A Strom-encircled Hope of the Many

 

For Ethiopia, this year is 1999 which marks the closure of her twentieth century. The country is therefore closing her second millennium and it is preparing herself to welcome the third which is to begin with her twenty-first century. As part and parcel of the history, if not its main agent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is preparing on her part to very warmly and very colorfully welcome this third millennium of the land. The preparation has gone to the extent of her grassroot structure by actively involving parishes and Sunday schools as well.

 

This preparation to welcome a new millennium has created opportunities of discussion in various circles of society. Cafes, restaurants, streets, etc. have become for of this hot and lively discussion. It is a discussion on the issue between three friends that has given this writer the impetus to put his pen tp paper.

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Some days ago, three friends were sitting in a verandah of a certain café to have tea after lunch. As they were stirring their respective cups, a lottery vendor approached them hoping to sell a few of this tickets. One could fairly guess that the vendeor is in his late teens. He is closed with his surely only garment, locally known as Azene Gojjam, over his half-sleeved shirt and a green Jerrsy pair of shorts. The garment was so dirty that one could fairly conclude it is fated to be with the vendor round the clock for he probably has noting else for a change and even nowhere to put it. So, it has to be worn just always!!

 

All the three focused on him as he approached them. Then, one of the friends, while choosing the ticket he favours to buy, forwarded a question to the vendor. “By the way when did you come to the city and form where are you?” he asked?

 

”Sir, as my time of coming and my orgin does noting for you, you better buy me one and let me go,” the vendor reacted. “We will buy you; I am not joking,” said the person who forwarded the question while at the same time detaching two the tickets. His two friends took detaching two of the tickets. His two friends took tickets of their choice. Now, the vendor started to speak: “It is now two months since I have come here. I came from one of the Northern dioceses.

 

What else could I do other than moving to urban areas? I was studying Hymnology and I was about to join a Quinne poetry school. It really become so difficult to get a piece of Injera, the local bread, by begging in the name of the Holy Mother as the tradition has it. I couldn't blame the public. Though it has the goodwill to feed us and help us learn, it is now facing chronic shortages. It is because we failed to get nothing to bite there that I and other fellow disciples age fleeing to urban areas leaving their education aside. A few of us remained there for some more time since we found it very painful to leave yeneta /our Master/. When he himself became a victim, he could not sustain us. I, in due respect, kissed his knee and asked him to let me go with all his blessing. I tell you, as he caressed me with his paternal love, he was reduced to melancholy. It was touching. Anyways, for almost a year, I am wandering in urban areas forsaking my education and my lovely master because of back-breaking poverty. I hoped to earn some money with which to sustain my self and to either join a modern secular school or go back to Yenets. My hope is shattered. As I am informed by others, Yeneta himself has his school and has gone to an unknown place. As to me here, leave alone saving for my future, I am finding it really difficult to even afford my daily meals. I am utterly confused,” he said.

 

The three friends were entirely absorbed by the vendor. Though he thanked them and left, they knew that he has given them an assignment which they could not push a side. Each felt to his bones that indeed something needs to be done very, very urgently if this Church has to be saved. If the fountain where ministers are trained has to be protected, indeed something has to be done. Something has to be done before the fountain irrevocably dries up!

 

“What do you think shall be done?” one asked.

“A few years before, it was only few masters who were reported to have closed their assemblies (schools) to come to urban areas. Now a days, however, those who are fleeing to cities or towns are too many. That is really very risky!” the other underscored.

 

“So, what shall be done?” the third asked in a voice fainted by anger.

Their discussion continued seriously until they went back to their offices.

This is just one. Many others are also discussion about the chronic problems the churches, monasteries, nunneries and teaching centers in remote rural areas of the country are facing. The looting, burning, careless handling, etc. of the holy utensils, parchment writs, and other countless assets of ancient churches and monasteries has indeed become a point of discussion many circles. There are churches in rural areas that seem to be entirely forgotten or forsaken.

 

They are finding it hard to continue offering spiritual services because of chronic lack pf the means. The effort to disseminate the gospel is at risk in many of these churches due to lack of personnel and ministers. There are tireless agents of the devil who fight against them to make the matter even worse. These and other multi-faceted challenges of the church are instigating many to discuss with due concern.

 

For two solid millennia, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has been offering nobel services that are essential for her faithful and for the country at large. This has given her a key place in the history of the land. It was and is due to the diligent efforts of our mothers and fathers that the church managed to given such a service. Thanks to the protection of the Lord, though the church's history has been really full of testing times, it has successfully passed through it.

The fire that has been hitherto testing the golden church is also with us now.

 

If at all it has changed, it is merely in its form. Otherwise, it is with us to test the commitment of our generation to really demonstrate if we are indeed the true children of our fathers and mothers as we claim.

 

As we welcome the new millennium, therefore, we shall design feasible ways for our church to boost the services it has been offering by ransoming the time to pass the challenges posed. We shall discuss from the bottom of our hearts about the weaknesses vis-à-vis the achievements to come up with viable solutions that could enable us transcend our mother church as it was transcended unto us with all her vigor and sanctity. Each of us shall contribute his/her share for this sake. To this end, we all shall wake up. We shall discharge the responsibility expected of a child who adores the bossom of his/her mother. This shall start from looking very seriously into our own selves in light of the word of God . By reconciling ourselves with God through heartfelt repentance, we shall know our mother church in and our. If we are really grateful to her, we shall share her problems as per the special talents we have from the benevolent God . “What Shall We Do For Her?” is a question worth asking and timely enough taking in to account what it has been doing for us all directly or indirectly. The challenges posed really force us to seriously ponder over the measures to take individually and/or in unison.

 

Most masters are leaving their assemblies because of lack of the means to sustain themselves and their disciples. It is also common to see those scholars to come in groups of ten, twenty, etc. to report their challenges to the patriarchate office. The disciples are finding it hard to get their basic means of survival /food, clothing and shelter/ even in its under-rate form. Getting medication is entirely unthinkable.

 

Even if they succeed to attain scholarship passing through all sorts of challenges, there are no reliable opportunities for them to serve the church by sustainably earning their living. They have no guarantee of securing jobs at all. This is forcing them to turn their faces away to be engaged in daily labor or secular education. Though they grew in the bossom of the church since their infancy, their years of labour to educate themselves and serve the church is becoming only a fiasco as the challenge is forcing them to live for something else. Many are being devoid of the mental satisfaction they have been dreaming to enjoy by serving their mother church.

 

The problem is worse in remote rural areas. Many monasteries do not have a reliable means of income. Due to chronic lack of food and water, most of their monks and nuns are leaving their cells. The monasteries are therefore facing the risk of closure.

 

There are also churches in such remote areas of the country that have serious shortage of clergymen. Even if they have some, the ministers do not have a means of survival. They always cry for helping hands to visit them. They are forced to say their masses only intermittently because of lack of incense, candles, raisin, vestry and other essencial things. A good number of the churches are already closed because of absence of ministers and/or necessary facilities. It is really very difficult to say that the holy gospel is being disseminated well enough.

 

The holy untensils for the safety of which our forefathers have paid a lot of sacrifice are now under risk. In most churches, they are not preserved in a safe way. They are becoming helpless prays of rats. The weather also destroys its share when it gets such utensilsexposed toits heat and cold. They are also being burnt.down both intentionally and uninetetionally worst of all, no one seems to be there to protect them from looters who have vowed to kill two birds with one evil stone by selling away our dear assets to the infidel. They want to fill their pockets and impoverish. They want to fill their pockets and impoverish or, if possible, destroy our church at the same time.

 

Many ancient churches badly need maintainance. Since this is not done, their walls are cracking. It means we are also losing the priceless mural icons which testify our faith, our history, our hope and what not! In some parishes, it has become a must to preserve the Tablet of the Law in the premises of individuals since the churches are too dilapidated to serve as a safe haven of the Ark of the Taberancle. All these and other challenges are weakening the service mother church is called to offer.

 

Many churches are also having a row with different individuals who have illegally taken the lands the usufruct of which the church is permitted to enjoy by the law of the land. As this has effectively crippeled the parishes, they have failed to execute the various lofty responsibilities.

 

The participation of the laity is also restricted to paying the annual fee. A good number of them even faill to do this thereby forcing their church to persistently beg for alms. Only few care to follw if their parish council id discharging give suggestions nor make other contributions expected of them as a believer. Even when the election of the parish administerative body is held, many take it as if it was noe of their business. They do not exerviese their rights and responsiblites by electing and/ or beign elecltd

Many churches, particularly those in rural areras, do not still have Sunday schools. Even if there may be a few Sunday schools, hey do not get scholars to nututre them in the gospel. The attention so far given to the youth and children is far less than sufficient. This indicates that only little has been done to reliable transcend the church to the future generation. If children and the youth of the taithfull ate not cultivaqted in the cree, to whom is the church going to be handed over? This strategic lacuna risks not just the church but also the country at large since it makes the land devoid of committed and coutry-loving citizens in the future.

 

It is essencial to design timely stratwegies which have taken the order of the day into qaccount if this church has to pass through the sands of time with the bridge of the fa8th seeing no breakage at all. The church needas to evaluate ots efficiency vis-snis the challenges and changes of the time. It has to engage itself in constructive efforts of localizing the global and globalizing the local. The church structure must be timely and conducive enough to efficiently discharge the heavenly responsbiliy of preachin the Extrnal kingdom of peace. The church shall keep pace with the technological, cultural and other changes without compromising herself. It has sto actively participate in the social. Economic and political transformation of the society. Many,msny dould of remote areas are yet to be baptized.

 

Still many are crying for help since they ae being harasssedby the heathen. A lot shall be done in Africa, carribean and Latin America in particulasr and the rest of the world in general. Amny particularly Blacks ae eagerly waithing the church to embrace them into her loving bossom. The church shall evaluate globalization very seriously to see its pros and cons. This will help her to adjust herself accordingly especially in the effort to help weaker parties survive with their noble identities without being capszed in the ocean of the have's. it is this pre-informed readiness which will help herretain its faith, order and tradition unadulterated by glittering developments of this unreliable world.

 

Unfortunately, mother church is being eroded by those whom she herself has nurtutred with all her motherly treatment. They claim to have a funny mission of renewing the church which ransomed by the blood of Christ. Their war of erosion is being waghed against the holy mother tin all aspects.

 

Emboldened by the immebnse money they are getting from protestants and other ageold enemies of the church, they are working hard to spol its creed, erode its order and. At last, erase it from history. They leave no stone unturned to the materialization of their diabolic sheep-stealing campaign. Disguised in a believer's clothing, they are even infilterating into monasterires and nunneries. They are disturbing the serenity of monastic life there by seducing mothers and fathers to leave their cells of vow and commitment. These devil-sponsored agents are also looting, burning, etc. holy scriptures of the church.

 

In short, they are committing all sorts of sacrileges against the faith, hertitage and order of the church. They are busy infileterating into Sunday schools to spoil them thereby denying the church her fountain for nurturing the deacons, priests, bishops and other well- informed ministers who could be labeled as a two-edged sword, one who has the caliber to reconcile the spiritual and secular worlds.

 

They have also lured aome masters who have been morally and spiritually weakened by lack of carnal means of survival. They are lavishly distributing phamplets and are also publishing books that preach hersy under the quise of christianity. It is also their common act to release out-and-out secular songs in the name of hymns. They oreach as ifst.yared's divine-inspired hymn would lead to hell while their swornly earthly stuff would take one to heaven.

 

No one doubts the role sopirtual assemblies could play towards effectively serving the gospel provided they are closely monitored by fathers under the umbrella of the church. These days, however, such assemblies are mushrooming here and there with no autority to guide them. They simply go In their own myopic ways by just having the name of a certain saint as their identity. Ememies of the church are taking such unmonitored gatherings as fertile grounds to disseminate heresies.

 

Equallyserious is the threat Islamic Fundamentalism is posing on the church. We are witnessing its horrible terror in different parts of Ethiopia. Many believers have been mercilessly slaughtered, churches have been burnt into ashes, etc. by fanatics who feel to be serving God by heinously committing gross sins.

 

Our generation does not seem to have really understood the real sense of spirituality. Many of us are pleasing ourselves by only nominally claiming an Orthodox Tewahiso identyity. A good number of us seem to have also taken spirituality as a mark of backwardness. We are therefore far from the church of God.

 

The church shall also take HIV/AIDS very seriously since it is shortiliving many lives there by denying the country and the church the human power uir shall adore.

 

This is increasing dependency rate at an alarming rate. HIV/AIDS is making millions dependent by claiming the lives of their supporters or by making them bed-ridden thereby effectively denying the capacity to earn income. The moral decadence it brings is also very worse. As those living with the virus increasingl;y become victimized by ostracism, they lose hope. This makes HIV a challenge which the church could not disregard. After all, is she not entrusted by God to be a hope f the hopless?

 

As an ancient and historic establshemnt, the Ethiopian Orthodoc Tewhahido Church has for millennium made noble contributions in giving the country the pride it now has, in all its efforts, the church has been exposed which it managed to pass successfully thanks to the protection of God .

 

Now, there is are serioux questions for us all to ponder over. How prepared is our church to live up to the new millennium? Are we her faithful prepared well to play our indispensable roles to help the church give itrs services more vigorously by overcoming the multifaceted challenges? What shall each of us do to mother church and Ethiopia as loving childred? We request you our dear readers to make a lively discussion on the millennium issue vis-à-vis the church. Please forward your comments!! Let's talk about how our storm-encircled hope, our mother church, could overcome the challenges!

God bless us all !! Amen!!