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Written by Administrator
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Wednesday, 22 February 2006 19:16 |
 Synod 2006 banner | | The Synod Assembly of the NED which convened on the 8th – 10th February 2006 was a great success. The major speeches in this meeting were the Bishop’s report, the speech by the guest of honour Mr. Elias Goroi – the District Commissioner of Lushoto District and the Bible Study which was led by Bishop Elisa Buberwa from the North Western Diocese. |
| As regarding the Bishops reports one could see that the work of the NED has increased and expanded. The Bishop’s report was divided into three main parts:- | - The introduction
- Summary of reports from four directorates
- Major challenges and future prospects.
| Lifting up some few points from the diocesan leader’s report we can say the following: - Department of Mission, Evangelism and Ecumenical work. The report indicates that there is an increase in the number of church members and an increase and/or expansion of (sub)congregations. The NED is one of the dioceses of the ELCT with biggest number of worship houses (more than 600). It is for that reason that the executive council of the NED called for revised census of her members. There in a greater possibility that the number of church members is much higher than it stands now. This assumption has its indication the number of annual adult baptisms, the growth of congregations and increase of worship houses.
- Department of Social Services. Here the report shows tremendous growth and expansion of social services. The old institutions are expanding. New non institutional programs are being developed with the support of expertise of the existing institutions. These are also new institutions under construction e.g. the hospital at Kilindi district (DDH) and Sebastian Kolowa University College (SEKUCO). These institutions should be added to the newly opened Rainbow School at Irente. The report shows clearly the challenges that are ahead such as the big demand of such services in the society; and the need for offering quality service but at the same time too costly to achieve.
- The Financial Department. Here there is a tremendous improvement in preparing reports for auditing in good time. Almost all the institutions have up to date financial reports and that preparations for auditing were under way. Again there is an increase of income in general both as congregational contributions as well as contributions from the income generating projects. There are also positive reports given to the executive council that the financial department is employing personnel. Equally important for improvement is that the diocese is employing a highly qualified and experienced internal auditor. The challenges ahead included shortage of personnel in this department and improving and expanding the service so as to include training bookkeepers of the congregations and auditing the accounts of these congregations.
- The Economic Planning and Development Department. Here we see improvement in the income generating projects. Some of the projects, which were dying have come to life again. This production part is very important for the future survival of the mission of the church in word and deed. The main challenges are, among others, how to build more competitive capacity so as to meet the business competition. How to get a good replacement to the office of Director of the department replacing Mrs. Anneth Murless who has returned home to Sweden. To raise the quality of service to customers. There are also projects related to poverty reduction. Most of these projects are functioning well although they need improvement. It was also reported that the NED has registered an investments company, which will take responsibility over the running of NED investments and income generating projects.
|  Synod 2006 - members | | Apart from the above I can say that the Bible Study and the speech by the guest of honour were superb. The Bible Study was on text from Genesis 18:14a which is also the Diocesan theme of this year. The bible exposure touched among other things on the qualities of being a people of God as reflected in the person of Sarah and Abraham. It was emphasized that God’s promises for his people are true and reliable to those who believe in Him. God fulfils them to us not on the basis of our trustworthiness and faithfulness but only in God’s. Even our doubt on these promises are taken care by God’s faithfulness. | In additional to the above there were presentations from specific projects and programmes like that of the Bishop’s Fund for Education and Development (BIFED) the University College (SEKUCO), Rainbow School Outreach Program, etc. These were followed by discussion as well as questions and answers.
|  Synod 2006 - General Secretary, Bishop and Dean | Another important event which was of major concern for the Synod Assembly was the election of the Dean. We are happy to inform you that Rev. Jonathan Mwamboza was elected to the office of Dean. We congratulate Rev. Mwamboza! We also ask you to pray for him. Dean Mwamboza will installed to the office of Dean in a date to be mentioned by the executive council.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 09 March 2008 23:29 )
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