Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church
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The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church is an Oriental Orthodox church. It was formerly a part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, its autocephaly reluctantly recognized by the Ethiopian Patriarchate after Eritrea gained its independence in 1993.
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Origins
Tewahedo (Ge'ez ተዋሕዶ tawāhidō) is a Ge'ez word meaning "being made one"; it is related to the Arabic word توحيد tawhid, meaning "monotheism", or more literally "unification". This refers to the Oriental Orthodox belief in the one single unique Nature of Christ (ie, a belief that a complete, natural union of the Divine and Human Natures into One is self-evident in order to accomplish the divine salvation of humankind), as opposed to the "two Natures of Christ" belief (unmixed, separated Divine and Human Natures, called the Hypostatic Union) promoted by today's Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Henoticon [1]: the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, and many others, all refused to accept the "two natures" doctrine decreed by the Byzantine Emperor Marcian's Council of Chalcedon in 451, thus separating them from the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, who themselves separated from one another later in the East-West Schism (1054). The Oriental Orthodox Churches, which today include the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Malankara Orthodox Church of India, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, are referred to as "Non-Chalcedonian", and, sometimes by outsiders as "monophysite" (meaning "One Nature", in reference to Christ; a rough translation of the name Tewahido). However, these Churches themselves describe their Christology as miaphysite.
The Ethiopian Church claims its origins from Philip the Evangelist (Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 8). It became the established church of the Ethiopian Axumite Kingdom under king Ezana in the 4th century through the efforts of a Syrian Greek named Frumentius, known in Ethiopia as Abba Selama, Kesaté Birhan ("Father of Peace, Revealer of Light"). As a boy, Frumentius had been shipwrecked with his brother Aedesius on the Eritrean coast. The brothers managed to be brought to the royal court, where they rose to positions of influence and converted Emperor Ezana to Christianity, causing him to be baptised. Ezana sent Frumentius to Alexandria to ask the Patriarch, St. Athanasius, to appoint a bishop for Ethiopia. Athanasius appointed Frumentius himself, who returned to Ethiopia as Bishop with the name of Abune Selama. For centuries afterward, the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria always named a Copt (an Egyptian) to be Abuna or Archbishop of the Ethiopian Church.
Jesuit interim
Little else is known of church history down to the period of Jesuit influence, which broke the connection with Egypt. Union with the Coptic Church continued after the Arab conquest in Egypt.
Abu Saleh records in the 12th century that the patriarch always sent letters twice a year to the kings of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Nubia, until Al Hakim stopped the practice. Cyril, 67th patriarch, sent Severus as bishop, with orders to put down polygamy and to enforce observance of canonical consecration for all churches. These examples show the close relations of the two churches concurrent with the Middle Ages. But early in the 16th century the church was brought under the influence of a Portuguese mission.
In 1439, in the reign of Zara Yaqob, a religious discussion between Abba Giorgis and a French visitor had led to the dispatch of an embassy from Ethiopia to the Vatican; but the initiative in the Roman Catholic missions to Ethiopia was taken, not by Rome, but by Portugal, as an incident in the struggle with the Muslim Ottoman Empire and Sultanate of Adal for the command of the trade route to India by the Red Sea.
In 1507 Matthew, or Matheus, an Armenian, had been sent as Ethiopian envoy to Portugal to ask aid against Adal. In 1520 an embassy under Dom Rodrigo de Lima landed in Ethiopia (by which time Adal had been remobilized under Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi). An interesting account of the Portuguese mission, which remained for several years, was written by Francisco Alvarez, the chaplain.
Later, Ignatius Loyola wished to essay the task of conversion, but was forbidden. Instead, the pope sent out Joao Nunez Barreto as patriarch of the East Indies, with Andre de Oviedo as bishop; and from Goa envoys went to Ethiopia, followed by Oviedo himself, to secure the king's adherence to Rome. After repeated failures some measure of success was achieved under Emperor Susenyos, but not until 1624 did the Emperor make formal submission to the pope. Susenyos made Roman Catholicism the official state religion but was met with heavy resistance by his subjects and eventually had to abdicate in 1632 to his son, Fasilides, who promptly returned the state religion to Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity. He then expelled the Jesuits in 1633, and in 1665, Fasilides ordered that all Jesuit books (the Books of the Franks) be burned.
Current History
Although the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was granted autocephaly by the pope of Coptic Christianity in 1950, the church had no say in the autocephaly of its integral Eritrean diocese due to the appeal of the Eritrean government to the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate for Eritrean Orthodox autocephaly. Tensions were and remain high between the two churches. Nonetheless, the three Churches remain in full communion with one another and with the other Churches of the Oriental Orthodox communion.
HG Bishop Athnateous is Bishop for Eritreans living in Europe, and HG Bishop Shenouda is Bishop for Eritreans living in the USA and Canada as of August 2005.
In August 2005, the Patriarch of Orthodox Tewahdo Church of Eritrea, H.H. Abune Antonios, was confined to a strictly ceremonial role while administration of the church was taken over by a government appointed layperson, Mr. Yoftahe Dimetros[citation needed]. According to reports the Patriarch fell out of favour for resisting government interference in church affairs. It has also been rumored that the Eritrean government had requested that Pope Shenouda recognize a replacement of Patrarch Antonios, but that the Pope had refused to do so, and had threatened to publicly denounce any such move.[citation needed] The government then refrained for a time from deposing the Patriarch, and limited itself to assigning him to a merely ceremonial role.
However, in a letter dated 2006-01-13 Patriarch Antonios was informed that following several secret sessions of the church's Holy Synod, he had been formally deposed. In a written response that was widely published the Patriarch rejected the grounds of his dismissal, questioned its legitimacy, and excommunicated two signatories to the 13 January letter , including Yoftahe Dimetros, who the Patriarch identified as being responsible for the church's recent upheavals. Patriarch Antonios also appealed his case to the Council of the Monasteries of the Eritrean Orthodox Church and to The Egyptian Orthodox Church.
Abune Antonios was elected on 2004-03-05, and enthroned as the third Patriarch of Orthodox Tewahedo Church of Eritrea, on 2004-04-24. It is to be remembered Pope Shenouda III presided at the consecration and enthronement in Asmara, together with the Holy Synod of the Eritrean Orthodox Church and a Coptic Orthodox Delegation that accompanied him.
The first Patriarch of Eritrea was the very elderly Abune Phillipos who died in 2004 and was succeeded by Abune Yacob. Both the first two Patriarchs of Eritrea were originally Archbishops of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and in fact Abune Yacob had been Patriarchal locum tenens (acting Patriarch) during the period between the abdication of Patriarch Abune Merkorios and the election of Patriarch Abune Paulos of Ethiopia. The reign of Abune Yacob as Patriarch of Eritrea was very brief, and he was succeeded by Abune Antonios, the first Patriarch of Eritrea who was not previously a bishop in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Abune Antonios was succeeded by Abune Dioskoros.
Distinctive traits
Biblical canon
The Canon of the Tewahedo Church is looser than for most other traditional Christian groups. The Eritrean and Ethiopian "narrow" Old Testament Canon includes the books found in the Septuagint accepted by the Orthodox plus Enoch, Jubilees, 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras, 3 books of Maccabees, and Psalm 151. However, their three books of the Maccabees are identical in title only, and quite different in content from those of the other Christian churches which include them. The order of the other books is somewhat different from other groups', as well. This Church also has a "broader canon" that includes more books.
Language
The divine services of the Eritrean Church are celebrated in the Ge'ez language, which has been the language of the Church at least since the arrival of the Nine Saints (Abba Pantelewon, Abba Gerima (Issac, or Yeshaq), Abba Aftse, Abba Guba, Abba Alef, Abba Yem’ata, Abba Liqanos, and Abba Sehma), who fled persecution by the Byzantine Emperor after the Council of Chalcedon (451). The Septuagint version was translated into Ge'ez. Sermons are delivered in the local language.
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Categories
Articles with unsourced statements | Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church | Christian denominations | Oriental Orthodoxy | Religion in Eritrea