Diocese of Angola
diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa

The Diocese of Angola (Portuguese: Diocese Anglicana de Angola) is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola, encompassing the entire country of Angola. It is divided into four archdeaconries (Luanda, Lukunga Lozi (Songo), Nzadi a Lukiki, and Uíge) with a total of 63 parishes.
History
Anglicanism reached the Portuguese colony of Angola in 1923, due to the English missionary Archibald Patterson. The current diocese was formed from the Igreja Evangélica Unida de Angola, which shared a common history with the Igreja Evangélica Reformada de Angola from 1922 to 1975.
It was constituted as the Evangelical Reformed Church of Angola in 1975. Angola was an archdeaconry of the Mozambican Anglican Diocese of Lebombo until 2003. It became a missionary diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa in 2003, with André Soares as the first (and only) missionary bishop. Bishop Soares had already shown his support for women's ordination, stating that he does not believe it to be an obstacle to ecumenism.
On St Andrew's Day, 30 November 2019, Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town, inaugurated the diocese as a full diocese of the church, blessed the site where St Andrew's Cathedral, Luanda is to be built, and installed Soares as diocesan bishop.
Membership
The current membership is c.
The public source identifies “Diocese of Angola” as diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Diocese, Angola and diocese.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Diocese of Angola”, the useful work is to connect “diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 2, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q2783990. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 1922, 1975 and 2003.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Diocese of Angola” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.