James Tengatenga

The Right Reverend

James Tengatenga
Bishop of Southern Malawi
ChurchChurch of the Province of Central Africa
DioceseSouthern Malawi
In office1998–2013
PredecessorNathaniel Aipa
SuccessorAlinafe Kalemba
Other post(s)Chair of the Anglican Consultative Council (2009–2016)
Distinguished visiting professor of global Anglicanism, Sewanee (Since 2014)
Orders
Ordination1985
Consecration1998
Personal details
Born (1958-05-07) May 7, 1958
Que Que, Southern Rhodesia
DenominationAnglicanism
SpouseJoselyn "Josie" Tengatenga
Children3
EducationZomba Theological College (diploma)
Seminary of the Southwest (MDiv)
University of Malawi (PhD)

James Tengatenga (born 7 April 1958[1]) is a Malawian Anglican bishop and theologian. As an Anglican leader in the Global South—and as a member and later chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council—he was known for attempting to hold provinces of the Anglican Communion together amid the Anglican realignment and controversies over LGBT clergy in Anglicanism. He was the bishop of Southern Malawi in the Church of the Province of Central Africa from 1998 to 2013, when he was appointed to a deanship at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, United States. This appointment was controversially rescinded by Dartmouth president Philip J. Hanlon over comments Tengatenga had made years before criticizing the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson, an openly gay man. Tengatenga was later appointed to a post at the School of Theology at Sewanee: The University of the South.

Early life and education

Tengatenga was born in Que Que, Southern Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe), in 1958 to parents of Ngoni origin in Malawi. He was educated at Zomba Theological College, after which he received an M.Div. from the Seminary of the Southwest in the United States. He did further graduate work at the Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham.[1][2]: 33–34 

Ordained ministry

Ordained to the priesthood in 1985, Tengatenga was a parish priest in Lilongwe for eight years. From 1993 to 1998, he taught theology at Zomba Theological College and the University of Malawi's Chancellor College.[3]: 90n27 

Tengatenga was elected bishop of Southern Malawi in 1998, succeeding Nathaniel Aipa. He was initially based at Likwenu until the diocese was divided into the Diocese of Upper Shire in 2002.[3]: 91–92  Tengatenga remained with the Southern Malawi diocese and moved its see city to Blantyre.[4]: 8  In 2003, Tengatenga was a visiting fellow at Clare College, Cambridge, where he and completed his dissertation for his Ph.D. at the University of Malawi.[3]: 192 [2] As bishop, he was a member of the Malawi National AIDS Commission.[1] He also co-authored with surgeon Anne Bayley a guidebook for conversations within families about HIV/AIDS that was intended to break an African taboo about discussions of sex within marriages.[5]

Global Anglicanism

In 2002, Tengatenga was named to the Anglican Consultative Council, one of the Anglican Communion's four "instruments of communion".[3]: 192  During his time on the ACC—including as chair from 2009 to 2016[6]—Tengatenga dealt with controversies over the consecration of LGBT bishops and recognition of same-sex blessings in the United States and Canada. He was quoted in the Los Angeles Times criticizing the Episcopal Church's 2003 consecration of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Anglican bishop, saying "I come from a very frustrated church, a church that feels it has been betrayed by its brothers and sisters."[7] In 2011, he told the Church of England Newspaper that "the Anglican Church hasn't changed, yes we are against homosexuality. . . . The church's position and an individual's are two different things."[7] According to Dartmouth professor and Episcopal priest Randall Balmer, despite his criticisms of the Episcopal Church, Tengatenga sought through his ACC role to hold disparate factions of the Anglican Communion together despite the growing Anglican realignment movement.[8]

Dartmouth controversy

In July 2013, Tengatenga was announced as the next dean and chaplain of the William Jewett Tucker Foundation, the spiritual life unit at Dartmouth College. After the appointment, however, students and faculty at Darmouth led by the campus chapter of the NAACP criticized the appointment based on Tengatenga's prior public statements on homosexuality.[9] Dartmouth professor Michael Bronski, who circulated a letter in opposition, said Tengatenga should have done more to support LGBT rights in Malawi.[10] Defenders of Tengatenga pointed out that he was widely considered an ally to LGBT activists in Malawi.[9] Randall Balmer argued that Tengatenga's remarks on his frustration with the Episcopal Church had been triggered by Bishop John Shelby Spong's controversial comments criticizing African Christianity as "superstitious."[8] Tengatenga was also defended by Nicholas Henderson, a British priest whose election as bishop of Lake Malawi was held up for years over Henderson's support for same-sex marriage, an election that Tengatenga had supported. Henderson said that the objections on the Dartmouth campus amounted to "asking the impossible for someone coming out of that African situation."[9]

Tengatenga issued a statement that his views had evolved and that he had become a supporter of marriage equality.[9] However, several students and faculty at Dartmouth criticized Tengatenga for not retracting or apologizing for his previous views in the statement.[10] One student said Tengatenga "did not recognize the issues that his constituents face or apologize for harm that his past statement and actions have caused."[11] Adrienne Clay, a staff member in African and African-American studies, called Tengatenga's statement "a little too ambiguous for my taste."[10]

Dartmouth president Phil Hanlon revoked the offer to Tengatenga.[9] In response to Hanlon's decision, Balmer, Henderson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bishop Ian Douglas, and human rights activists Kapya Kaoma, MacDonald Sembereka, Timothy Mtambo and Victor Mukasa, among others, condemned the decision. "The fact that James Tengatenga did not leave behind a record of press releases or public pronouncements — Western forms of activism — does not mean that he was only recently converted to the cause nor that he has not been a loyal and helpful ally to gay activists," they wrote. "Rather, it means that he has been using the methods of the place in which he was trying to make a difference. Unless Africa does not matter to Dartmouth, African human rights defenders should have been recognized as the best judges of Tengatenga's views, past actions, and likely future contributions."[12]

In the fall of 2013, Tengatenga was a presidential fellow at Episcopal Divinity School.[13] In 2014, Tengatenga was appointed distinguished visiting professor of global Anglicanism at the School of Theology at Sewanee.[1]

Personal life

Tengatenga married Joselyn in 1984; they had three children.[3]: 90n27 

Bibliography

Books

  • Tengatenga, James (2006). Church, State, and Society in Malawi: An Analysis of Anglican Ecclesiology. Zomba, Malawi: Kachere Books. ISBN 9789990876512. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  • Tengatenga, James; Bayley, Anne (2006). Time to talk: A guide to family life in the age of AIDS. Oxford: Strategies for Hope Trust. ISBN 978-1-905746-31-6. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
  • Tengatenga, James (2010). The UMCA in Malawi: A History of the Anglican Church. Zomba, Malawi: Kachere Books. ISBN 9789990887655.
  • Burns, Stephen; Cones, Bryan; Tengatenga, James, eds. (2020). Twentieth Century Anglican Theologians: From Evelyn Underhill to Esther Mombo. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. ISBN 9781119611189. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  • Burns, Stephen; Tengatenga, James, eds. (2024). Anglican Theology: Postcolonial Perspectives. London: SCM Press. ISBN 9780334066231. Retrieved 20 June 2025.

Articles and chapters

References

  1. ^ a b c d "James Tengatenga Appointed to The School of Theology Faculty". Anglican Communion News Service. 13 May 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
  2. ^ a b Ross, Kenneth R.; Fiedler, Klaus (2025). A Malawi Church History 1860–2020. Mzuzu, Malawi: Mzuni Press. ISBN 9789996076497. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e Tucker, Richard (2022). Together in Mission: The Anglican Church in Malawi and the Church of England Birmingham, 1966-2016. Mzuzu, Malawi: Mzuni Press. ISBN 9789996060694.
  4. ^ Tengatenga, James (2010). The UMCA in Malawi: A History of the Anglican Church. Zomba, Malawi: Kachere Books. ISBN 9789990887655.
  5. ^ Hutchinson, Jane; Pinching, Anthony (24 March 2025). "Anne bayley: Surgical oncologist who recognised the spread of AIDS in Zambia among heterosexual patients". BMJ : British Medical Journal (Online). 388. doi:10.1136/bmj.r574. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
  6. ^ "James Tengatenga". Sewanee: The University of the South. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  7. ^ a b Brubeck, Sarah (16 August 2013). "College Cuts Ties with Bishop Over Homosexuality Comments". Valley News. p. A1. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  8. ^ a b Balmer, Randall (29 September 2013). "Diversity Has Its Limits at Dartmouth". Valley News. p. F1. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  9. ^ a b c d e Wangsness, Lisa (13 August 2013). "Words on gays cost bishop a Dartmouth appointment". Boston Globe. p. A1. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  10. ^ a b c Chalif, Brian (July 19, 2013). "Tengatenga states LGBT support". The Dartmouth. Archived from the original on 22 July 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
  11. ^ Longhi, Andrew (August 2, 2013). "Human Rights Abuses Not a Concern in the Ivy League". Huffington Post. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
  12. ^ LeBlanc, Douglas (2 September 2013). "Defending Bishop Tengatenga". The Living Church. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  13. ^ "Two Black Scholars Named to Teaching Posts". Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (Online). November 22, 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
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