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Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

336 bytes removed, 02:51, November 30, 2012
updated: reposed patriarch, checked external links
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The '''Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church''' (in Amharic: ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is an [[Oriental Orthodox]] church in Ethiopia that was part of the [[Church of Alexandria (Coptic)|Coptic Church]] until 1959, when it was granted its own [[Patriarch]] by [[List of Coptic Popes|Coptic Pope]] Cyril VI. The only pre-colonial Christian church of [[Orthodoxy in Sub-Saharan Africa|Sub-Saharan Africa]], it claims a membership of close to 36 million people worldwide, and is thus the largest of all Oriental Orthodox churches. Its current head is most recent primate was His Holiness Abune P'awlos (born 1935, elected 1992), Patriarch of Addis Ababa and All Ethiopia, who reposed on August 18, 2012.
==Origins==
[[Image:AnastasiosAndPaulos.JPG|350px|thumb|Archbishop Anastasios of Albania visits with Abune P'awlos at the 2008 Central Committee meeting of the World Council of Churches]]
Patriarch Abune Tekle Haimanot proved to be much less accommodating to the Derg regime than it had expected, and so when the patriarch died in 1988 a new patriarch with closer ties to the regime was sought. Archbishop Abune Merqoriyos of Gonder, a member of the Derg-era Ethiopian Parliament, was therefore elected and enthroned as patriarch. Following the fall of the Derg regime in 1991 and the coming to power of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), Patriarch Abune Merqoriyos abdicated under governmental pressure and was replaced by the new government's candidate, Abune P'awlos. Patriarch Abune P'awlos left our vanishing world after a short illness on 15 August 2012, aged 76 years.
Following the enthronement of Abune P'awlos, Abune Merqoriyos fled abroad, first to Kenya and later to the United States, and announced that his abdication had been forced and that he was therefore the legitimate Patriarch of Ethiopia. Several other archbishops also went into exile in 1992 and together with Abune Merqoriyos and an Ethiopian Orthodox archbishop in the Caribbean formed the Holy Synod in Exile of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. This Synod in Exile is recognized by a number of Ethiopian Orthodox churches in Kenya, North America, Western Europe, and Australia that do not recognize the legitimacy of Abune P'awlos' election as patriarch.
==External links==
*[http://www.ethiopianorthodox.org/english/indexenglish.htm html General Information (1)]
*[http://www.eotc.faithweb.com/ General Information (2)]
*[http://www.eotcholysynod.org/ Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church in Exile] (Official Website)
*[http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/ethiochurch/ History of the Church]
*[http://www.tewahedo.org/ Tewahedo Songs & Records]
*[http://www.tewahedo.ch/ Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Switzerland]
*[http://pro.netnation.com/~national/azmariam/html/ Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Phoenix]
*[http://www.cnewa.org/ecc-bodypg-us.aspx?eccpageID=7 CNEWA - Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church] by Ronald Roberson, a Roman Catholic priest and scholar
*[http://www.tadias.com/?p=2452 History of Ethiopian Church Presence in Jerusalem]. Tadias Magazine, New York, August 16, 2008.
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