João Sambo elected as bishop

Key points:

• The Rev. João Sambo, an elder in Mozambique, was elected a United Methodist bishop on the 14th ballot at the Africa Central Conference.
• He is the fourth bishop and the third Africa University graduate elected March 15 by the central conference, which is scheduled to split into the new East Africa and Southern Africa central conferences.
• Sambo has served multiple roles within Mozambique and worked as a correspondent for United Methodist News.

The Rev. João Filimone Sambo, Mozambique South Episcopal Area administrative assistant and a correspondent for United Methodist News, has been elected as a United Methodist bishop by the Africa Central Conference.

Sambo, 53, was elected March 15 by delegates meeting in Johannesburg. On the 14th ballot, he received 43 votes out of 60 valid votes cast; he needed 40 to be elected.

“I expected the election, but I was not sure. I am overwhelmed. I know the responsibility is huge,” Sambo said upon his election. 

“My vision is to empower the leadership in Mozambique. We need people who are well trained in many areas. In Africa, we need to be united. I look forward to completing ratification of regionalization such that we can contextualize evangelism in our African culture and tradition.”

Sambo was the fourth bishop and the third Africa University graduate elected at the central conference. Fellow alumnus the Rev. Emmanuel Sinzohagera of Burundi was elected on the first ballot, and the Rev. Moisés Bernardo Jungo of Angola was elected on the ninth ballot. The Rev. Gift Kudakwashe Machinga, a pastor in Zimbabwe, was elected on the 12th ballot.

After consecration on March 16, Sambo was assigned to the Mozambique Episcopal Area. He succeeds retiring Bishop Joaquina F. Nhanala — the first and only female bishop in Africa. The episcopal area includes the Mozambique North, Mozambique South and South Africa Provisional conferences, as well as a growing United Methodist presence in Madagascar.

In the Africa Central Conference, bishops are elected to a four-year term and if re-elected, they can serve for life.

On March 16, the Africa Central Conference also split into the East Africa and Southern Africa central conferences. Each central conference will consist of multiple annual conferences, associations of United Methodist congregations and other ministries.

• The East Africa Central Conference will consist of the United Methodist presence in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. The new central conference also will include Burundi, which, after more than a decade of internal divisions, fully reunited with The United Methodist Church in 2018.
• The Southern Africa Central Conference will consist of the United Methodist presence in Angola, Botswana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), South Africa and Zimbabwe. Sambo's area is in the newly formed Southern Africa Central Conference. 

Sambo has served since 2022 as both administrative assistant and episcopal secretary to Nhanala

Sambo first took on the role of episcopal secretary in 2016. Since 2018, he also has served as Africa Lusophone correspondent for United Methodist News — part of United Methodist Communications — writing, translating and editing stories that help bridge Portuguese-speaking United Methodists in Africa with the global connection. He served as a translator between Portuguese and English at both the special General Conference in 2019 and last year’s General Conference.

Before serving in the episcopal office, Sambo had appointments as a youth chairman, pastor, annual conference chaplain, episcopal coordinator for relief and emergencies and professor and chaplain at United Methodist-related Cambine Theological Seminary in Mozambique.

He converted to Christianity and was baptized in 1985. He has been United Methodist ever since. He studied general mechanics at Maputo Industrial Institute before earning a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Africa University in Zimbabwe and a Master of Divinity with a specialization in church and community leadership from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. He also has a certificate in the Old Testament from the Methodist University of São Paulo — Brazil.

He and his wife, Délia Ester Matsinhe Sambo, have four children. 

The United Methodist Church has eight central conferences — church regions in Africa, Europe and the Philippines — with Southern Africa and East Africa as the newest additions. Central conferences, which each consist of multiple annual conferences, elect bishops and have the authority to adapt parts of the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, as their missional contexts require.

In The United Methodist Church, bishops are ordained elders who are called to “lead and oversee the spiritual and temporal affairs of The United Methodist Church.”

Bishops are responsible for appointing clergy. They also are the first stop when clergy face complaints under church law. They also serve as board members or chairs of general agencies and other denomination-wide ministries.

Chikwanah is a UM News correspondent based in Harare, Zimbabwe.

News media contact: Julie Dwyer at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digests.