Ethiopian Priests, Monks and Popes: Analyzing my Google search result.

by Gudu Kassa : gudukassa2@yahoo.com

If you Google 'ethiopian priests' or 'ethiopian monks' and 'ethiopian popes' you will definitely find different result. But, if you try to think beyond the codes, the search results reveal certain facts and can be considerd as a poll or survey results.

Search result for 'ethiopian priests'

Search results for 'ethiopian monks'

Search results for 'ethiopian popes'

or check this links

• You need to google "ethiopian priests" or click http://www.google.com/images um=1&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=647&tbs=isch:1&sa=1&q=ethiopian+priest&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
• Google "ethiopian monks" or click  http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=647&tbs=isch:1&sa=1&q=ethiopian+monks&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
• Google "ethiopian popes" or http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=647&tbs=isch:1&sa=1&q=ethiopian+popes&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

I was smart enough to understand the 'survey' result and figure out  the theological, physiological and psychological reasons behind the observed differences between our Ethiopian Orthodox Church Priests, Monks and Popes.

Do you observe anything? and speak your mind. I will give you a chance to think before posting my observation.

Discovering my God

By
Gudu Kassa ze Athenian
gudukassa2@yahoo.com

I met with a Pastor who is known for his love of exhaustive discussions and debates with unbelievers. I used that opportunity to settle the questions that bugs me for long time. I started with a worldly but logical question. Here is our discussion in brief

Q. Does God evolve?

Ans. Don’t be Silly! God is God

Q. How about gods. Do they evolve?

Ans. gods ….ye..no…er

Q. Pastor, I don’t mean to challenge you?

Ans. It’s okay! It’s okay to ask. I am here to answer your questions. The reason why I took some time is to give you simple answer for your difficult question.

Q. So, do gods evolve?

Ans. For evolution to exist there should be ‘Selection Pressure’ that forces the living entities to fight or compete for survival. It is when the only the fittest could survive that we can say there is evolution. But to apply this concept to gods is difficult. First it might be disrespectful for their subjects. Second it we don’t have enough information on their life style Third we don’t have any evidences to show that they living under an environment that puts selection pressure on them. So, the answer for your question is simply we don’t have enough information.

Q. So it is not Yes or No

Ans. You are right

Q. What if the environment they are living in is our mind.

Ans. What do you mean.

Q. For example Muslims believe that God is Allah. Christians believe God is God (Trinity)…all religions believe in some kind of God….

Ans. But there is one God.

Q. Yes for each of them there is one God.

Ans. No, there is only one God, and that is…

Q. Pastor, is Islams God that one God?

Ans. No, it is not, but keep this for yourself.

Q. Ok, so their God is god for you

Ans. Yes.

Q. They also say the same. I asked Hajii Hussien the same Question. He also believed that his God is the only true God. He also believed that other’s God is gods.

Ans. I don’t care about him. What are you trying to say?

Q. What I am trying to say is the status, existence and place of our God and Gods depends on how each of us thought to believe. For a Muslim who rose under Quran teaching, God is Allah and Christians’ and others God is god and nonexistent. Muslims’ God also lives in our mind as god. So we don’t care about it. Don’t you see how god and Gods live in our mind?

Ans. Yes my God can be god for others, but every knows the truth when Jesus comes

Q. Some say that gods can also be borne and die. What do you say?

Ans. Not our God

Q. eh…the same God can be god in a different mindset. Let’s take an example of a convert. Let’s say a Muslim is converted to Christian. Do you think he continue to believe that God is Allah.

Ans. No, he accepts Lord Jesus and find the truth. He doesn’t look back once he is saved.

Q. So, Allah will be changed to ‘god’ in his mind.

Ans. Yes

Q. Can’t we say Allah dies in the mind of a convert?

Ans. Er….not actually. It is not the Allah that dies but the imagination of the convert

Q. What do you mean?

Ans. gods are the product of misinformation and imagination. So when a convert knows the truth, he will realize that his ‘God’ was just imagination.

Q. So misinformation will kill imaginary gods

Ans. yes, I don’t know if you can it killing. It was not alive before.

Q. So can we say ‘’gods are imaginations that live in unenlightened or misinformed mind.

Ans. yes

Q. I can see the possibility of Evolution in gods.

Ans. How, I didn’t say that

Q. From our discussion we know where ‘gods’ live, it is in our mind. We also know their preferred environment to survive i.e uninformed mind. We also learned that when we learn and get informed, we are adding pressure to the God in our mind. Among the thousands of gods we know living in peoples mind, only few survive the test of time be considered God.

Ans. Y..e..s. We can say that but the only survivor will be our God.

Q. That is right for you Pastor!

Ans. But this is not evolution but enlightenment

Q. Yes we can call it that way. As long as we refer the same thing, naming is not a problem

Ans. My son, did you become an Atheist

At this moment the Pastor begin to Question the Questioner.

Ans.No, Atheism is a belief itself. It is a belief of not believing any god. In my opinion both theism and Atheism are both extreme and irrational beliefs. The problem with beliefs is they all are a product of human mind which are subject to error and evolution.

Q. So, what is your belief? You can’t live without believing something. To belief is part of who we are. We humans must belief in something.

Ans. Yes, to believe in something is our nature.

Q. So what do you believe?

Ans. I don’t have a name for my belief.

Q. Tell me, I can give you a name.

Ans. I believe in the existence of God. But I don’t accept and believe in the specifications and definitions of that are given by different religions. I believe religion and all known gods are the product of human mind and are subject to change and evolution. They evolve as we evolve. Ancient Greeks had a lot of gods but all vanish with the Greek civilization. The survival of our god is completely dependent upon our understanding and enlightenment [as you said before].

Q. So you don’t believe in our God

Ans. Yes, but I respect your belief

Q. But you believe in existence of God

Ans. Yes. But I don’t know any more. I don’t know if he is one or hundred. I don’t know if he is male or female. I don’t know if he is in heaven or in space. I know nothing but by the possibility of a great cause for the existence of the world I see. I call that possibility of our cause ‘God’. But I don’t know him, and I also don’t know if he knows me also.

Q. So, you believe in unknown God.

Ans. Yes. I think he enjoys being unknown.

Q. I know the name of your belief

Ans. I can’t wait to know it.

Q. it is called Agnosticism. You have some friends also. Do you want to know them?

Ans. Yes Pastor

Q. Read this verses of the bible  Act 17:-23

Who has the Keys to Heaven?

By Negassi Ameha


Jesus said to peter “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Since then the keys to the kingdom of heaven which is the authority of priesthood has been handed down from generation to generation seamlessly until the Great Schism of the church.

The Great Schism refers to the division between the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman) churches, and the period (1378 - 1417) during which the Western church had first two, and later three, lines of popes. It was also the beginning of many contenstious religious debates and controversies. Among which the the dispute on "who should be the legitimate heir of Saint Peter's Key (authority)?" was one of them.

As the split continues and many churches pop up, it become very difficult to keep track the "Key". No body seems to find an answer for the question "Who has the Key to heaven?". The only thing known about the key is that it can not be shared by all because most of them have almost opposite beliefs and practices.

Some of them [like Protestants] get frustrated by the never ending disputes and settle the issue by rejecting the premises and saying “The Keys are still on Jesus hand, and we all can have it as long as we believe in him [Jesus]".

The rest of us, Catholics & Orthodox Christians, decided to keep fighting the “good fight” until one of us "win". As years goes by, catholics seems to get the majority vote and get the international recognition. But we excommunicate them, disregard their claim and keep on fighting with the sister churches of the Eastern Orthodox Churchs.

In that period we, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, were living under the stewardship of Egypt Coptic Church. Then we begin questioning “Why are we living under the blessing of Egypt? Who gave saint Peter’s Key to Egypt? Why cann’t we have it? Are we different or less righteous than them? etc.... then we checked our history and we got many supportive evidences to claim our independence. We also find enough verses from Holy Bible supporting our claim of The Key. Finally, after long historic and theological fight with Egypt Coptic Church, we “won” and declare our independence on 13 of July 1948.





Like any other church, the next logical step is to claim that we have the Key for the gate of heaven i.e our priests have the same authority as saint Peter had in the first century.


Yes, why can't we claim the Key. We didn't do any special sin. Like any other churches, we have corrupt administration; Like other churches our leaders are more of worldly than spiritual. We all are the same. Even the sex scandals and money laundry shouldn't disqualify us from claiming the Saint Peter’s Key, as it didn't disqualify the Catholic Church from the claim.

We completed our independence by electing our own Patriarch Abune Tewoflos on May 9, 1971.The we officially joins the group of churches who claim to have Saint Pter's Key. The fight for identity and legitimacy stopped.

In 1992, new fight for legitimacy resumes in the church when Patriarch Abune Paulos become Ethiopian Patriarch by over throwing the seating Patriarch Abune Merkorios in a " spiritual coups d'état". The Quesion of Who has the the Key to heaven?" takes different form and becomes "Who is the legitimate patriarch?".

When Eritrea gets its independence from Ethiopia in 1992, and appoint another patriarch (Abune Dimertos) the question of legitimacy become complicated. Because, politics seems to decide who should have the Key and who shouldn't.

The fight for the Key is now with in ourselves. Abune Paulos keep pushing its claim by erecting a statue for himself. Abune Merkorios keeps defending his seat by strengthening his hold on North American Orthodox Believers.

Irrespective of the leaders political and tactical move, the church members keep digging deep to know who really has the Key. They want to know whose blessing really opens the gate of heaven, and whose curse really binds souls in Hades forever. They also want to know if the Key has extra copies that can be shared by patriarchs of the same belief or not?

The believers need evidence.But the evidence should not be only biblical but also ethical. These evidences however can hardly found in all groups.

It is no wonder if saint Peter's Key is lost or broken down to pieces as the then one church split to 30,000 churches, sects and denominations.

ለምን ጉዱ ካሣ

ጉዱ ካሣን የሚለው ስም እንግዳ አይደለም፡፡ ፍቅር አስከ መቃብር የተሰኘው ዝነኛ የአማርኛ ልብወለድ ገጸ ባሕርይ ስም ነው፡፡ ጉዱ ካሣን ከሌሎች ገጸ ባሕርይዎች ለየት የሚያደርገው ከወቅቱ የአስተሳሰብ እና ባሕል ወጣ ያሉ አስተያየቶች እና ራዕዮች የነበሩት ሰው በመሆኑ ነው፡፡ ሃሳቦች በወቅቱ ለነበረው ሕብረተሰብ በተለይ ለገዢው መደብ የማይዋጥ ቢሆንም ለምስኪኑ፤ የዚህን ዓለም ኑሮ ከታች ሆኖ ለሚመለከተው ለብዙኃኑ ግን ትርጉም የሚሰጥ ነበር፡፡ የፍቅር እስከመቃብሩ ጉዱ ካሣ በእና ዘመን ቢኖር ምን ያስብ እንደነበረ ሳስብ፤ እኔ ከማስበው ጋር ብዙ የሚስማማባቸው ነጥቦች እንዳሉ ስለገመትኩ ይህንን ድረ ገፅ ጉዱ ካሳ ላይቭ አልኩት፡፡ ጉዱ ካሣ በእኔ ውስጥ በሕይወት አለና፡፡

Ethiopian Orthodox Deacon: the younger the better.

By: Jose Costa (Argentina)

What a cute Ethiopian Deacon is he!! I like the way he look.

Among the unique traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC), the ages of Deacons is one. Kids above the age 7 are eligible to be Deacon as long as they know the basic church services and prayers. Their Virginity is their main qualifying criteria.

Virginity is a must. The informal rule is " The earlier is the better". That age is not only the age of innocence but also the age of rightousness. Who else can challenge their angel like innocence? It is a real blessing to be served by kids.

The problem comes as they get older. Like all human being, they begin to lose their innocence as they get closer and closer to the Fire age. At least they begin questioning the Hippocratic church administration, or begin complaining of the service schedules, or begin disrespecting the holy places etc... and if the worst comes they begin flirting and may lose their Virginity. Since Virginity is everything for Deacons, they will automatically lose their Deacon status and join the regular believers. It is just like falling from Grace. Disgraced Deacons will never be allowed to enter to the 'Holy of the Holy' section of the Church where the tabernacle is placed. They will also can not be Priest.

In place where getting such kids is rare [Eg. diaspora], adults who declare their virginity can be anointed to become Deacons or Priest. In a more liberal branches of EOTC such as EOTC-North America, MEN who are living with their first wife might be allowed to be Deacon and Priest.

One condition that any man (non virgin) can be a Deacon is if he is a convert. Converts are considered to be spiritual virgin after their baptism. The church history tells us that this happened in the early age of the church. Now a days, this happens rarely.

Abune Paulos of the Ethopian Orthodox Chruch erects statue for himself

From: Ethiopian Review
has just erected a massive statue for himself in the center of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. Aba Diabilos builds statue for himself — like Saddam Hussein — while ancient Ethiopian monasteries and churches are currently falling apart due to lack of funds. This is indeed one of the saddest moments in the history of Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

The following is a commentary regarding the statue and other developments in the Church
መንፈስ ቅዱስን ካሳዘኑ፥ ቅድስናን ከጣሉ ተሳዳቢዎች ጋር መወያየት አይጠቅምም more updates go to www.Ethiopianreview.com