The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን) stands as one of the most ancient predominantly Christian nations in the world. Its history is rich with unique civilization, culture, and religious life. The term "Tewahedo" (Ge'ez: ተዋሕዶ täwaḥədo) signifies "united as one" in Ge'ez, reflecting the Oriental Orthodox belief in Miaphysitism.
Ethiopia, often called the land of Judeo-Christianity, holds a prominent place in biblical references. The Book of Genesis mentions, “And the name of the second river is Ghion: the same is it that compasses the whole land of Ethiopia” (Genesis 2:13). The Psalmist David also prophesied, “Let Ethiopia hasten to stretch out her hands to God” (Psalms 68:31). Furthermore, historical and archaeological evidence reveals that Ethiopia is the only African country to develop its own alphabets and written language.
This great land and its people were known by the ancient Greek poets and historians such as Homer, who referred to them as, “Blameless Race.” Herodotus also indicated the country’s landscape as the area south of Egypt and around the Red Sea extending as far as the Indian Ocean. He said that the Ethiopians “lived a long life” and characterized them as “the most just men."
The Old Testament tells the pilgrimage of the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem to visit King Solomon (1Kgs. 10:1-13). Ethiopic tradition maintains that the relationship that followed paved the way for the introduction of Old Testament to the country. Menilik I, Queen of Sheba’s son from King Solomon, made possible the coming of the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia. Since then, Judaic belief and practice became the norm for the daily life of its people.
Ethiopia is well known as the Kingdom of Aksum, established by Emperor Menilik I. Historical documents trace the beginning of an independent Ethiopian monarchy as far back as 4522 B.C. At present, in Aksum, the ancient capital and birthplace of Ethiopian civilization and Christianity, antiquity is still present along with its standing obelisk and other artistic features.
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Obelisk of Axum, Ethiopia
Origins and Early Expansion
The beginning of Ethiopian Christianity could possibly be traced to the apostolic era. The Book of Acts gives the account of the Ethiopian Eunuch of Queen Candace, who was first evangelized and then baptized by the apostle Philip (Acts 8:26-36). Eusebius, the great Church historian, refers to the Ethiopian Eunuch as “the first fruit of Christianity in the whole world.” In addition, Rufinus followed by Theodret, Socrates and Sozomen also recorded this remarkable event.
The Ethiopic version of this verse reads "Hendeke" (ህንደኬ); Queen Gersamot Hendeke VII was the Queen of Ethiopia from c. 42 to 52.
Nevertheless, it was not until the 4th century that Christianity became the official religion of the Aksumite Empire. This period also saw the inauguration of the Bishopric See and administration of the sacraments. This is because St. Athanasius of Alexandria consecrated St. Frementius as the first Bishop of Ethiopia during the reign of Emperors Ezana and Syzana (also called Abraha and Atsbaha). King Ezana removed from his coins the sign of the moon and replaced it with the sign of the cross. By doing so, he became “the first sovereign in the world to engrave the sign of the cross on coins.”
King Ezana's Stele, Axum
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In A.D. 356 the Arian Emperor Constantinos wrote to the king of Aksum requesting that the Orthodox bishop Frementius as “a corrupter of true Christianity be sent back to the Roman Empire.” Obviously, he wanted the Ethiopian King to become an Arian, but his effort was failed.
St. Frementius came to be known by the Ethiopians as Abba Selama, which means, “the Father of Peace” and Kesate Berhan meaning, “the Revealer of Light”. Moreover, as the first bishop of Ethiopia, he was given the title Abune, meaning “our father,” as an appellation carried henceforth by all primates of Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church accepted the three Ecumenical Councils Nicaea (A.D. 325), Constantinople (A.D. 381) and Ephesus (A.D. 431). Therefore, the Nicene-Constantinople creed has become the symbol of our faith.
Location of Ethiopia
The Nicene-Constantinople Creed
We believe in one God, the Lord, the Father Almighty, maker of the heavens and the earth and of all things visible and invisible. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of the Father, who was with him before the creation of the world: Light of Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, equal with the Father in his Godhead: By whom all things were made, but without him was not anything made, neither in heaven nor on earth; who for us human-beings and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and Mary, of the holy Virgin Mary. He was made man and was crucified for us in the days of Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died, was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day as it is written in the Holy Scriptures. He ascended with glory into heaven, sat at the right hand of his Father, and will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
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We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, we worship and glorify him with the Father and the Son; who spoke by the prophets; and we believe in one holy, universal, apostolic Church. We believe in one baptism for the remission of sin; and await the resurrection of the dead and the life to come, world without end. Amen.
The life of the Ethiopian Church was further strengthened by the coming of the Nine Saints, who came from the Byzantine Empire (479 A.D.). They translated various sacred texts from Greek and Syriac into Ge`ez, spread the Gospel and introduced monastic life. The Ethiopian Church entered a new era during the 6th century, which is marked with the rise of St. Yared, the founder of the Ethiopic Hymnody. The time between the 4th and the 7th century A.D. was a time when remarkable religious activities were undertaken.
Monasticism began to flourish in Ethiopia after Christianity became the official religion of the country. The Ethiopic monastic tradition is introduced from the order of St. Anthony in Egypt upon the arrival of the Nine Saints in A.D 480. Thus, Ethiopian ecclesiastical history regards the 4th-6th centuries as the Golden Age. This period was characterized by great evangelical and literary activities.
Just as the monasteries in Europe helped preserve the Western cultural tradition during the Middle Ages, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and its monasteries became the center for the development of Ethiopian art, hymnody, literature and architecture. In the sixth century, St. Yared, the renowned scholar founded the scripture-based liturgical hymnody of the Ethiopian Church.
The Nine Saints of Ethiopia Founders of a Faith
Doctrinal Foundations
The doctrinal teaching of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is firmly grounded in the five pillars of mystery:
- Mystery of the Holy Trinity
- Mystery of Incarnation
- Mystery of Baptism
- Mystery of Holy Communion
- Mystery of Resurrection
Debre Berhan Selassie Church Ceiling
The Mystery of the Holy Trinity
The Mystery of the Holy Trinity is the belief in the Triune God and is the core of Christian faith. This doctrine is a mystery since it could never be known unless revealed by God. “No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27). The One God in whom we believe, as is one in divinity and three as distinct persons. The Ethiopian Church accepts this teaching as absolutely central to its theology and spirituality. "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one" (1 John 5:7).
The Mystery of the Incarnation
The Mystery of the Incarnation is the saving entrance of God into human history. The main reason for the incarnation is because our disease needed a physician (Luke 19:10), our darkness needed illumination (Matthew 4:12-17; John 8:12), and our captivity needed a redeemer (Galatian 5:1). Thus, the Creedal confession reads, “For us men and for our salvation the Word of God came down from heaven, and by the power of the Holy Spirit became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and was made man.” The Ethiopian Orthodox Church upholds the miaphysite Christology of St. Cyril of Alexandria: “One United Incarnate Nature of God the Son.” In other words, when the two natures, “humanity and divinity,” united, Christ thus became one person and one nature from two natures. The union of the Word of God and humanity took place in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Due to this perfect union, which took place without division, separation, confusion and mixture, we can no longer speak of two natures. The Johannine prologue says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14) Thus, Christ is truly human and truly divine. Theologically, this happened through communicatio idiomatum, the exchange of properties. As St. Athanasius of Alexandria notes, “The Word was made man in order that we might be made divine.” This in turn makes possible the divinization of humanity, which enables us to become partakers of the divine nature of God (2 Peter 1:4).
The Mystery of Baptism
The mystery of baptism is the main entrance into the Church and participation in its sacramental grace. It is called mystery because we receive the invisible grace of spiritual adoption through the visible performances of the sacrament.
The Mystery of the Holy Communion
Christ instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion during the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday. Our Lord Jesus Christ commands the disciples to remember His sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection in their Eucharistic celebration. Because man does not offer it to God, but God to humankind, the Eucharist is a sacrament through which we are far off from the dominance of sin and attain to communion with God (John 6:53-57). The Eucharist stands at the heart of the early Church's faith and life.
The Mystery of the Resurrection
The Mystery of the Resurrection is the mystery of the eternal life in the world to come after our bodily resurrection from dead. This happens at the glorious Second Coming of Christ. The Church’s belief in our resurrection is based on the triumphant resurrection of Christ, the first fruit of our resurrection (1 Corinthian 15:20-22).
Ethiopian Orthodox Priest
Practices and Observances
The faith and practice of Orthodox Ethiopian Christians include elements from Miaphysite Christianity as it has developed in Ethiopia over the centuries. Christian beliefs include belief in God (in Geʽez / Amharic, ′Egziabeher, lit. "Lord of the Universe"), veneration of the Virgin Mary, the angels, and the saints, besides others.
According to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church itself, there are no non-Christian elements in the religion other than those from the Old Testament, or Həggä 'Orät (ሕገ ኦሪት), to which are added those from the New Testament, or Həggä Wongel (ሕገ ወንጌል).
A hierarchy of K'ədusan ቅዱሳን (angelic messengers and saints) conveys the prayers of the faithful to God and carries out the divine will, so when Ethiopian Christians are in difficulty, they appeal to them as well as to God. In more formal and regular rituals, priests communicate on behalf of the community, and only priests may enter the inner sanctum of the usually circular or octagonal church where the tabot ("ark") dedicated to the church's patron saint is housed.
On important religious holidays, the tabot is carried on the head of a priest and escorted in procession outside the church. It is the tabot, not the church, which is consecrated.
The Ethiopian Orthodox church is Trinitarian, maintaining the Orthodox teaching, formalised at the council of Nicea, that God is united in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Daily services constitute only a small part of an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian's religious observance. An important religious requirement, however, is the keeping of fast days, during which adherents abstain from consuming meat and animal products, and refrain from sexual activity.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has 250 fasting days, 180 of which are obligatory for lay people, not just monks and priests, when vegan food is eaten by the faithful.
Some of the fasting periods include:
- Fast of the Apostles-10-40 days, which the Apostles kept after they had received the Holy Spirit.
- The fast of the prophets-The fast preceding Christmas, 40 days (Advent).
- The Fast of Nineveh-commemorating the preaching of Jonah.
In addition to standard holy days, most Christians observe many saints' days. A man might give a small feast on his personal saint's day.
Priests intervene and perform exorcisms on behalf of those believed to be afflicted by demons or buda. It includes singing praise and victory songs, reading from the Scripture, prayer and confronting the spirit in the name of Jesus. Dialogue with the spirit is another important part of the exorcism ceremony. It helps the counsellor (exorcist) to know how the spirit was operating in the life of the demoniac.
Ethiopian Bible
Liturgical Language and Architecture
The divine services of the Ethiopian Church are celebrated in Geʽez, which has been the liturgical language of the church at least since the arrival of the Nine Saints, who are believed to have fled persecution by the Byzantine Empire after the Council of Chalcedon (451). The Greek Septuagint was the version of the Old Testament originally translated into Ge'ez, but later revisions show clear evidence of the use of Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic sources. The first translation into a modern vernacular was done in the 19th century by a man usually known as Abu Rumi (died 1819).
There are many monolithic (rock-hewn) churches in Ethiopia, most famously eleven churches at Lalibela. Besides these, two main types of architecture are found-one basilican, the other native. The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion at Axum is an example of the basilican design, though the early basilicas are nearly all in ruin. These examples show the influence of the architects who, in the 6th century, built the basilicas at Sanʻāʼ and elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula.
There are two forms of native churches: one oblong, traditionally found in Tigray; the other circular, traditionally found in Amhara and Shewa (though either style may be found elsewhere). In both forms, the sanctuary is square and stands clear in the centre, and the arrangements are based on Jewish tradition. Walls and ceilings are adorned with frescoes. A courtyard, circular or rectangular, surrounds the body of the church. Modern Ethiopian churches may incorporate the basilican or native styles.
Church of St. George, Lalibela
Modern Developments and Global Presence
In modern times, the Ethiopian Church has experienced a series of developments. The 19th century witnessed the publication of an Amharic translation of the Bible. Haile Selassie also played a prominent role in further reforms of the church, which included encouraging the distribution of Abu Rumi's translation throughout Ethiopia, as well as his promotion of improved education of clergy, a significant step in the Emperor's effort being the founding of the Theological College of the Holy Trinity Church in December 1944.
The Coptic and Ethiopian churches reached an agreement on 13 July 1948, that led to autocephaly for the Ethiopian Church. This promotion was completed when Coptic Orthodox Pope Joseph II consecrated an Ethiopian-born Archbishop, Abuna Basilios, 14 January 1951.
With the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was disestablished as the state church. The new Marxist government began nationalizing property (including land) owned by the church.
The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church was granted autocephaly from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on 28 September 1993 following ratification by Coptic church Patriarch Shenouda III, but the two remain in full communion.
On 25 July 2018, delegates from the Patriarchate in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and those in the United States, declared reunification in Washington, D.C.
The 1970s saw dramatic increase in the number of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Churches in the Diaspora following the arrival of large numbers of Ethiopian immigrants in North America, Europe, Australia, Eastern and Southern Africa. In particular, the spread of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Churches in North America was facilitated under the leadership of His Grace Abune Yesehaq, who was the Archbishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in the Western Hemisphere at the time.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Toronto was established in 1972 in collaboration with members of the Caribbean (mainly Jamaican) community in Toronto.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was established in Jamaica on Saturday May 23, 1970 by the then Archimandrite Abba Laike Mariam Mandefro, who later became Archbishop Yesehaq in charge of the Ethiopian Orthodox church in the Western Hemisphere. This establishment came about because of an request from brethdrens of the Rastafarian Movement and other Jamaicans who considerd themselves scattered sons and daughters of Africa. On that historic day, over 600 members were baptized.
