatenga

The Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) opened mission work in our region, along the Shire River and Lake Nyasa, in 1861 under the leadership of Bishop Charles Frederick Mackenzie. The bishop succumbed to malaria in 1862 and died and so did most of his team.

His successor William Tozer decided to abort the mission in 1863 and regroup on Zanzibar off the coast of Tanganyika.

It was not until 20 years later that they re-approached Malawi from the north using the lake. This led to the birth of the Diocese of Nyasaland which included southwest Tanganyika and most of northern Mozambique and the western lakeshore of Lake Malawi.

During the time the mission was in Zanzibar the Free Church of Scotland came into Malawi (1875) as Livingstonia Mission and one year after them came the Church of Scotland who settled in Southern Malawi as Blantyre Mission - both in honour of David Livingstone who had made the call the need for mission to this part of the world in 1854. The Dutch Reformed Church Mission came in 1894 and the Roman Catholics came in 1901. These mission agents (except the Roman Catholics) had a committee agreement not to encroach on each other?s areas of work.

When both Mozambique and Tanganyikan territories were ceded to their respective countries, the Anglican Church in Malawi was only along the Lake shore. The situation continued that way until the 1960.

 Click Here to See MAP of Malawi and Its Dioceses

With the coming of political independence the Diocese changed its name from Nyasaland to the Diocese of Malawi.

The last of the missionary Bishops was Frank Thorne who retired in 1960. He was succeeded by Bishop Donald Arden. In 1971 Bishop Donald became archbishop of Central Africa. This led to the need for a suffragan.

Bishop Josiah Mtekateka was elected and thus became the first Malawian bishop in the Anglican Church in Malawi.

The other advantage of independence was the mobility of people. This helped bring the church to areas that were not reached by Anglicans (by this time the comity agreement was no longer binding). This led to growth and to the need for the diocese to divide into two.

In 1971 the Diocese of Malawi divided into the Diocese of Lake Malawi in the north (covering the Central Region less Ntcheu and tall of the Northern Region of Malawi) and the Diocese of Southern Malawi which was co-terminus with the Southern Region plus Ntcheu.

Bishop Josiah became the first bishop of Lake Malawi while Donald was the bishop of Southern Malawi. In 1979 Dunstan Ainani was elected suffragan of Southern Malawi. At Donald Arden's retirement in 1980 Bishop Dunstan was elected ordinary of the diocese.

He in turn, in 1987, was succeeded by Benson Nathaniel Aipa. Aipa retired in 1996 and was succeeded, in 1998, by James Tengatenga.

Due to the amount of work and the apparent need to focus on two major thrusts of mission it was resolved to divide the diocese further into two. The two major thrust of mission were response to the challenge of Islam and relations with Islam in the northern half of the diocese and good old church growth in the south.

In 2002 the Diocese of Southern Malawi divided into Upper Shire in the northern half of the Southern Region and Southern Malawi in the southern half. Upper Shire had all the established centres of mission work while the south had the task of developing some in response to the mission of God in Malawi among God?s people.

The Anglican Diocese of Southern Malawi is thus the southern most and newest diocese of the Anglican Church in Malawi.

The diocese currently has 18 parishes which translates to over 30 congregations and still growing. We expect to have 21 parishes in the next two years.

The diocese is divided into four Archdeaconries, Blantyre*, Blantyre North, Highlands and Limbe.

*By about the year 2009 Blantyre archdeaconry will divide into two.