The Church of the Province of Central Africa is part of the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...

, and includes 15

dioceses In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

and

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. The

Primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

of the Church is the

Archbishop of Central Africa This is a list of the archbishops of the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa, which encompasses the present-day Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. List of Archbishops of Central Africa References {{reflist External linksLambeth ...

Albert Chama Albert Chama is a Zambian Anglican bishop. He is the Archbishop and Primate of the Church of the Province of Central Africa, since 2011. He is married and has four children. Now Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Lusaka after resigning as Bishop of ...

is the current archbishop, being installed on 20 March 2011, succeeding

Bernard Amos Malango Bernard Amos Malango (1941 – 30 October 2021) was a Zambian Anglican prelate. He was the Anglican Archbishop of Central Africa from 2000 to September 2006, when he retired. Early life and education Malango started his career as a draughtsman. ...

who retired in 2007. From 1980 to 2000,

Walter Khotso Makhulu Walter Paul Khotso Makhulu (born 1935 in Johannesburg) is a South African-born Anglican bishop. He was archbishop of Central Africa from 1980 to 2001. Makhulu was educated at St Peter's Theological College, Rosettenville and Selly Oak College ...

, an Anti-Apartheid activist, was Archbishop as well as

Bishop of Botswana The Diocese of Botswana is one of 15 dioceses of the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa, a province of the Anglican Communion. It is a member of the Botswana Council of Churches. List of Bishops of Botswana * 1972–1978: C. Shan ...

. Archbishop Chama continues to serve as Bishop of Northern Zambia, and is the second Zambian to be Archbishop of Central Africa.

History

In 1861, the first Anglican missionary to the area was Charles Mackenzie, who arrived with

David Livingstone David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, and an explorer in Africa. Livingstone was married to Mary Moffat Livings ...

. In 1855, Mackenzie had gone with Bishop Colenso to

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

where they worked among the English settlers until 1859. In 1860, Mackenzie became head of the

Universities' Mission to Central Africa The Universities' Mission to Central Africa (c.1857 - 1965) was a missionary society established by members of the Anglican Church within the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and Dublin. It was firmly in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of ...

; and he was consecrated bishop in St George's Cathedral, Cape Town, on 1 January 1861. Following David Livingstone's request to Cambridge, Mackenzie took on the position of being the first missionary bishop in

(

Nyasaland Nyasaland () was a British protectorate in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. After ...

). Moving from Cape Town, he arrived at Chibisa's village in June 1861 with the goal to establish a mission station at

Magomero Magomero is an estate and a village in Malawi. It is situated south of Zomba. History Although Alexander Low Bruce never visited Nyasaland, he obtained title to some 170,000 acres of land there through his association with the African Lakes Comp ...

, near Zomba. Bishop Mackenzie worked among the people of the Manganja country until January 1862 when he went on a supplies trip together with a few members of his party. The boat they were travelling on, sank and, as medical supplies were lost, Bishop Mackenzie's malaria could not be treated. He died of

Blackwater fever Blackwater fever is a complication of malaria infection in which red blood cells burst in the bloodstream (hemolysis), releasing hemoglobin directly into the blood vessels and into the urine, frequently leading to kidney failure. The disease ...

on 31 January 1862. There is an

international school International schools are private schools that promote education in an international environment or framework. Although there is no uniform definition or criteria, international schools are usually characterised by a multinational student body an ...

named after Mackenzie, which teaches children from 4 to 17 and is in

Lilongwe Lilongwe (, ,) is the capital and largest city of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020, that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in the central region of Malawi, i ...

the capital of

. The independent Church of the Province of Central Africa was inaugurated in 1955 and has a movable primacy. The inauguration service was on 8 May 1955;

Geoffrey Fisher Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, (5 May 1887 – 15 September 1972) was an English Anglican priest, and 99th Archbishop of Canterbury, serving from 1945 to 1961. From a long line of parish priests, Fisher was educated at Marl ...

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

relinquished his jurisdiction over

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in Southern Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North ...

and Nyasaland and Geoffrey Clayton, Archbishop of Cape Town relinquished his over

Mashonaland Mashonaland is a region in northeastern Zimbabwe. It is home to nearly half of the population of Zimbabwe. The majority of the Mashonaland people are from the Shona tribe while the Zezuru and Korekore dialects are most common. Harare is the larg ...

and

Matabeleland Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi ...

. In 2024, the church approved a plan to divide into three provinces (one each for Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi), each of which would be an autonomous church within the Anglican Communion. As part of the plan, the Diocese of Botswana pursued admission to the neighboring

Anglican Church of Southern Africa The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province (Anglican), province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of whi ...

. In 2025, the Diocese of Botswana ordained the first women as transitional deacons, meaning they will later be ordained as priests.

Membership

Today, there are at least 600,000 members of the Church of the Province of Central Africa.

Structure

The polity of the Church of the Province of Central Africa is

Episcopalian church governance An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. The word "bishop" here is derived via the British Latin and Vulgar Latin term ''*ebiscopus''/''*biscopus'', . It is the s ...

, which is the same as other

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

churches. The church maintains a system of geographical

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es organized into

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

s. There are 15 of these, each headed by a bishop. The

and

Metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

is the

. * The Diocese of Botswana * in

: ** The Diocese of Central Zambia ** The

Diocese of Eastern Zambia The Diocese of Eastern Zambia is one of five Anglican dioceses in Zambia within the Church of the Province of Central Africa The Church of the Province of Central Africa is part of the Anglican Communion, and includes 15 dioceses in Botswana, Ma ...

** The

Diocese of Lusaka The Diocese of Lusaka is one of fifteen Anglican bishoprics within the Church of the Province of Central Africa, covering part of Zambia. It came into being as the Diocese of Northern Rhodesia (the colonial precursor of Zambia) in 1910 and changed ...

** The Diocese of Luapula ** The

Diocese of Northern Zambia The Diocese of Northern Zambia is one of five dioceses in Zambia within the Church of the Province of Central Africa The Church of the Province of Central Africa is part of the Anglican Communion, and includes 15 dioceses in Botswana, Malawi, Zam ...

* in

: ** The

Diocese of Central Zimbabwe The Diocese of Central Zimbabwe is one of 15 dioceses within the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa. It came into being in 1971 and the current bishop is The Revd Ignatius Makumbe Ignatius Makumbe is an Anglican bishop in Zimbabwe: ...

** The Diocese of Harare ** The

Diocese of Masvingo (Anglican) The Anglican Diocese of Masvingo is the fifth and newest diocese in Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, betw ...

** The

Diocese of Matabeleland The Diocese of Matabeleland is in Zimbabwe and is one of 15 dioceses of the Province of Central Africa, a province of the Anglican Communion.Diocese of Manicaland * in

(former

) : ** The

Diocese of Lake Malawi The Diocese of Lake Malawi is a diocese of the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa. One of the church's four dioceses in Malawi, it was formed in 1971 when the Diocese of Malawi split into the Diocese of Southern Malawi and the Dio ...

** The Diocese of Northern Malawi ** The Diocese of Southern Malawi ** The

Diocese of Upper Shire The Diocese of Upper Shire is a diocese of the Church of the Province of Central Africa. One of the church's four dioceses in Malawi, it was formed in 2002 out of the Diocese of Southern Malawi. As of 2025, the diocese had 58 priests serving in 4 ...

There are 250 congregations and about 400 priests in the Church of the Province of Central Africa.

Doctrine and practice

The centre of the Church of the Province of Central Africa teaching is the life and resurrection of

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

. The basic teachings of the church, or

catechism A catechism (; from , "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of Catholic theology, doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult co ...

, include: *Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. He died and was resurrected from the dead. *Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe. *The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit". The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine. *The two great and necessary

sacraments A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of ...

are

Holy Baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by sprinkling or pouring water on the head, or by immersing in water either partially or completely, traditionally three t ...

and

Holy Eucharist The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an ordinance in others. Christians believe that the rite was instituted by J ...

*Other sacramental rites are

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant (religion), covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. The ceremony typically involves laying on o ...

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

, reconciliation of a penitent, and

unction Anointing is the ritual act of pouring aromatic oil over a person's head or entire body. By extension, the term is also applied to related acts of sprinkling, dousing, or smearing a person or object with any perfumed oil, milk, butter, or oth ...

. *Belief in

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

, and Jesus's return in glory. The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason (borrowing from

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

). These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way. This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of

Richard Hooker Richard Hooker (25 March 1554 – 2 November 1600) was an English priest in the Church of England and an influential theologian.''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' by F. L. Cross (Editor), E. A. Livingstone (Editor) Oxford Univer ...

, a sixteenth-century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason. Minor differences of doctrine should not damn or save the soul but are frameworks surrounding the moral and religious life of the believer. Church governance by bishops was biblical and traditional, but this was not license for absolutism.

Ministry, liturgy and ecumenical relations

The Church of the Province of Central Africa embraces three orders of ministry: deacon, priest, and bishop. In 2023, the Church of the Province of Central Africa approved the ordination of women to the diaconate and to the priesthood, allowing each diocese to decide whether or not to ordain women. Local variants of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the title given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christianity, Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), fi ...

are used in worship. Like many other Anglican churches, it is also a member of the ecumenical

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodo ...

Anglican realignment

The Church of the Province of Central Africa is a member of the

Global South Global North and Global South are terms that denote a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics and politics. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South broadly com ...

. Former archbishop

Bernard Malango Bernard Amos Malango (1941 – 30 October 2021) was a Zambian Anglican prelate. He was the Anglican Archbishop of Central Africa from 2000 to September 2006, when he retired. Early life and education Malango started his career as a draughtsman. ...

was involved in the

Anglican realignment The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church (United States), Episco ...

, while current archbishop

, despite having attended the Global South Fourth Encounter held in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, on 19–23 April 2010, has been a supporter of "reconciliation" between the conservative and the liberal Anglican provinces. The Dioceses of Northern Malawi and Southern Malawi-Upper Shire were listed as "mission partners" of the

Anglican Mission in the Americas The Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) or The Anglican Mission (AM) is a self-governing church inheriting its doctrine and form of worship from the Episcopal Church in the United States (TEC) and Anglican Church of Canada with members and ch ...

, but are no longer listed as such. The province was represented at GAFCON III, on 17–22 June 2018, by a 4 members delegation, 3 from

and one from

History

Membership

Structure

Doctrine and practice

Ministry, liturgy and ecumenical relations

Anglican realignment

See also

References

Further reading