Communique

Good News in Addis Ababa

The Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative's 2016 Consultation by John Coatney

As I walked into the Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 11, 2016, I could hardly mistake the group gathered there to register for this consultation. The Orthodox clergy in their variegated dress—priests and deacons from Ethiopia, India, and Kenya, alongside Coptic, Malankara, Ethiopian, and -Kenyan bishops, archbishops, and metropolitans—intermingled with an equal number of Evangelicals from many of the same places, called for immediate notice, even in the heart of Ethiopia, where clerical dress is ubiquitous.

The mood was joyous, excited, and hopeful (though a tad drowsy—travel to Ethiopia is, for most, an exhausting venture), and especially so for Dr. Tim Grass, the newly appointed Lausanne Facilitator for Lausanne-Orthodox Relations. Dr. Grass's tall figure could be easily spotted amid the registrants, welcoming all as they arrived, assuaging concerns, and encouraging participants to pray and prepare for a successful meeting, one that had been in the thoughts and prayers of many Ethiopian Orthodox and Evangelicals for some time.

An Evangelical-Orthodox Issue

The origins of the Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative (LOI) and the events that led to the 2016 consultation in Ethiopia demonstrate the power of truth spoken in love and gracefully received with a desire to come alongside others in love and mutual respect. The story was briefly recounted in "The Gospel Out of Egypt," in the September/October 2015 Touchstone, and it is told in detail in a book edited by the LOI staff, The Mission of God: Studies in Orthodox and Evangelical Mission (Regnum Press, and Wipf and Stock, 2015).

Briefly, Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, was invited to attend the 2010 congress of the Lausanne Movement in Cape Town, South Africa. There, the bishop made the acquaintance of Leslie Doll and Grace Mathews, who served with the Lausanne Movement, and he attended a session in which countries in Eastern Europe that are majority Orthodox were referred to as "unreached." This raised the issue of Orthodox-Evangelical relations for Bishop Angaelos, who had been concerned about a similar dynamic in Egypt.

Because of this concern, the bishop invited Mrs. Doll and Mrs. Mathews to meet with him in London in January 2011, and, along with the Reverend Canon Mark Oxbrow, discuss steps to reduce tensions between Orthodox and Evangelical Christians. A steering committee was formed, which met three times to make plans. Thus, in 2013, the first international consultation of the LOI was held in Albania, followed by another there in 2014.

In 2015, a third consultation was held in Helsinki, Finland. At that time, members of the LOI steering committee were approached by four Ethiopians, including the Reverend Daniel SeifeMichael Feleke of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC; tewahedo is a Ge'ez word that indicates the emphasis within the Ethiopian Church on the single human and divine nature of Christ), and Mr. Tekletsadik Belachew Nigru of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), who expressed a mutual interest and desire to host a regional LOI consultation in Ethiopia. As a result, plans were made for such a meeting, to be held in October 2016.

Over half of the attendees came from the host country, with further regional representation from Egypt, Eritrea, and Kenya. Others came from farther flung places, including India. Orthodox participants came from both the Oriental family of Churches and the Eastern Orthodox family of Churches. Evangelical participants came from the Mekane Yesus Church, the Kale Heywet Church, the Meserete Kristos Church, the Mulu Wongel Church, and the Anglican Church of Ethiopia, and there were Anglicans, Baptists, Independent Evangelicals, Methodists, and Presbyterians in attendance as well, from other parts of the region and the world.

Ethiopian Christianity

The history of Christianity in Ethiopia was presented to us in two introductory presentations on October 11, by Rev. Feleke and Dr. Eyasu Ferenj of the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church. Tradition claims that the queen of Sheba who visited Solomon (1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9) was in fact Queen Makeda of Axum (part of modern-day Ethiopia), who introduced Old Testament religion to her people in about 1000 b.c. This is the typical explanation for the Jewish customs that have been kept by the EOTC, including the liturgical role of the Ark of the Covenant (the Tabot), observance of the Sabbath, and certain dietary restrictions. Tradition also suggests that Christianity was introduced in Ethiopia by several means in the first century a.d.: the presence of Ethiopians at Pentecost, who returned to Ethiopia as Christians; a visit of the Evangelist Matthew to Ethiopia; and (most notably) the return of the Ethiopian eunuch baptized by Philip (Acts 8:27–39).

It is widely agreed, however, that the advent of Christianity as the state religion of the Axumite Empire came with Frumentius in the early fourth century. Frumentius was a Syrian, shipwrecked as a youth, who ended up in the court of the Axumite king Ezana. He taught the court about the Christian faith and was eventually sent by the king to Alexandria, Egypt, to inform the patriarch about the faith of the Axumite people. The patriarch (Athanasius) then ordained Frumentius to be the first bishop of Axum. Thus began the history of the Christian Church in Ethiopia and its close relations with Alexandria and the Coptic Church.

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