15.01.2024

Green Solidarity

Rev Yoram Karusya from UEM Regional Service reported at the Synod about "Green Solidarity". The Regional Service will inform interested groups and congregations about the project. Photo by: Angelika Veddeler, UEM

A first draft of how the church (left) and the office building (center) will look like. Photo by: ELCT/ECD

The "New Home for the Africa Region" project is making international waves: After Tanzanian ELCT/ECD* donated a 6,000 square meter plot of land in the city centre of Dar Es Salaam to the United Evangelical Mission, UEM began to design its new Africa Regional Office there.

A Tanzanian architectural firm combined sustainable construction with traditional architecture: Plants on top of the roof and around the walls keep the buildings green, a church and a guest house will be part of the ensemble, next to the Regional Office. The German EKiR* was so impressed that it decided to support the project.

As part of "Green Solidarity", the congregations, church districts and partnership groups of the EKiR are collecting money between the 2024 and 2025 church synods to finance ecological building parts in the complex. The aim is to raise 50,000 euros between the two synods.

"With our donations, we are supporting a quiet and green oasis in the midst of the noise, hustle and smog of a metropolis. In future, new ideas inspired by Christian faith will be created here, coming from different continents. With our support, we are showing solidarity as the Rhenish Church and stand by our commitment to climate-neutral construction. Because climate justice is a global mission," says Church Councilwoman Dr Wibke Janssen. She is a member of the church leadership of the EKiR* and is supporting the building project as a member of the international council of the UEM.

Here you find more information.

*ELCT/ECD = Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania, Eastern Coastal Diocese

*EKiR = Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland (Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, Germany)