About South Africa

South Africa, a member of the Commonwealth (formerly the British Commonwealth), has almost 44 million residents. There are eleven official languages including Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. 68% are Christian, 3% are Muslim, 1.5% are Hindu, and 28.5% practice indigenous beliefs and animism.

The population is comprised of a number of ethnic groups: black (75%) white (14%) colored (9%) and Indian (2%). Despite its remarkable progress in recent years, South Africa remains a deeply divided nation. Despite the growth of the black middle class, the distribution of wealth still reflects the racial divisions of the old apartheid order—whites in affluence, blacks in poverty. Making meaningful changes in the distribution of wealth in the country is a key challenge. Rising crime and the HIV/AIDS pandemic have complicated the immense task of post-apartheid transformation.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (ELCSA), a member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), represents a union of several regional Lutheran churches. The ELCSA has a membership of about 700,000. Seven bishops lead the church’s seven dioceses in South Africa, Botswana, and Swaziland. The ELCSA is also a member of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the LWF's Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa (LUCSA).

The ELCSA is involved in mission, education and development activities throughout its seven dioceses in cooperation with the Lutheran World Federation and other partners. ELCSA congregations in both rural and urban areas have active youth organizations and strong women’s and men’s leagues. The ELCSA also ministers in various community outreach programs including soup kitchens and home-based care groups for those infected and affected by HIV & AIDS. Pastors receive training at the Lutheran Theological Institute associated with the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg. The ELCSA is also involved in ongoing unity discussions with two predominantly white Lutheran churches.

The Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa (LUCSA) is the LWF communion of Lutheran churches in Southern Africa, comprising 18 autonomous member churches that are found in 10 countries: Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Mozambique. It is one of the three Lutheran World Federation’s (LWF) sub-regional expressions in Africa.

As a communion, LUCSA's mission is to equip member churches for effective and holistic mission and prophetic diaconia through capacity building, advocacy, care and support, and sustainable development. Its goal is to build the capacity of member churches for effective leadership at all levels, networking, mission, evangelism and stewardship, HIV and AIDS interventions, advocacy, care and support (diaconia), sustainable development.

The LUCSA Information Hut Project seeks to create an HIV & AIDS free generation by combining education and computer training. The Justice and Reconciliation fund seeks to support community-based programs or projects intended to address social and economic justice and human rights issues. LUCSA AIDS Action Program (LAAP), which take place in many countries, address HIV/AIDS prevention, care for the sick, provide training for volunteers caring for families with sick relatives, and care for those affected by having sick relatives, such as orphans and children.

Through the churchwide ELCA Global Mission unit, the ELCA relates to and is in bilateral relationship with over 80 companion churches and institutions. The ELCA Global Mission unit stewards relationships with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Africa (ELCSA) and the Lutheran Communion in South Africa (LUCSA). These relationships are deepened and extended by the ELCSA's relationships, through the ELCA Companions Synods program, with the following ELCA synods:

Metropolitan Chicago

Caribbean

Southwestern Minnesota

Northeastern Ohio

Montana

East-Central Synod of Wisconsin.