Biographical info for Bishop Moyo
Jessica Nipp
Biographical Information for Bishop Ambrose Moyo
Ambrose Moyo has held many professional titles in his distinguished career, among them Pastor, Professor, Bishop and Executive Director. He’s also an author, a missionary, a peace activist and a popular international and ecumenical public speaker.
Bishop Ambrose Moyo is, above all, a pastor in the body of Christ. He was ordained and served as pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe, and simultaneously served as Professor of Theology at the University of Zimbabwe. The Rev. Dr. Moyo was then elected Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe and served during a time of deep economic and political instability in the country. Due to death threats stemming from the church’s pro-peace position during the struggle for liberation, Bishop Moyo was forced into exile for a time.
Bishop Moyo’s next call was as Executive Director of LUCSA, the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa, which is a regional expression of the Lutheran World Federation. Currently he serves as the Facilitator for Accompaniment and Capacity Building in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa through the Global Mission Unit of the ELCA.
Bishop Moyo has served in countless ecumenical and international partnerships. Notably, he co-founded and co-chaired the Conference of International Black Lutherans, which held its inaugural conference in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1986. He has been a tireless promoter of peace-building and government accountability in southern Africa, and has led the church in engaging citizens and government leaders in dialog with one another.
Having nurtured our companion relationships for many years, Bishop Moyo is an expert on the ELCA’s companionships in Southern Africa, including our joint work on HIV and AIDS and malaria. He can articulate the region’s health crisis simply and eloquently, and has witnessed firsthand how ELCA-funded projects are saving lives in Southern Africa.
Links for additional information
- A powerful video clip of Bishop Moyo explaining the economic and social situation of the people of Zimbabwe (I believe the video was produced in 2008). http://tinyurl.com/MoyoZimbabwe
- A blog entry from The Lutheran magazine, November 2008, which describes the political and economic crisis facing the people of Zimbabwe and the ELCA’s repose to that disaster. http://www.thelutheran.org/blog/index.cfm?person_id=194&blog_id=1049
- Sermon preached by Bishop Moyo at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Raleigh, NC in 2008: http://www.gslchurch.org/ministries/worship/sermons_2008/serm20081109.pdf