"Talk with Esther" (subscribe to usellassie (mailing list and chat - see hours and schedual). Free. Culture, cooking, history, books -- from sellassie.com. Amrahic/English
2004
Ethiopian Orthodoxysee more @ Sellassie WWW 13117
Notes"The Orthodox roots of Rastafari" paper is to be posted in 2004.
Guide to Ethiopia 1898323666
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Ethiopian Orthodox church is the oldest of all Eastern Christianities (although Armenians would argue it). There are at least three separate bodies of Tawahedo church with their own administrations in Addis Ababa, Jerusalem and North America (also in Jamaica and Europe). Sometimes Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church is called Copic, which is due to the fact that till the early fifties the head of Ethiopian church was selected in Alexandria, Egypt and this tradition was changed under Haile Sellassie. Before the revolution the numbers of Ethiopian clergy were big, since Orthodoxy is usually very vested in monastic order. They say that during the Red Terror (1975-78) over 200 thousands monks were executed in Ethiopia.The Orthodox monk is the best expression of the difference between Western and Eastern Christianity. Without too much theology to go through, it could be said that the Orthodoxy (monophisits) believes in one nature of Christ and it is fully divine. That doctrine results in this strong division between two realities -- Man's and God's. An Orthodox believer has to make a more radical choice since there is no middle ground between Hell and Heaven. Selecting God, a monk separates himself from the earthy matters, including social and political aspects of life (which is very different from the history of the Western Christianity which not only played active political role in shaping the fate of Europe, but perhaps was the teacher of all European politics).
The Orthodoxy was and is criticized for its apolitical stand, but the division between the social and divine is a deep-rooted concept, not a matter of strategy and tactics. The single nature of Christ is to emphasize that there are two world based on different priciples. The Orthodox iconography resisted the adaption of the art discoveries in realism, including the third dimension (perspective). The Orthodox painters thought that God's space and time are organized differently from our reality. The famous reversed perspective in icons (when the faraway figures are positioned on foreplan) manifests their understanding that in angelic reality "the far is close and the close is far"...
There are many consequences of this principle of divinity, including the concept of Trinity and even the philosophy of history. The separation of the Western Church and the Orthodoxy is not barely historical (thousand years of Bizantine Empire), it's a theological (I would say philosophical) thought. The Orthodoxy doesn't like the "evolution," which is accepted by the Western mind. There is very little "progress" embeded in Orthodox mentality. According to this viewpoint, we do not change little by little, but the contact with God is radical and asks for a full personal transformation. In a strange way there are similarities between the Orthodoxy and the Protestant Thought, when the Church is your "personal" (not social) institution.
Perhaps, because of the Orthodox attitude, Ethiopian Christianity never had full-scale holy wars and has to tendency to missionary. This Church coexisted with different rulers and regimes, lived next to Muslims and pagans and had no history of reformation or religious wars the Western Christianity went through.
See the "old" Religions page at Haile Sellassie WWW. Also, the interview by Dr. Charles Bryant-Abraham with Archdeacon Getahun Atlaw, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church, Jerusalem. Academics: Orthodoxy
Some Links
Athos, Monastic Center of Orthodoxy (Greek, English)Antiochian Orthodox Church of North America
PAGES: Culture Directory Addis Ababa Food Links
Since I do not belong to any church, my observations are of a personal nature. I was secretely baptized by my grandmothers with the silent approval of my parents, Soviet managers and members of the Communist Party. I went through many spritual transformations of my own (and I was a member of the Party myself). We do not practice religion, but I and Esther were married in Jerusalem by the Russian Mission archibishop father Grabbe and we biptized our children in the Orthodox churches in New York and New England. Both of them are in Catholic school and we talk about the matters of theology at home. If you noticed, I do avoid the word "religion"; my own experience tought me that God is not just a private matter, but always very personal relations. It has to be YOUR God in order to exist. All I can do for my children is to give them what I know, as much as I can, because there is a long road ahead of them in a search of God. I do not believe that God could be "found" -- it was said many times before that we can't know God, we are getting to know Him. If you read my pages on philosophy, you can see how far this search can take you. I do treasure the Church as much as I treasure my childhood memories, but the adult journey is a path of a single soul. They have to take it on their own, my children. God doesn't deal with masses or groups, even such a small one as family. I see it a sign of respect for a single soul, because it is one, too -- not many.Anatoly
xcerpted from Survival and Modernization, Ethiopia's Enigmatic Present : A Philosophical Discourse by Messay Kebede. Copyright © 1998. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Chapter Two: Myth and Power - Any inquiry into the survival of Ethiopia is confronted with the question of power.
Ethiopia survived for so long (it may be conjectured) thanks to a system of power suited to the purpose of survival. The system rested on three overlapping bases: the imperial throne, the Church, and the nobility. The present chapter studies their manifold interrelations with a view to showing how they worked towards preservation. The study refers exclusively to the history of imperial Ethiopia; post-imperial Ethiopia, which began with the overthrow of Haile Selassie in 1974, is not included in this chapter, partly because post-imperial Ethiopia functions on a different plane, partly because its capacity for survival is the least of the characteristics it shares with imperial Ethiopia.
State and Church - Scholars have more often than not passed contradictory judgments on the Ethiopian Church. In particular, the exact meaning of the unity of church and state has never been elucidated in a satisfactory manner. Yet the understanding of the place of ideology and of its precise nature depends on the way the connection between church and state is conceptualized.
A too common accusation against the Ethiopian Church focuses on its lack of missionary zeal, or on the ignorance and worldliness of its priesthood. Extreme conservatism, associated with a deep-seated interest in the traditional landholding system, is another frequent reproach. The great dependence of the church on the state is generally believed to be the prime cause of these defects.
Thus, the spread of Islam was not halted because "the Ethiopian church . . . did not rise to the great challenge presented it by the expansion, for missionary work has never been a conspicuous part of its vocation."1 Observing how ignorant-even illiterate and superstitious the priesthood was-one could not but regret that it "should exercise so much power and influence, "2 all the more so as the backwardness of Ethiopia can be attributed in large measure to the extreme conservatism of the priests, who "have always been bitterly opposed to progress and to innovations."3 Last but not least, inalienable church tenures granted by emperors and believed to amount to one-third of the cultivated land made the Church more a land owner than a religious propagator, and thereby a zealous defender of the traditional system of land ownership.
Convinced that the Church was oblivious to its religious duties because of its absolute reliance on the state, Markakis could find no other term to qualify the position of the church vis--vis the state than that of "appendage of the throne."4 Illustrative of the total subordination of the church to the state was the foreign origin of the head of the Ethiopian Church, the Abuna. Appointed by Alexandria, the Abuna was an Egyptian, totally alien to the language and local customs of the Ethiopian Church. Though highly revered, he "had little power, and in some cases was little more than the tool of the reigning king." The traditional link of the Ethiopian Church to Alexandria actually reinforced its dependence on the imperial throne. Since obtaining a new bishop always required impressive imperial gifts to the Egyptian Sultanate, it came more under the imperial privilege of foreign affairs than under a purely ecclesiastical jurisdiction. So obtained, the bishop could only be an instrument of emperors. The dependence became greater as the Ichege, who was the head of all monastic orders and really in charge of the Church, was himself "attached permanently to the imperial court, acting as the emperor's chief adviser and administrator for ecclesiastical affairs."
Unsurprisingly, in this climate of total subordination, an independent missionary spirit could not develop. As a result, "the evangelization of the Ethiopian region followed very closely the expansion of the Christian state." The defense of imperial political dominance and monarchical absolutism took precedence over Christian teachings, the conversion of pagans, and the instilling of moral standards. For this political role, the Church was rewarded with large estates, which only accentuated its conservatism and dependence. The decline of the evangelical spirit inevitably entailed the deterioration of belief. Hence the minimal fidelity of the priests to the principles of Christian life as well as their inability to advance their evangelical commitments and mystical drive.
All the same, these criticisms convey nothing peculiar about the Ethiopian Church. Churches in Europe have been accused of greater crimes, as witnessed by the various schisms which racked Western Christianity. Each of these schisms pretended to redress in one way or another the deterioration of Christian belief and its priesthood.
Still, according to some students of Ethiopia, the state was dependent on the Church rather than vice versa. Patrick Gilkes, for instance, states that "theocracy is perhaps the best word to use in describing the imperial system. Religion was a major pre-occupation of the Emperors and a main function for the throne was the support for the Church."8 Nor is the view of the Ethiopian state as an instrument of the Church mere hyperbole. No Emperor, however powerful, has succeeded in keeping his throne while being in conflict with the Ethiopian Church. Recall the abdication of Susenyos after his conversion to Catholicism. For the same reason Iyasu I was murdered in 1706, and Yostos deposed in 1716. More recently, Lij Iyasu lost the throne because of his alleged sympathy for Islam. Most scholars attribute the isolation of Tewodros and his defeat by the British to his conflict with the Church following his decision to confiscate some of its properties. The custom of inalienable imperial land grants to the Church further substantiates the view of the Ethiopian state as the instrument of the Ethiopian Church. So too does the decisive role of anointment: far from being a mere formality or a recognition of a right, it was believed to be the real instance of consecration, the moment the Emperor was invested with actual power.
--This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title
