Matema Beach View Lutheran Centre

Matema Beach View Lutheran Centre is taken as a historical site for tourists and Learning Institutions for Church history “Lutheran Church in Southern part of Tanzania and the Missionaries.

The first Missionaries from the Berlin Mission Society arrived on the 25 September, 1891 at the northern shore of Lake Nyassa. That is the land of the Wanyakyusa Tribe and it is called Konde now. Therefore the Diocese has the name “Konde Diocese".

The Missionaries came from South / Africa over the Zambesi River, Shire River and Lake Nyassa to Matema Area.

On the 2 October, 1891 they started to build the first Mission Station on the hill Ipagika near to the Livingstone Mountains, about 30 km distance from the Lake.
The first Station was called “Wangemannshoeh" in honour of the Director of the Berlin Mission Society. Nowadays there is only the foundation left and there is a monument which the Konde Diocese has built in 1991 for the jubilee “100 years Evangelical Church in Southern Tanzania".

On the 24 August, 1893 the Mission station in Ikombe, the half island at the eastern shore of Lake Nyassa, was found. But the Missionaries had problems with the climate. So they decided to shift to Matema. Then in 1911 the Berlin Missionary Dorst built a new tropical house in Matema. Until today the house has still firm foundation. Over the years there were several renovations and the last in 2007 / 08.

Due to the two World Wars in the last century the German Missionaries were often away and replaced by English, Scottish and Scandinavian Missionaries. But the Germans came back again and again.

Nowadays the house belongs to the Konde Diocese and is used as a Guesthouse.
The Konde Diocese was found in 1982. The Konde Diocese is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT), which has been established in1963.

Before 1982 the Konde was a Synod since 1976 and before since 1959 a Church District of the Southern Synod.
In October 199,1 the Evangelical Church of Southern Tanzania celebrated the 100 year Jubilee in Itete and Matema. So the Diocese built the Matema Mini-conference Centre. Since 2008 year the name of the centre has been changed to :
" MATEMA BEACH VIEW LUTHERAN CENTRE" as a commercial Tourist Centre and Church functional place.