Mekane Yesus Church
The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (English abbreviation: EECMY = E thiopian E vangelical C hurch M ekane Y esus) was founded in 1959.
history
The name "Mekane Yesus" comes from the Ethiopian-Orthodox church language, the old Ethiopian , and means translated into German: The place of Jesus .
The Mekane Yesus Church emerged from reform movements within the Orthodox Church and from the work of Lutheran missions from Sweden , Germany , Norway , Denmark and the USA . In 1975 she signed a cooperation agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover , in which both churches recognized each other as full partners, recognized each other's ordination and confirmed the pulpit and communion fellowship.
Under the communist military regime that had been in power since 1975 , the EEMYC, like other Ethiopian churches, was subjected to severe repression, including the confiscation and expropriation of church facilities and the arbitrary detention of employees. The General Secretary Gudina Tumsa was arrested and murdered on July 28, 1979.
At the beginning of 2013, the General Synod decided to end the partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Swedish Churches . The reason is the position of these churches in relation to the cohabitation of homosexual couples.
tasks
In addition to spiritual and theological tasks, medical care, training of craftsmen, irrigation, soil conservation and reforestation programs as well as famine relief are important areas of activity today.
organization
The Mekane Yesus Church is divided into 21 synods and two special organizations and has 6,644 congregations and 2,818 preaching places (as of 2009). A synod roughly corresponds to a larger regional Protestant church in Germany in terms of area and organizational structure.
Pastor Yonas Yigezu has been President of the Church since 2015 , and Berhanu Ofgaa has been General Secretary (since 2009).
The Mekane Yesus Church is a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Lutheran World Federation and the Reformed World Federation .
It currently has more than 5.8 million members.
literature
in order of appearance
- Olav Saeverås: On church-mission relations in Ethiopia 1944–1969. With special reference to the Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus and the Lutheran Missions (= Studia missionalia Upsaliensia, Vol. 27). Lunde Forlag, Uppsala 1974, ISBN 82-520-4616-9 .
- Gustav Arén: Evangelical pioneers in Ethiopia. Origins of the Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (= Studia missionalia Upsaliensia, vol. 32). Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsen (EFS), Uppsala 1978, ISBN 91-7080-364-1 .
- Øyvind M. Eide: Revolution and religion in Ethiopia. A study of church and politics with special reference to the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus 1974–1985 . Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsen (EFS), Uppsala 1996, ISBN 91-85424-46-3 .
- Johannes Launhardt: Evangelicals in Addis Ababa (1919–1991). With special reference to the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus and the Addis Ababa Synod . Lit, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7791-4 .
Web links
- Mekane Yesus Church website (en)
- Mekane Yesus Church on the WCC website
- Information about the Mekane Yesus Church on the website of the Berliner Missionswerk
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fields of activity
- ↑ presidents and general secretaries of ECMY
- ↑ Lutheran annual statistics ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 146 kB)
