Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

• 1. Introduction

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  The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church makes a claim that few institutions on Earth would dare to make. It says that one of its churches, Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum, houses the original Ark of the Covenant. This is the Ark Moses carried with the Israelites during the Exodus. Only a single priest is allowed into the building where the Ark is kept. The stated reason is biblical warnings of danger. With no outside witness, international scholars doubt that the original Ark is truly there.

  The claim is dramatic, yet it is only one thread in a much larger story. This is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox churches. It counts between 38 million and 51 million adherents in Ethiopia and about 60 million members worldwide. It is also a founding member of the World Council of Churches.

  How did a church take root so early in sub-Saharan Africa? What does one Geʽez word, Tewahedo, reveal about what its people believe? And how does a church with its own language, its own music and a calendar crowded with fasts survive monarchy, revolution, exile and war?

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• 2. One United Nature

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  In 451, around 500 bishops in the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem refused to accept a ruling of the Council of Chalcedon. The council had decreed that Christ has two natures. Those bishops would not agree. Their refusal produced the second major split in the Christian body of the Roman Empire.

  The Ethiopian church stands on the refusing side, and its name records the stand. Tewahedo is a Geʽez word meaning being made one, or united as one. It points to miaphysitism, the belief that in the single person of Jesus Christ, divinity and humanity are joined in one nature. The two are joined without being separated, blended or changed.

  The idea traces to Cyril of Alexandria, a leading voice in the Christological debates of the 4th and 5th centuries. He spoke of one nature of the Word of God incarnate. On his view, the incarnate Christ has one nature that comes from two, divine and human, and it keeps every characteristic of both. The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches, along with most Protestant churches, hold the two-natures view instead.

  Outsiders sometimes call Ethiopian belief monophysite, which would mean a single divine nature. Ethiopians argue that this label is wrong and consider it offensive. Together with their sister churches, they fall under the heading of Non-Chalcedonian Christianity.

  The church is just as firmly Trinitarian. It teaches, as formalised at the Council of Nicea, that God is united in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In Geʽez, the Trinity is called səllase.

  That shared conviction ties the church to a family: the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo, Coptic Orthodox, Malankara Orthodox Syrian, Armenian Apostolic and Syriac Orthodox churches. One of them, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, stood over the Ethiopian church administratively for many centuries.

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• 3. A Shipwreck and a Baptism

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  In the Acts of the Apostles, an angel sends Philip the Evangelist south along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. There he meets an Ethiopian eunuch, a high official of the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia, in charge of all her treasure. The man is reading the Book of Isaiah. Philip explains the passage as a prophecy about Jesus Christ. The official asks to be baptized, and Philip agrees.

  The Ethiopic version of that verse gives the queen's name as Hendeke. Queen Gersamot Hendeke VII is recorded as ruling from about 42 to 52.

  Other early voices point toward Ethiopia too. Irenaeus of Lyons, writing around 180, says a man called Simon Backos preached in his homeland. Eusebius of Caesarea and Origen of Alexandria offer similar witness. Socrates of Constantinople lists Ethiopia among the regions where the apostle Matthew preached. Ethiopian tradition adds that Bartholomew accompanied Matthew on a mission lasting at least three months. Paintings of these missions by Francesco Trevisan and Marco Benefial hang in the Church of St. Matthew in Pisa.

  The decisive figure was Frumentius, a Syrian Greek. As a youth he was shipwrecked with his brother Aedesius on the Eritrean coast. The brothers were brought to the royal court of the Axumite Kingdom and rose to positions of influence. They baptized Emperor Ezana. Through Frumentius, the priesthood and the sacraments arrived for the first time. Local people called him Selama, Kesaté Birhan, meaning Father of Peace, Revealer of Light. He is also believed to have founded the first monastery in Ethiopia, named Dabba Selama after him.

  The church dates its beginning to the year 330, when Coptic Orthodox missionaries Christianized Aksum. That makes it the first indigenous Christian church of sub-Saharan Africa. It predates the arrival of Western European colonizers, with their Catholic and Protestant denominations, by more than a thousand years.

  In 2016, archaeologists excavated a basilica at a site called Beta Samati in northeastern Ethiopia. Radiocarbon dating placed it in the 4th century AD. It is the earliest known physical evidence of a church anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

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• 4. Monks, Jesuits and Luther

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  In the 12th century, Abu Saleh recorded that the Coptic patriarch wrote twice a year to the kings of Abyssinia and Nubia. The practice lasted until Al Hakim stopped it. Another patriarch, Cyril, the 67th, sent a bishop named Severus with orders to put down polygamy and enforce proper consecration in every church. In 1439, under Zara Yaqob, a religious discussion between Giyorgis and a French visitor led Ethiopia to send an embassy to the Vatican.

  Meanwhile, monks were pushing against the hierarchy. Abba Ewostatewos founded a movement that demanded strict Sabbath observance and monastic independence, which brought tension with church leaders and the Coptic Church. In the mid-15th century his disciples won recognition from the Alexandrian patriarchate. Observing both Saturday and Sunday as Sabbaths was then officially accepted in Ethiopia.

  Abba Estifanos of Gwendagwende led the Stephanites, who rejected veneration of the cross and royal authority over the Church. Emperor Zara Yaqob persecuted them harshly. Some scholars see their critique of sacred kingship as an early form of Ethiopian religious dissent.

  In 1507, an Armenian named Mateus, or Matthew, was sent as an Ethiopian envoy to Portugal. Portugal was locked in a struggle with the Muslim Ottoman Empire and the Sultanate of Adal. The prize was the trade route to India through the Red Sea. In 1520, an embassy under Dom Rodrigo de Lima landed in Ethiopia. Its chaplain, Francisco Álvares, wrote an account of the mission.

  Ignatius Loyola wished to lead the work of conversion but was forbidden. The pope sent João Nunes Barreto as patriarch of the East Indies, with Andrés de Oviedo as bishop. After repeated failures, Emperor Susenyos I finally made formal submission to the pope in 1624. He made Roman Catholicism the state religion, and his subjects resisted fiercely. He abdicated in 1632 in favour of his son Fasilides. Fasilides restored Orthodoxy at once, expelled the Jesuits in 1633, and in 1665 ordered every Jesuit book burned. These were known as the Books of the Franks.

  A different European saw the Ethiopian church as an ally. The scholar David Daniels argues that its influence on the Reformation was stronger than most historians admit. For Martin Luther, he says, an ancient church with direct ties to the apostles gave legitimacy to a church outside papal authority. Luther noted its communion under both kinds, its Scriptures in the vernacular and its married clergy. It also rejected papal supremacy, purgatory and indulgences.

  In 1534, an Ethiopian cleric, Michael the Deacon, met Luther and affirmed the Augsburg Confession. His verdict was, "This is a good creed, that is, faith." Luther said the Lutheran Mass agreed with the Ethiopian one. He then invited Michael and his church into full fellowship.

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• 5. Independence and Revolution

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  On the 30th of November 1942, Emperor Haile Selassie issued Decree Number 2, a new law reforming the church. It set the church's finances in order, created a central fund and laid down requirements for appointing clergy, which had been fairly lax. In December 1944 he founded the Theological College of the Holy Trinity Church to improve clergy education.

  On the 13th of July 1948, the Coptic and Ethiopian churches reached an agreement granting full autocephaly. Five bishops were consecrated at once by the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church. They were empowered to elect a new patriarch, and the successor to Abuna Qerellos IV would gain the power to consecrate bishops. Pope Joseph II consecrated Abuna Basilios on the 14th of January 1951. In 1959, Pope Cyril VI crowned Basilios as the first Patriarch of Ethiopia.

  Basilios died in 1970, and Abuna Theophilos succeeded him. Then came the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974. The church lost its status as state church, and the new Derg government began nationalizing church property and land. The Marxist junta arrested Theophilos in 1976 and secretly executed him in 1979. The government forced the church to elect Abuna Takla Haymanot in his place. The Coptic Church in Egypt refused to recognize him. The Synod had not voluntarily removed Theophilos, and the government had never publicly acknowledged his death. Formal relations were suspended, though the churches stayed in communion. They resumed on the 13th of July 2007.

  Takla Haymanot proved less accommodating than the Derg hoped. When he died in 1988, the regime sought a patriarch with closer ties. It chose Ze-Libanos Fanta, the Archbishop of Gondar and a member of the Derg-controlled Parliament. He was enthroned as Abune Merkorios, the fourth Patriarch. After the Derg fell in 1991, public pressure forced him to abdicate. The church elected Abune Paulos in 1992, and the Coptic pope recognized him.

  Merkorios fled to Kenya and then the United States. From exile he declared that he had abdicated under duress and remained the legitimate patriarch. Several bishops followed him and formed the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Exile, based in Los Angeles. It lasted from 1991 to 2018. On the 28th of September 1993, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church was granted autocephaly, after ratification by Pope Shenouda III. The two churches remain in full communion. Some critics saw the move as a disintegration of Ethiopia's spiritual heritage.

  Abune Paulos died on the 16th of August 2012. On the 28th of February 2013, electors gathered in Addis Ababa chose Abune Mathias as the sixth Patriarch. On the 25th of July 2018, delegates announced in Washington, D.C. that the twenty-six-year schism was over. The reunited church acknowledged two patriarchs: Merkorios as the fourth and Mathias as the sixth. Merkorios died on the 3rd of March 2022.

  Mathias is himself a Tigrayan, and that detail would shape the church's next crisis.

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• 6. Tigray and Oromia

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  On the 7th of May 2021, a group of Tigrayan priests and bishops announced a secession. The regional clergy would leave to form the Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Their grievance was the Holy Synod's perceived alignment with the federal government during the Tigray War of 2020-2022. Many Tigrayans accused the Synod of legitimizing state violence and staying silent about atrocities against civilians.

  The destruction in Tigray gave the argument weight. Churches and monasteries were extensively damaged, often at the hands of Eritrean troops allied with the Ethiopian army. International human rights groups documented massacres of civilians around the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum. They also documented bombings of sites such as the 6th-century Debre Damo monastery. Sacred objects were pillaged, including manuscripts, icons and golden crosses. Many stolen treasures were reportedly carried into Eritrea, which fed accusations of cultural erasure.

  Patriarch Mathias broke ranks with the Synod. He publicly denounced the war as a "genocide" against Tigrayans. He lamented that church authorities in Addis Ababa had censored his attempts to issue statements. For Tigrayan clergy, his testimony contrasted sharply with the Synod's silence.

  On the 22nd of January 2023, a plot to overthrow Mathias came into the open. A new synod of 26 bishops, formed in secret, was led by Abune Sawiros in the Oromia Region. Nine bishops from dioceses outside the region joined them. Their activity centered on places such as Haro Beale Wold Church in Woliso. The Patriarchate called the appointments illegal. Mathias decried the episode as a "great event that has targeted the church". The attempt failed.

  Three archbishops who would not apologise were excommunicated by the Holy Synod on the 26th of January. On the 31st of January, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed convened a discussion and said he was ready to resolve the conflict. The Synod reacted with backlash. It accused his government of meddling, citing the separation of church and state in Article 11 of the constitution.

  On the 4th of February, three people were reportedly killed in Shashemene by the Oromia Special Forces. The Tewahedo Media Center reported two Orthodox youth killed and four injured. Abune Henok, Archbishop of Addis Ababa, called it "shameful and heart-wrenching". Celebrities voiced solidarity online and wore black clothing during the three-day Fast of Nineveh. On the 9th of February, the government restricted Facebook, Messenger, Telegram and TikTok.

  The next day, a Synod delegation met Abiy urgently, and he condemned the proclaimed Oromia synod. Abune Petros, the Synod's secretary, announced on the 12th of February that a nationwide protest would be postponed. On the 15th of February, the church reached an agreement with the illegally ordained synod. The government lifted the internet ban after five months, on the 17th of July.

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• 7. Fasting, Purity and Exorcism

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  The church keeps 250 fasting days a year, and 180 of them are obligatory for lay people, not just monks and priests. On these days the faithful eat only vegan food, and they also refrain from sexual activity. During the 40-day Advent fast, only one vegan meal is allowed per day.

  Great Lent runs 55 days before Easter. It divides into eight days commemorating Heraclius, forty days of Lent and seven days of Holy Week. Wednesdays and Fridays are fasts too, except in the fifty days after Easter. Wednesday recalls the plot against Jesus by Caiaphas, and Friday recalls the Crucifixion. The Fast of Nineveh, on three days of the third week before Lent, commemorates the preaching of Jonah. The Dormition fast lasts 16 days.

  Feasts balance the fasts. A man might give a small feast on his own saint's day. The maheber, a voluntary association attached to each church, honours the patron saint with a service and a feast two or three times a year.

  Old Testament practice runs deep. Men sit on the left and women on the right, as in Orthodox synagogues. Women cover their hair with a large scarf called a shash, following 1 Corinthians 11. Worshippers remove their shoes before entering, in line with Exodus 3:5, where Moses stands on holy ground.

  The church observes the Saturday Sabbath alongside Sunday, though Sunday receives more emphasis because of the Resurrection. Emperor Gelawdewos defended the practice in his Confession, citing the Didascalia. He wrote that the church does not honour it as the Jews do. Rather, "we so honour it that we celebrate thereon the Eucharist and have love-feasts".

  Some customs look Jewish but are cultural. Male circumcision and abstaining from meats deemed unclean are not religious obligations. The liturgy itself says, "let us not be circumcised like the Jews. We know that He who had to fulfil the law and the prophets has already come."

  Hand washing follows rituals similar to the Jewish netilat yadayim, for example before prayer or after a meal. People who are ritually unclean may approach the church but not enter it. They stand near the door and pray during the liturgy. Communion is given only to those who feel pure, have fasted regularly and have conducted themselves properly.

  According to a 2010 Pew Research Center study, 74% of Christians in Ethiopia report having experienced or witnessed an exorcism. Priests perform them for people thought to be afflicted by demons, called buda. The cause is often suspected when an ill person has not responded to modern medical treatment. Signs include superhuman strength and speaking in tongues.

  Amsalu Geleta describes a typical rite as singing, Scripture reading, prayer and confronting the spirit. Dialogue with the spirit helps the exorcist learn how it operated in the person's life. Exorcism does not always succeed, and in one case the demons left only later. Geleta stresses that "in all cases the spirit is commanded in no other name than the name of Jesus."

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• 8. Tabot, Stone and Script

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  Inside every Ethiopian Orthodox church, usually circular or octagonal, sits a tabot, a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. A church is not a church until the local bishop gives it one. The tabot is at least six inches (15 cm) square and made of alabaster, marble or wood. It rests in ornate coverings on the altar, and only priests may see or touch it. Only priests enter the inner sanctum where it is housed. It is the tabot, not the building, that is consecrated.

  On the feast day of a church's namesake, a priest carries the tabot on his head around the outside of the building amid joyful song. At Timket, the feast known elsewhere as Epiphany or Theophany, several churches send their tabots to a common site beside a pool or river. During services, most parish members stay in the outer ring, where debteras sing hymns and dance. A debtera is an itinerant layman trained as a scribe or cantor. He may serve as a deacon or exorcist, and folklore also casts him as a magician.

  Eleven churches carved from rock at Lalibela are the most famous. Beyond them, there are two main designs. The basilican type is represented by the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion at Axum, though most early basilicas are ruins. They echo the basilicas that 6th-century architects built at Sanʻāʼ in the Arabian Peninsula. The native type comes in two forms. One is oblong and traditional in Tigray. The other is circular and traditional in Amhara and Shewa. In both, a square sanctuary stands clear at the centre, arranged after Jewish tradition. Frescoes cover walls and ceilings. In rural areas, churches are often thatched with mud walls and surrounded by forest, which acts as a reservoir of biodiversity in otherwise deforested land.

  The music traces to Saint Yared, who composed zema, or chanting, in three modes. Geʽez serves ordinary days, Ezel serves fast days and Lent, and Araray serves the principal feasts. The liturgy uses fourteen Anaphoras, and the normal choice is the one of the Twelve Apostles. In ancient times, many monasteries used six.

  Services are celebrated in Geʽez. It has been the liturgical language at least since the arrival of the Nine Saints, believed to have fled Byzantine persecution after Chalcedon. They were Pantelewon, Gerima, Aftse, Guba, Alef, Yem'ata, Liqanos and Sehma. Two scholars, Rugare Rukuni and Erna Oliver, identify them as Jewish Christians and credit them with part of the church's Judaic character.

  The Old Testament was first translated into Geʽez from the Greek Septuagint. Later revisions show clear use of Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic sources. The first vernacular translation came in the 19th century from a man known as Abu Rumi, who died in 1819. Haile Selassie later sponsored Amharic translations, one in 1935 and another in 1960-1961. Today sermons are usually delivered in the local language.

  The church's canon has 81 books. The Old Testament section includes Jubilees, Enoch and three books of Meqabyan. Its New Testament adds four books called Sinodos, two called Covenant, and one named Ethiopic Clement.

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