Mourners pay last respects service for late Bishop Kweka

30Nov 2023
The Guardian Reporter
News
The Guardian
Mourners pay last respects service for late Bishop Kweka

BISHOP Dr Alex Malasusa, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT), yesterday led hundreds of mourners in Dar es Salaam to pay last respects to the late Bishop Dr Erasto Kweka (89), a former ELCT presiding bishop and veteran bishop of the Northern Diocese.

Shichanaisaria Erasto Kweka, widow of retired Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania’s Northern Diocese Bishop, Dr Erasto Kweka, pays her respects to him at funeral service held at Dar es Salaam’s Azania Front Cathedral yesterday. Burial is slated for Moshi in Kilimanjaro Region on Wednesday (December 6). To her right is the current Head of ELCT, Bishop Dr Alex Malasusa

The late Bishop Kweka (born April 24, 1934) died on November Saturday at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI) at the Muhimbili National Hospital complex where he was receiving treatment.

 

In his remarks before the mourners at the Azania Front Church in the city centre, he said the late prelate ill continue to live in people’s hearts, noting that he leaves a mark in the church for his long years of service to the church, including at top leadership.

 

The late Bishop Kweka worked to boost education and health sectors in various parishes in the Northern Diocese, carrying on a long held tradition, while aiding various groups to find gainful occupation to engender happiness and family cohesion.

 

He will be buried on December 6 at Uswaa Parish of Hai District, Kilimanjaro Region, the presiding bishop noted in a moving eulogy.

 

He said Bishop Kweka was a hardworking person who worked to enable church followers to be independent economically, focusing on pastors who often face challenges to their calling owing to hardships.

 

Bishop Malasusa underlined the feeling that for the late Bishop Kweka to work for a living was an ethic, emphasizing that people work hard to improve their welfare and steer clear of temptations.

 

“He discouraged people from begging,” he said, recalling that the late prelate saw it a duty for all able-bodied members of society to generate an income.

 

“Being a pastor is not a handicap such that you should beg from others,” he said, noting that as church servants, pastors are also expected to support others, “and in that view during his lifetime, the late Bishop Kweka helped many people.”

 

He made reference to the plurality of views or canonical teachings on the issue of becoming rich, pointing out that Bishop Kweka was teaching people to seek economic fulfilment and independence in an honest and hardworking manner, for which the church salutes memory of his services.

 

He said despite the late bishop being influential inside and outside the country, he remained a humble person who respected others, being honest and working to build his household and relations within and outside the country.

 

Bishop Malasusa urged mourners to emulate the late bishop in praying for and helping others, while a family member, Dr Kumbaeli Salewi hailed the church leadership for the support it provided to the family when the late Bishop was admitted at JKCI.

 

The church was also assisting in transporting the body to his home place in Hai District, along with the church members and other mourners who turned up to support the family in mourning the late bishop and family head, he added.

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