Zephania Kameeta

Zephaniah Kameeta ( born August 7, 1945 in Otjimbingwe ) is a Namibian politician and liberation theologian. Since 20 January 2002, he is bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia ( ELCRN ). He leaves office on November 3, 2013, after choosing a new bishop on August 28, 2013, from.

Life

After studying theology at the Lutheran seminary Paulinum in his hometown Otjimbingue Kameeta was ordained a priest in 1971. From 1972 to 1990 he was a member of the Church Board of ELCRN whose deputy he was bishop between 1982 and 1989. From 1978 to 1981 he was pastor in Luderitz

From 1980 to 1990 Kameeta belonged to the commission of the Programme to Combat the World Council of Churches racism.

Since 1977 Kameeta is a member of the Central Committee of SWAPO, which forms the government in Namibia since 1990. From 1990 to 2000 Kameeta was Deputy President of the Parliament of the Republic of Namibia, after his resignation, he was a pastor in the Lutheran church Maltahoehe in southern Namibia, where he was confronted not only with poverty and hunger, but also with the AIDS pandemic. Many families are losing their economic base here by AIDS.

The Synod of the ELCRN chose Zephaniah Kameeta on 30 August 2001 at their meeting in Tsumeb with 91 of the 124 votes cast in the first ballot to succeed Bishop Peter Diergaardt. Kameeta is married and the father of six adult children.

Kameeta has albinism.

Awards

Zephaniah Kameeta is an honorary doctor of theology of Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.

In November 2004 he received an honorary doctorate of theology of the Church University of Wuppertal ( now Theological College Wuppertal / Bethel ).

In 2005 he received together with Heidemarie Wieczorek -Zeul the Peter Beier Award of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland.

Quotes

• My goal is that each individual congregation committed to caring for the sick and the HIV / AIDS orphans in their community. I see this as one of my biggest tasks during my time as bishop. Zephaniah Kameeta in an interview with Erika von Wietersheim, correspondent of the Lutheran World Information in Windhoek, 2003

• Faith is unknown paths that lead to foreign places. This is what God has done for me, he leads me through in time in prison, in extreme humiliation, in humiliating restrictions on travel within and outside the country, to my time in Parliament, where I held the second highest office, and then in a remote and poor small town in Malta height. Zephaniah Kameeta on the Regional Synod of the Evangelical. Church in the Rhineland on 12 January 2006