Religion Ethiopia

Haile Selassie, in his decree in 1944, prohibited missionaries from attempting to convert Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, and they had little success in proselytizing among Muslims.

During the time, the focus of most missionaries was on adherents of local religions–but still with only small success. In the 1960s, there were about 900 foreign missionaries in Ethiopia, however many were layperson.

One obstruction to the missions’ achievement in the rural areas may have been the imperial government’s insistence that Amharic be used as the medium of religious instruction except in the earliest stages of missionary activity.

There was also some proof that Ethiopian Orthodox priests residing outside the Amhara and Tigray heartland, as well as local administrators, were hostile to the missionaries.

In 1960, there were around 350,000 to 400,000 Protestants and Catholics in Ethiopia, out of which 36 percent were Catholics, divided among those adhering to the Ethiopian rite (about 60 percent) and those following the Latin rite.

Protestants were divided among a number of denominations. The largest, nearly equaling in number the size of the Catholic congregation, consisted of adherents to the Fellowship of:

• Evangelical Believers, the Ethiopian branch of the Sudan Interior Mission.
• The next largest group, about half as large, was the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, an entity that was promoted in cooperation by Scandinavian, German, and American Lutheran groups. This group claimed 400,000 members in 1970 and had an Ethiopian head.
• Numerous other groups, including the Bethel Evangelical Church and the Seventh-Day Adventists, had between 5,000 and 15,000 members each.

Many missionaries and other spectators claimed that the Marxist regime opposed missions and harassed the clergy and communicants. But the regime didn’t accept these accusations, its approach to those accused of not accepting its authority suggests that the mission churches and the regime had not reached a modus vivendi.

Islam arrived early in Ethiopia and majority of them are Sunnis, members of the largest sect of Islam. The Prophet himself taught his followers to respect and protect Ethiopians.

It was in 615 that Muhammed’s wife and cousin sought refuge at Axum with a number of other followers. This group was running away from Mecca’s leading tribe, the reactionary Kuraysh, who sent envoies to bring them back to Arabia, but the Negus Armah (a Christian king) protected them.

The arrival of immigrants and traders from Oman and Yemen during the following centuries enlarged the number of Muslims in Somalia, Eritrea and what is now Ethiopia.

In the boarder areas, Islamic law steadily took root, and by the 14th century it was the basis for the official juridical code of some regions. This mirrored political realities; most of the population of these eastern regions are now Muslims.

An imperial decree was issued in 1668 declaring that the Muslims and Jews of Gonder would henceforth have to live apart from Christians, but they were allowed to practice their religion freely in their own quarter.

Arguments over religious did not end there, but by the 19th century peaceful conditions were established which ultimately placed religious differences on a level secondary to peace and the popular interest.

Estimates vary, but from 25 to 32 percent of Ethiopia’s population is Muslim. Islam can no longer be measured a “minority” religion in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church was established by the monks Frumentius and Aedissius in the fourth century, during the reign of King Ezana of Axum, who converted to Christianity along with many of his people.

The Ethiopian Church exists today as self-governing, though it shares the same faith with Egypt’s Coptic Church. Until 1955, the Patriarch, a Coptic bishop, was sent from Alexandria.

The Council of Chalcedon separated the Coptic Church from the early Orthodox Church in AD 451 and the resound was doctrinal differences.

This issue revolved around the Person of Christ –obviously an important matter to Christians– which Orthodox Christians believe to have two distinct natures, one divine and one human, whereas the Monophysites believed Christ has a divine nature in which the human nature is contained.

During the time, most Christians were Orthodox; the Patriarchate of Rome was not yet alienated from the Eastern patriarchates. Coptic liturgical and sacramental practices stay similar to Orthodox ones, though the usage follows the ancient Alexandrian rite rather than the Byzantine rite.

The historical heritage and theology of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church tradition has had its own appealing developments. Many practices related to ancient Judaism –such as veneration for a representation of the Ark of the Covenant in every Church– are unique to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

On the altar of Ethiopian Orthodox churches there is a miniature facsimile of the tabot, one of the tablets of the Ark of the Covenant, which Ethiopians consider is preserved in their country. Ethiopian icons are colorful works of art showing traditional Orthodox saints, such as early martyrs.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church enjoyed a great deal of independence even when its Patriarch was sent from the Coptic Church of Egypt. Though the Ethiopian Orthodox Churches are not in direct canonical communion with the Orthodox of Greece, Constantinople, Russia, Ukraine, Antioch, and other jurisdictions, they are embraced fraternally to the extent that some of these churches allow their priests to administer the sacraments to the Ethiopian Orthodox.

Until 1974, The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, an independent Christian Church headed by a patriarch and closely related to the Coptic Church of Egypt, was the state church of Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the only pre-colonial Christian church of Sub-Saharan Africa, it has a membership of about 40 million people (45 million asserted by the Patriarch), mainly in Ethiopia, and is therefore the largest of all Oriental Orthodox churches. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Ethiopia).

About 58 percent of the people of Ethiopia are Christians, and Christianity is predominant in the highlands.

According to the latest 1994 national census, Islam is the second most widely practiced religion in Ethiopia after Christianity. Islam, which covers 32.8% of Ethiopian population, arrived in 615 in Ethiopia. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Ethiopia).

The south also encloses significant numbers of animists. Most of the Christian, member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, whose 4th Century beginnings came long before Europe accepted Christianity.

A small percentage of the people remain to traditional and other beliefs, including Judaism. A sect known as Beta Israel or Falashas, who practice a type of Judaism that most likely dates back to  contact with early Arabian Jews, were airlifted to Israel in 1991 during  Ethiopia’s civil war.

The Aksum Empire formally adopted Christianity in the 4th century. But it wasn’t before the 12th century that Christianity spread, along with the Christian state, to the highlands of central Ethiopia.

Amazing collection of rock-hewn churches dates from this era. They were linked with monks, who were considered on a level with saints and whose lives were often documented in writing. These monuments and manuscripts are still imperative today as the living memory of Ethiopia’s Christians.