 In 1971 an open letter was written jointly with Moderator Paulus Gowaseb of the Rhenish Mission's United Evangelical Lutheran Church in South West Africa (later known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia) to the Prime Minister of South Africa, B.J.Vorster, which declared their church's opposition to the continued rule of South Africa and the acceptance of the recommendation by the International Court of Justice for the withdrawal of South Africa's mandate and a transition period towards independence.In 1984, ELOC's name was officially changed to its current iteration, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia.