Ethiopia Religion

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.

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