The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, with an estimated worldwide membership of about 36,000,000, is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. It's history dates back to the acceptance of Christianity by the Kingdom of Aksum in 330 AD. The Ethiopian Church retains a number of Jewish practices, such as circumcision, the observance of dietary laws, and Saturday as well as Sunday Sabbath.
Administratively, the Ethiopian Church was part of the Coptic Orthodox Church from the first half of the 4th century until 1959, when it was granted autocephaly by the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church. In this same year, the first Ethiopian Orthodox parish was opened in the US: Holy Trinity Church in the Bronx, NY.
Early Challenges and Controversies
The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church is a religious group that first emerged in Jamaica during the 1940s and later spread to the United States, being incorporated in Florida in 1975. Its beliefs are based on both the Old and New testaments of the bible, as well as the teachings of Marcus Garvey, self-reliance, Afrocentricity and Ethiopianism.
On October 28th, 1979, the CBS program 60 Minutes aired a segment on the “Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church.” Located on a sprawling estate in Star Island, Miami Beach the church was led by former Chicago native Thomas Riley, also known as Brother Louv. The host of the program, Dan Rather, introduced his audience to these “white Americans,” calling them “a group of rich dope-heads.”
Families lived on a commune and the congregants were all encouraged to smoke marijuana. “Marijuana and only Marijuana,” Dan Rather concluded, “is what the Coptics are about.”
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The leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt in Canada and the United States were outraged. Father Marcos A. Marcos, a teacher at the Clerical College in Cairo and the first priest ordained to serve immigrants across North America, arrived in Toronto in November 1964. His parish grew rapidly to number a few hundred families and by 1978 moved into St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church in Scarborough, the first church building constructed according to the Coptic rite.
On the night that the program aired, a member of the congregation in Toronto taped the broadcast and showed it to the priest. He was incensed. He could neither abide the use of the terms “Ethiopian” or “Coptic” in the group’s name nor the depiction of women and children using drugs in spiritual services.
That same day, “very late at night,” he called the late Father Ghobrial in Jersey City and they agreed to each send a letter to CBS denouncing the program’s coverage. The letters were sent on October 30th on behalf of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Canada and the Coptic Orthodox Church in America, respectively.
The hurried response was as much a result of moral outrage as the damage that could be done to the reputation of the Coptic Orthodox Church globally. Fathers Marcos and Ghobrial denounced any affiliation with a suspect group celebrating the use of marijuana in the sacraments. Father Marcos discounted the “extremist group in the Island of Jamaica” in his letter to the producers of 60 Minutes.
Both priests insisted that the program apologize to the Coptic Orthodox Church, its members and all other Christian Churches “who look to the Coptic Church of Egypt with high regard and great admiration.” Although the clergy suggested that Coptologists and church leaders appear and have “an equal prime time” to educate the public, the producers never followed up.
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However, during a phone call with a CBS representative on October 31st, the priests detailed the history, heritage and rites of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Today, there are rumors that Father Ghobrial pursued the matter further. Some have claimed that he filed a lawsuit against the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church. However, there does not seem to be any record of the lawsuit.
Members of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church have nevertheless been embroiled in court battles and controversy since the mid-1970s. The EZCC is not associated with either the Coptic Orthodox Church or the Coptic Catholic Church, both based in Egypt. The Coptic Orthodox Church has an Ethiopian sister church, which is also unrelated. The Garveyite Coptic were most closely tied to the African Orthodox Church than to Egypt.
In 1979 the group was accused, tried, and convicted of smuggling massive amounts of potent cannabis from Jamaica to Miami in actions that kept the Jamaican economy afloat that decade.
The Coptics published a free newspaper promoting Garveyism and the decriminalization of marijuana titled "Coptic Times". They also appeared on 60 Minutes on October 28, 1979.
The group's leader was Niah Keith Gordon, and its spokesman in the US was Thomas Reilly, also known as Brother Louv. On January 19, 2017 James Tranmer, a member of the group, was pardoned and released from prison by Barack Obama before he left the office of the President of the United States.
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The commune follows a combination of teachings from the Bible, Old and New Testament, which have been compared to Billy Graham's fundamentalism, and Kosher law. Similar to the Rastafari Movement, the Coptic's views are based on the teachings of Marcus Garvey and they use cannabis as sacrament.
It is a misconception that pious Rastafarians smoke marijuana recreationally, and some (in particular, the canonical Ethiopian Orthodox and classical Elders) do not use it at all.
Bob Marley's Connection
On this day in history, November 4, 1980, Bob Marley was baptised as a Christian in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. When Haile Selassie died in August 1975, Marley quickly released Jah Lives, a statement reassuring the Rastas of Selassie’s immortality.
Shortly before his death, Marley had received the Order of Merit from the Jamaican government. He had also been awarded the Medal of Peace from the United Nations in 1980.
Bob Marley's Baptism Into The Ethiopian Orthodox Church
Growth and Division
The 1974 Marxist revolution in Ethiopia not only overthrew the Emperor but also began a campaign against all religious groups in the country. After the collapse of the Communist government (1991), the head of Ethiopian Church, Patriarch Merkorios, was accused of collaboration with the former regime.
A number of other Ethiopian bishops joined him, which further intensified the spread of Ethiopian Orthodox churches in America. Eventually, the exiled group formed “The Legitimate Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church” with headquarters in Oakland, California - a Church body in opposition to the Synod of Bishops in Ethiopia.
For a number of years, Ethiopian Orthodox churches in America were divided between the two rival factions. This schism lasted until 2018, when delegations from both sides, along with the Ethiopian Prime Minister, met in Washington, DC. An agreement was reached that provided for the return of Patriarch Merkorios to Ethiopia to become co-patriarch along with Patriarch Matthias (elected in Ethiopia in 2013).
The two Patriarchs would be of equal dignity, and all the bishops of both Synods would be mutually recognized. Presently, Ethiopian Orthodox churches in the USA are divided into five dioceses, and they continue to grow rapidly. Between 2010 and 2020 alone, the number of parishes nearly doubled, increasing from 101 to 197.
Cultural Expressions and Community
The photo essay Semune Himamat (Holy Week in Amharic) explores the Ethiopian Coptic faith, which has created a tight-knit community of believers in the heart of Miami Gardens. Holy Week | Semune Himamat shares the parallel and contrasting dynamics between practices that blend the traditions of African and European religious frameworks.
Woosler Delisfort is an award winning documentary photographer and filmmaker. Born and raised in Little Haiti, Woosler Delisfort is a self-taught documentary photographer and filmmaker whose mission is to explore the core principles affecting the collective human spirit. His practice uses storytelling to weave together experiences and anecdotes to illuminate the realities of the world.
Delisfort has dedicated the past decade capturing the energies driving the human experiences, aesthetics, sounds and rhythms of Miami’s Haitian community in Little Haiti. Delisfort’s past creative work, research and outreach has been supported by the Miami Foundation, HistoryMiami Museum Center for Photography, Bakehouse Art Complex, Oolite Arts and IPC ArtSpace.
The blending of religious traditions challenges typical understandings of spirituality beyond the binaries of “right or wrong” ways of holding sacred space.
The faithful observe Roman-Catholic ceremonies for Good Friday modeled after the traditions practiced in Ayiti (Haiti) by the French and Spanish invaders.
Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Numbers
Metro-Areas on the highest percent of the population in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Note that data collection methods for religious bodies change over time, affecting the comparability of statistics. The 2020 data were collected by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) and include data for 373 religious bodies or groups.
| Metro Area | Population Percentage |
|---|---|
| [Metro Area 1] | [Percentage 1] |
| [Metro Area 2] | [Percentage 2] |
| [Metro Area 3] | [Percentage 3] |
