The Anglican Church of Tanzania (ACT) is embarking on a long-term educational project that will eventually see the establishment of the first Anglican university in the country.

|TOP|The university, to be called St. John’s University, will open in Dodoma, the capital city of Tanzania in September 2006.

“Starting a university is a crucial enterprise to the future of our nation and our people,” said Archbishop Donald Mtetemela, Primate of ACT in a fundraising appeal for the project.

ACT has been working hard to rebuild its educational wing, following the government’s nationalisation of all church social services institutions in the 1960s, which left the role of churches in education considerably weakened.

“It was exciting to see the enthusiasm and excitement for a post secondary education by the delegates especially the youth who attended the ACT 13th general synod,” said Jill Cruse, the Anglican Church of Canada’s mission coordinator for Africa who recently visited Tanzania.

Ms Cruse added: “They see the project as a way of increasing their capacity so as to control their own destinies.”

The Tanzanian Government returned the church Mazengo secondary school, taken over during the nationalisation process, which will now be used by ACT as the headquarters of the university.

The university will also run both theological and secular programmes in the first five years. “This will increase our partnership with Tanzania as they will require instructional staff professors to start the programmes running.”