Why should an Ethiopian Finance Minister in the time at our lord have come to Jerusalem to worship? (Acts 8: 27ff). On his return he was reading the Jewish prophet isaiah, presumably in Greek or Hebrew. Both these facts do not make sense if Ethiopia was a gentile country in the time of our Lord.

There are good reasons why the Ethiopia Orthodox Church comes more within the category of Jewish, rather than of Gentile Christianity. When even the Syrians and Egyptians were still Gentiles, Ethiopia seems to have already assimilated, at least in spots, the faith of Israel. If the local version of the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba has some historical basis as it seems to have, the faith of David mast have been transmitted to Ethiopia long with the wisdom of Solomon, in the person of young King Menelik who was born in Jerusalem to Solomon and Sheba and trained by the wise King of Israel.

We've no record that the Baptism of Queen Candace's finance minister soon led to the Christianization of the whole country but St. Frumentius at the end of the fourth century did accomplish that through his pupil King Abreha who was baptized in 330 AD.

This island of Christianity in Africa and the Middle East has preserved many ancient Christian writings in translation, created a rich liturgical corpus and produced its own system of ecclesiastical music. Her learned men studied Plato and Aristotle in translation until recently. She has a high record of spiritual achievement, and the Church has given birth to many saints throughout her long history.

Administrative Difficulties
In recent yearly she came more closely under foreign administration which was never very beneficial to her. Until about fifteen years ago, there was often only one bishop for the whole Ethiopia church, with her more than 12,000 churches and at least 150,000 ordained clergymen. And this single bishop was an Egyptian. Usually he never bothered to learn the language of the country or to celebrate the Eucharist according to the Ethiopian rite. He was the only one who had authority to ordain priests and deacons for the Churches. Since he rarely managed to visit a provincial centre most of the ordinations had to take place in Addis Ababa. Candidates for ordination had often to travel hundreds of miles by foot to get to Addis Ababa. Many of them never made it. Many lost their lives on the way back. The machinery for examining the qualifications of the candidates was either corrupt or inefficient, and the mass ordinations were carried out with little adherence to the traditional form of ordination in the Eastern Churches.

There appear to have been two temptations, one for the ordaining bishop and the other for the candidate for baptism. One has been told on good authority that the ordaining bishop received a fee of Eth. $ 3.00 per priest and $2.00 per deacon that he ordained. Earlier in Ethiopian history, I am told, it used to be one silver dollar per priest and a silver half-dollar per deacon. The foreign bishop often found this a welcome way to enrich the episcopal treasury, for the fee amounted to significant sums of money when the candidates appeared in their hundreds. On the other hand several parishes owned land of their own, which was given to them for the maintenance of their priests, and the candidate for ordination was often more interested in ploughing the land than in serving at the altar.

The result has been a two-fold drag on the progress of the Church. The vast number of illiterate, ill-qualified clergymen, whose moral standards were in many cases lower than that of a large portion of laymen, have made the leadership of the local parish not only a poor example for the Christian life, but even a socially reactionary force, interested only in the maintaining of their privileges and of their spiritual strangle-hold on the people. There have been many notable exceptions to this in the form of devout monks who cared not for land or property, but spent well their time in prayer and meditation.

On the other hand, the very low standards of the clergy have contributed to keep to keep the better type of youth away from the vocation to the ordained ministry in the Church. Today the young man with a modicum of education who would venture to accept ordination to the ministry is such a rare commodity, that one would not be able to find more than one or two priests with a secondary education among the 170000 ordained men in the Church.

The Emperor's leadership

His Imperial Majesty Haile Sellassie as the first Layman of the Church discovered the nature of the problem very early in his reign and as soon as he was able to liberate his country from the Fascist yoke in 1942, he began to lay plans for the renewal and revitalization of the Church as well. His was a three-fold program.

First he set out to liberate the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from outside administrative control, and started negotiations with the Coptic Church in Egypt to this end. His efforts were crowned with success an 1947 when five Ethiopian Archbishops were ordained by the Patriarch of Alexandria. One of them, Abuna Basilios, is at present the Patriarch of Ethiopia. Another, Archbishop Theophilos, is well-known to many World Council friends. Since 1947, there has been no resident Egyptian Archbishop in Ethiopia, and Abuna Theophilos has functioned as the representative of the Patriarch of Alexandria. In 1956, the Patriarch of Alexandria granted autocephaly to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Abuna Basilios was consecrated Patriarch. Today the Ethiopia Church has, under the Patriarch, fourteen archbishops and five suffragan bishops. Thus the diocesan organization of the church is being brought to a certain level of efficiency, though a great deal still remains to be done in this regard.

Secondly His Majesty, very early on his return to power, started the Holy Trinity Theological School, where educated clergymen could be trained for the Church. The institution was started in 1945 but it has failed to produce the Results anticipated. From the beginning, the institution lacked comprehension and clear goals. On the one hand an attempt was made to give a modern education to young monks, thereby hoping to form a nucleus of an educated clergy which could serve as a link between traditional culture and modern civilization. At the some time young boys of 7 to 14 years of age were also picked up and given an elementary education along with theological training. The two groups often sat down together in the same class for instruction, and this proved distracting to the monks and to the lads alike. The number of monks gradually dwindled, and the school soon became like any other elementary school run by the government. Later the Secondary section was added and four years later when the first group of students were graduated not one was found among them who chose a church vocation. The failure of the school may be attributed to many causes, chief among which are lack of leadership and the absence of clear goals. Neither the Ethiopian nor the Egyptian and Indian staff were of sufficient spiritual caliber to be able to guide the students towards an ecclesiastical vocation. The Holy Trinity Theological College was inaugurated In October 1960 with Bishop Terenik Polladian as Dean. The College is now in its second year and has a total enrollment of 14, but it lacks a library or a qualified faculty. It is hoped that when the College is integrated into the newly opened Haile Sellassie University, the standards would improve. There are two other Theological schools both of a very elementary standard, St. Paul's School in Qolfe near Addis Ababa and Ras Makonnen School in Harrar. The former has 109 students and the latter 42. But the level of attainment of these two institutions so far leaves a great deal to be desired. Leadership for the Church has failed to come out of the theological education programme within the country.

Thirdly, His Majesty also sent some good young men abroad for the study of theology. Most of them were sent either to the Universities of Athens and Saloniki in Greece or to the Greek Orthodox Academy in Halchi near Constantinople. These men had to spend two to three years mastering modern Greek, the medium of instruction in these institutions, and then spend several years finishing their theological studies. Several of these young men have now come back after ten to fifteen years of study abroad. Not one of them has so far chosen the ordained ministry as his vocation. Most of them are employed in academic Jobs in the Government institutions of learning. It is a sad fact that the leadership problem in the Ethiopian Church remains unameliorated by this scholarship programme.

Facts And Figures

The Church is not really very poor either financially or in terms of number of personnel. Official figures indicate the Church as owning 54,892.28 gashas of land, which works out to more than five million acres. Many western writers have stated without any basis in reality, that the Church owns a third of the land. Official figures work out to about 2.1% of the total land area of the country. 1960-61 figures indicate a total revenue of Eth. $ 2440, 174 .33 (about one million US dollars) from these lands. This is the tax collected by the Church on the land which is given to it tax-free. The land itself is enjoyed directly by the priests and their families. The tax works out to about 20 US cents per acre. The huge number of people employed by the Church however shows up the extreme inadequacy of this income to meet their needs. Official estimates indicate the Church as having 795 monasteries, 1032 chapels and 11,086 parish churches. The number of the Clergymen supported by the church is given as 169, 155 , though it may very well be much more. This number includes 56, 552 deacons and 39,040 choristers .

In addition to this enormous numbed of clergymen, the Church employs 394 office staff, 866 teachers, and 155 evangelists. 3717 priests are paid their salaries directly from the central office of the Church. The Church operates 539 primary schools (usually containing one or two grades each), with an enrollment of 39,918. Last year's budget shows the expenditure under these various head as follows:

Salary and allowances for priests Eth. $ 687,508.19
Salary for teachers 293,254.00
Administrative expenses for schools 65,409.00
Salary tor office staff 314,262.00
Office expenses 181,149.16
evangelistic Salaries 77,604.00
Pensions & Provident Fund 7.27|.00
Total Eth. $ 1,626,459.35

The very large number of priests have been very unevenly distributed One notices quickly that Shoa, Tigre, Wollo, Begemdir, Gojjam and Eritrea are well supplied with churches and priests. (The figures for Gojjam are incomplete) while Harrar, Sidamao, Arussi, Wollega, Ilubabor, Kaffa, Gemu-Gofa and Bale seem to be in short supply. The first group of provinces are almost entirely Christian, with the exception of Wollo and Eritrea where one finds a sizeable Moslem population. In the second group Harrar, arrusi, Kaffa, and Bale have very large Muslim populations, while all the provinces in the second group have a Christian minority, with very large pagan populations.

Foreign Missions In Ethiopia

A comprehensive picture of western missionary activity in Ethiopia day be relevant in this context. The Protestant missionary movements of the 18th and 19th centuries do not appear to have penetrated Ethiopia in their first wave of expansion. The Roman Catholics made several attempts since the 16th century to establish themselves in this country, but it was only in 1853 that they here able to find a permanent perch in the province of Kaffa. The first Protestant group to establish itself in Ethiopia was the Swedish Evangelical Mission (1904), and then came the United Presbyterians of America (1920) with a Medical mission in response to a call for help in connection with an epidemic in Dembi Dollo in South-West Ethiopia. The Seventh Day Adventists also arrived rather early (1922?). The Sudan Interior Mission, a faith- group also came in around this time.

After the Italian occupation and the Emperor's triumphant re-entry in 1941, many other missions began to come in. The Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society appears to have come in with the English troops in 1940.

Norwegian Lutherans, American Mennonites, American Baptists, Pentecostals from Denmark, Sweden and Finland, American Lutherans and others have come in since 1941. Catholic Relief Services (National Catholic Welfare Conference of the U.S.A.) and Lutheran World Federation have come in the last five years, the former with a surplus goods supply programme and the latter with a Broadcasting project of considerable magnitude.

The Sudan Interior mission seems to have the largest operation here with 40 stations in the country. They run 34 schools 4 hospitals, 2 leprosaria, 40 clinics, and have 254 missionaries in the field (152 men, 102 women).

They do not appear, however, to have been very successful in their evangelistic work. Except in Kambatta, where they seem to have entered easily into the fruit of other men's labors, they have no sizeable Ethiopian Congregation. The Congregation of about 40,000 in Kambatta is a thrilling story of the Holy Spirit working during the temporary absence of the missionaries during the Italian occupation and seemingly stopping His work soon after the missionaries came back in 1942.

The two other protestant missions which have significant operations are: The Swedish Evangelical Church and The American Mission (formerly U.P. - UPCUSA). The Swedish Evangelicals have already made progress in indigenization, and the Makane Yesus Church is led and administered mainly by Ethiopians. The Bethel Church started by the American Presbyterians is also on its way to indigenization. There have been some movements toward the amalgamation of the three groups (S.I.M., Swedish evangelicals and American Presbyterians) but S.I.M. does not appear very cooperative. Al1 the Ethiopian Protestant congregations are essentially fundamentalist in their theological orientation, but some are more so than others, and that makes it difficult for them to cooperate or merge. My own general impression is that the Lutheran and Reformed Churches in Ethiopia could do much more significant work among the pagans of Ethiopia if only they had more dynamic Ethiopian leaders. At present, the total psychological climate inside country and the level of commitment available among the protestant laymen of the Church both stand against the possibility of a significant missionary movement coming out of the Evangelical Churches in Ethiopia ln the immediate future.

Work Being Done By The Orthodox Church

If one listens to popular gossip in Ethiopia one gets the impression that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is corrupt, reactionary and inactive. Very strong feelings against the Bishops and clergy of the Orthodox Church are often expressed by the educated youth of Ethiopia. All the bishops are now paid handsome salaries by the Government, and many of them have sleek modern cars, all of which goes to enhance the anti-clerical feelings of the intelligentsia.

One thing must be made quite clear. I have had occasion to get to know all the twenty prelates of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from rather close range and have discussed church matters with many of them. There is not one among them who is not vitally concerned about the Church and its future. Everyone of them is scrupulously sincere in his Christian commitment, and nearly all on them are very devout Christians with a real disciple of prayer and devotion. I have no occasion to suspect any of them of corruption, loose living or personal extravagance. Those who too facilely compare the Ethiopian prelates with the Cardinals of Europe in the 16th century or the metropolitans of Russia in 1917 should keep these facts in mind.

It needs to be said however, that not one of the prelates have had the benefit of a modern education. The two Archbishops who speak some English, Abuna Theophilos and Abuna Petros, learned it on their own initiative from private tutors. This lack of modern education creates a large gap between them and the educated youth. It also makes it difficult for the ecclesiastical leaders to comprehend the nature of the sociological transformation taking place all over the world. They tend therefore to become opposed to all modernity, often dubbing the whole thing as demonic.

Yet these men hive laboured hard in their dioceses in the last five years and have gathered a commendable harvest. Archbishop Theophilos alone has baptized some 28,000 pagan people in the province of Bale. The young suffragan bishops in the small districts of Kambatta and Dembidollo have baptized two to five thousand pagans each in a period of less than two years. The missions can never produce a record like that. An ordinary priest in the province of Begemdir has baptized more than two thousand pagans in the last couple of years. In the province of Gemu-Gofa again, an ordinary priest has keen responsible, I am told, for the baptism of some 13,000 pagans. These are really impressive figures. The official statement given to me states that 950,000 pagans have been baptized by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church during the period of five years ending last September, and that 150 new schools have been opened for these new converts.

The Church must have a considerable sum of money invested in shares and securities. It has recently erected two good buildings in the city which brings the Church an annual income of more than U.S. 100,000.00. One of the common charges heard against the Church is that it does not invest its money in constructive projects for the renewal of the Church and the evangelization of the pagans, but that it acts like an investing firm, trying merely to accumulate wealth. There seems to be some truth in this statement.

The administrative machinery of the Chuch is in the hands of laymen who see their own role as purely administrators and who do not, unfortunately, have a deep commitment to the mission of the Church. This is one strong reason why any aid given from outside to the Ethiopian Church should not, under the present circumstances, be channeled through the existing administrative machinery.

Recent Evangelistic Efforts

Mention has already been made of the efforts made by local bishops to evangelize the pagans. These bishops have been consecrated in the last fifteen years, some of the most active among them in the last three years. One can anticipate a great deal of work being done by them in the coming years, though they would need significant outside help for this purpose.

The Holy trinity Theological School has prepared a certain number of evangelists during the past years. Last year a group of 40 evangelists were graduated after three years training, and these have now been deputed to the various provinces for preaching the gospel. The Church, I understand, has now undertaken an additional annual expenditure of Eth.$ 60,000 for the support of these men, and the evangelism is likely to expand considerably in budget for the coming years. The process of selection of candidates for training as evangelists and the nature of the training they get at the Trinity School are both far from satisfactory, and as I see it there is no other way except to have an efficient and well-rounded training institution independent of the Trinity School, with an efficient committee for the selection of the candidates. At present the number of evangelists working in the various provinces is given as follows:

Shoa 50
Harrar 2
Sidamo 9
Bale 3
Wollo 13
Wollega 15
Arussi 11
Kaffa 12
Tigre 16
Ilubabor 10
Gemu-Gofa 14

However these 155 evangelists have not in all cases been able to penetrate into the pagan areas, learn the pagan language and to preach the gospel to them in their own language.

A scheme for dealing with this problem of evangelists follows further down this report.

The Ethiopian Church, mainly through the dreams of Archbishop Theophilos, has been ambitious about foreign missions. At present missionaries of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church are working in Trinidad, British Guiana and New York city. The report from Trinidad indicates several Ethiopian Orthodox congregations and Churches existing in various parts of the island. Seventeen Ethiopia Churches are reported to exist in British Guiana. 243 new baptisms were reported last year. There are two congregations in New York City, which claim about a 1000 members (I have never seen more than 50 members present for Sunday worship in these new York Congregations). My own personal impression is that these missionary projects are very poorly administered, and that the Ethiopian Church at present lacks the leadership personnel necessary for the proper running of these foreign missions.

The Church has plans for starting orphanages and clinics and some of these may materialize by next year. A public library is also in the process of organization.

There is a great deal of real interest among the educated public about the mission on the Church, and if significant work is started generous contribution can be expected from the laity.

Lay organizations

There was in the past ten years a mushrooming of lay religious organizations with the Church, a clear indication of the great interest the laity really have in the mission of the Church. Most of those organizations have the strengthening of the spiritual life of the Church and the propagation of the gospel among the pagans as their main goals. They collect some money, assemble every week in some Church or School, and have someone to preach to them. The names of these lay organizations are impressive.

1. Sewasewa- Berhan (spreading of the Light) Society for the Preaching of the Gospel.
2. Haimanote Abew (The faith of our Fathers) College Students' Association.
3. Mahbere Hawariat (The Apostolic Society).
4. Yewengel Malektennoch Mahber (Apostles of the Gospel society)
5. Mahbere Sellassie (Holy Trinity Society).
6. Fenote Berhan (Dissemination of Light) Society.
7. Fere Haimanot (Fruit of the Faith) Society, and so on.

Some of these societies are extremely active. The Largest perhaps is the first-named one, with a total membership exceeding 50,000. Though only a few years old, it is spreading into the provinces, and offers great promise, because of its vigorous lay leadership (the moving force behind it is Colonel Taddesa Berru, the Assistant Commissioner of Police). They have started night schools and preachers' training courses, and with some help from outside the work is likely to increase quite considerably.

The Mahbere Hawariat functions mainly in Eritrea, and the moving spirit behind it is Melakeselam Dimitrios, the President of the Eritrean Parliament. They now operate six schools among the Kunama (pagan) people, and have also churches and flour milks attached to these schools. In one place they have acquired a tractor and are teaching the people better farming methods. A Kunama Project is appended.

Members of the other societies make occasional visits to pagan areas and often spend months preaching the gospel to them. The proper coordination and encouragement of the work of these lay societies is one of the most crying needs at present. The best plan for carrying out the mission to the pagans in Ethiopia would be to work through these societies which are all operating under the guidance of the diocesan bishops.

The local parishes are all supported by land endowments, and the whole idea of lay support of the Church is strange to the Ethiopian people. The way forward however clearly lies in the development of regular cash contributions from the laity for the support of the local parish, but it will be easier to begin at the point of soliciting lay contributions for special projects like the ones we will be detailing below.

Relationship with with other Churches

The whole history of the Ethiopian nation has been such that the average Ethiopian instinctively distrusts the foreigner. That has been the price of guarding their national freedom and territorial Integrity for the past three millennia.

In their own country, religion has been the bulwark of national solidarity. The ruling dynasties have come and gone, but the Church has abided through the centuries defending the nation against Muslim invaders and holding the nation together, and so the Church and the nation have become virtually identified in the minds of many people.

They look at the Western Churches in much the same way. The first contact they had with the west was with the Jesuit Missionaries in the 16th century who worked hand in glove with the Portuguese Government. Later it was the Italian nation that was found implicated as using the Catholic Missionaries in Ethiopia for their own political ends. Thus the missionary movement has become closely associated in the minds of the Ethiopian people with western colonialism.

The Protestant missionary movement has not also been found free from political interests. The Canadian and American Missionaries in the Kambatta area have been caught disseminating political disaffection among their converts against the ruling race. The motivation of the missionaries is understandable. Since more of these Kambatta Christians were first baptized by the Orthodox, there is a tendency for many of them to drift back to the Orthodox Church. This the sectarian missionaries consider ''backsliding'' and in order to stop this they have first to create an image of the Orthodox Church which reveals it as a demonic, non-Christian agency, and then to point out that the Orthodox Church is the Church of the Amhara (the race of the ruling Imperial Family) and therefore belongs to an alien race.

Very rarely have foreign missionaries been able to understand the Orthodox Church from the inside. They have brought with them the whole plethora of historically inherited western Protestant prejudices against the Catholic faith and Catholic practices, thus making it difficult from them to recognize the genuine spirituality and faith present in the life of the Orthodox Church.

The orthodox Church on the other hand, refuses to see the little bit of good work that has been done by Western Missionaries whom they accuse of not evangelizing the pagans and Muslims, but of simply engaging in "sheep-stealing". The charge is generally true though the intentions of the missionaries have been lofty and in most cases conversions from pagan tribes have been first initiated by the Orthodox. However, the Orthodox are also unable to understand the genuinely evangelical motivation of many of the foreign missionaries. Foreign missions operate some 20 hospitals, 100 clinics, 171 schools with some 22,000 students. In a small country like Ethiopia this is a major contribution to the total development of the country There are 835 foreign Missionaries in the country.

Under these conditions, it is not strange if the Ethiopian Church does not really trust any other Church. In fact she has ample reason not to trust her own Mother Church, the Church of Alexandria with whom her relations in the recent past have been far from pleasant.

This means that while she may be willing to accept financial and other aid from other Churches, she would not be willing to utilize foreign personnel in large numbers, at least for the time being. Perhaps doctors and nurses would be welcome. When the question of having a representative of the World Council in Addis Ababa came up, one of the instinctive reactions was "We hope it will not be a Western protestant".

This attitude would have to be broken quite slowly, and confidence will have to be built up stage by stage. It is obvious that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church will not be able to pass through the present crisis without losing many of its members to secularism unless concentrated efforts are soon made for the renewal of the Church. Such renewal can hardly take place without some new blood. Bat at the present time the system is not healthy enough to assimilate new blood. There has to be careful dieting in order to prepare it for much assimilation. The building of confidence will be a blow and delicate process.

The appended schemes are suggested as a kind of preliminary stage in this process of working towards the ecumenical reawakening of the Ethiopian Church. If the grace of God rests upon these projects, they may prepare the way for more extended operations.

Archbishop Theophilos, who took the initiative in requesting aid from the World Council of Churches had appointed a small committee of a few younger men to produce a list of the requirements of the Ethiopian church as they saw it. It must first be stated that this Committee has no official status in the Church, and I have been told by both the Patriarch and by several bishops that whatever requests came through Archbishop Theophilos have only the weight of his personnel opinion but no official status. Most of the bishops I have consulted do not concur in the views expressed by Abuna Theophilos and his committee.

Archbishop Theophilos' Committee requests:

aid (unspecified) to the three main Theological Schools
aid (unspecified) to the Theological School being started in the provinces.
aid (unspecified) to the elementary school started by the Church in Axum.
aide for erecting various houses in the various monasteries (unspecified)
aid for a library and museum.
scholarships for study abroad.
free gift of books, pictures and equipment to the various institutions, lay organizations and to the Sunday School Association.
aid for the work of the Church in Trinidad, Jamaica, etc.
aid for the Churches' Printing Press to expand its operations to work in English, French, Arabic, Swahili and so on.
opening of hospitals in various (unspecified) places
opening of clinics in all the educational institutions of the Church.
opening of hospitals in places where hot mineral water springs exist, especially in Ghion.
scholarships for students to go abroad to study medicine and nursing.
welfare homes for the poor and needy.

To the present writer, it is obvious that the youngsters who prepared this list neither understand the mission of the Church nor are genuinely in touch with their own people. Most of these suggestions lack the realism and detailed planning necessary for being included in the projects that I would recommend. This list of Abuna Theophilos' Committee would appear to have been composed with a view primarily of asking as much as possible in order to get at least a small amount and not with any genuine insight into the problems of their own Church.

The Difference in the Eritrean Situation

Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia in 1952, and has its own parliament, cabinet, and Chief Executive. The people of Eritrea are more used to modern civilization than their brothers of the interior Ethiopia. Being a maritime people who have had to struggle hard to live, they are more hardworking and efficient. Since Eritrea was under Italian and British colonial rule for several years, they have more developed administrative ability.

The Roman Catholic Church is flourishing in Eritrea. The Protestant missionary movement is on the downswing. As a most prominent official of the Eritrean government, himself a Roman Catholic, told me in Asmara, the foreigners would appear to be putting all the energy they used to spend for the political rule of the country into missions today. Several huge hospitals, convents, churches, and schools in Asmara which I saw gave me the impression that the Catholic undertaking in Eritrea is of rather vast proportions, way beyond the means in money and personnel, of the member Churches of the World Council.

The Ethiopian Church here, living under fierce competition from Islam and the Roman Catholic Church, has developed some vitality. This vitality is reflected more in the lay organization called the "Mahbaere Hawariat" (The Apostle's Association of the Ethiopia Orthodox Church) than in the Diocesan administration. The president of Mahbere Hawariat is an Ethiopian Orthodox Priest called Melake Selam Dimitrios. He happens also to be the President of the Eritrean Parliament, a considerably influential position in Eritrea today. This rather uneducated man's amazing devotion to Christ and organizing ability has made the work of this society an important element in the religious life of Eritrea.

In Asmara itself, the society has built up a large Church, a training school for priests, a very substantially constructed and reasonably well administered secondary School, a very modern printing press, a convent where young girls are trained to be Orthodox nuns for nursing aid and other services, and all these are going concerns. There are several schools and clinics built by the Mahbere Hawariat in other towns also.

The project of the society which however, should interest us most at this time would be their work among the pagans of the Sudan border. This is genuinely commendable evangelistic and world service work and deserves the full support of the SWME the DICARWS. A project for this is appended.

I have great confidence in the Mahbere Hawariat that they would use the aid given to them wisely. Melakeselam Dimitrios has a fine group of young men working with him as a team, including some members of the Parliament. If there was an organization like that in Addis Ababa for the whole of the Ethiopian Church, things would have been much easier.

Visit Of an Ecumenical delegation To Ethiopia In 1962

Some time in November or December this year an Ecumenical Delegation of some standing should pay a visit to the Ethiopian Church. I suggest that one senior person each from the DWME and DICARWS should go. At this stage it may be necessary for me to be present also for genuine cross-interpretation between our delegation and the Ethiopian Church. It would be most desirable that the delegation includes one prominent Church leader from the west (CWS?) and one Orthodox prelate preferably not from the Church of Greece. It should be led by someone else than me.

The delegation should meet some of the bishops and prominent laymen of the Ethiopian Church at dinner (it will be better for reasons of the fast of Advent that the visit comes in November rather than in December) and informally express to the Ethiopian Church the former's keen interest in the work being done by the latter, and also our willingness to help within our limits and according to their most crying needs.

This should be followed the next day by a public meeting in which the delegation members would address the laity of' the Church, assembled in the Ras Makonnen Hall of the University (which used to be the Imperial Palace) or at the Patriarchate Hall. The Bishops would be present at this meeting, but the main emphasis would be on lay responsibility.

At this meeting, the Patriarch's delegate will announce the names of the members of the Special Committee appointed by him to administer the projects to be begun with the Ecumenical aid, if the announcement has not already been made earlier. His Majesty the emperor also could be persuaded to send a message of good wishes and to announce a donation for the projects. We will seek to get newspaper and radio publicity for the projects, so that the lay people begin to contribute liberally towards the work of the Church.

Meanwhile we should also set up an office in Addis Ababa for the administration of the projects. The most appropriate man to run this office is Mr. Seifu Metaferia who is now studying in Paris. He is completely and selflessly committed to the mission of the Church, and is one of the very few who continue lo entertain a vocation for the ordained ministry of the Church. He is superbly suited for the job, but he may not finish his doctoral studies (on Islamics?) for another two years. We have to have someone in the meanwhile, and I am in touch with several prominent Ethiopian laymen who are on the look out for a suitable man for the temporary job. Whoever
he is, he will need to have a non-Ethiopian administrative assistant. We will need to find the funds for their salaries and office expenditure. The minimum salary for which you can get a qualified Ethiopian would be about U.S. $3,000 a year.

The official opening of the administrative office should also be done during the visit of the Ecumenical delegation. Until such time, our main correspondent from among the laity would be Ato Abbebe Kebbede, Chief Administrator, Haile Selassie I welfare foundation, Addis Ababa, who is a committed and dynamic young Christian layman from whom a great deal of real leadership can be expected.

The travel budget for the deligation would have to be adjusted by using staff and leaders who have to be in Africa around that time. We will need some money also for the dinner and a few gifts to the Church. A budget estimate can be prepared for this only after knowing staff movement plans for November and December in Africa, and the names of the members of the delegation.

II. A Training School For Evangelistic Workers

There are three institutions existing at the present time for this purpose, two in Addis Ababa and one in Harrar, but unfortunately these have not been found adequate to the task of training evangelists as mentioned earlier. In the first place, in the present set-up in Ethiopia, village workers cannot be trained in towns, for when they finish their training, they are found unwilling to go back to their villages. In the second place the students in these schools have been admitted without reference to those vocational interests, and therefore when they finish their training they go into secular vocations. Thirdly the present staff in these three schools are not of the type that can inspire students and inculcate in them a missionary vocation.

The proposed school for training Evangelistic workers will have the following characteristics:


it will be located in a rural area,
the building will be of the simple wattle and daub, or mud plaster variety, since it is found disadvantageous to train them in good stone buildings if one expects them to go back to the village on completion of their training. The pattern of the community Development centre near Mulu farm will be our guide in this regard.
the entire school will be a Christian residential community centred around the Chapel - except for a few visiting lecturers
the students will be chosen not from the candidates available around Addis Ababa, but from the various pagan tribes that are now being brought into the Christian Church.
These students will have a seventh-grade education wherever possible and will have some ability to understand the English language.
the medium of instruction in the school will be Amharic and English. One or two non-Ethiopian teachers could be used in the schools but most of the staff should be Ethiopians. The Ethiopian Staff are to be recruited from The Community Development training centre in Awasa and from the basic Education Teacher Training School In Debre Berhan.
The school will in its first stage, have accommodation for fifty resident students and four resident teachers, but the plans will be such that it can expand to a capacity of 250 students and 20 teachers as and when the need arises.
the curriculum of the school will include in addition to English, Amharic, Scriptural and Theological studies and general Knowledge, also gardening, agriculture, Cattle breeding, carpentry, Handicrafts and simple first aid and hygiene! A building plan and curriculum for this purpose is under preparation.
The administration of the school is to be under the supervision of the Special committee to be constituted for WCC projects in cooperation with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
The Committee will seek and find a suitable rural site preferably near Shashemanne, for the school and playgrounds, and seek local contributions, either from the Church or from individuals for the purchase of the land. The buildings and equipment are to be provided by the World Council of Churches. An estimate of cost and plan were under preparation in Ethiopia, but have yet to be received by me.
the running expenditure for the school is to be provided by the Division of Inter-church Aid and World Refugee Service of the World Council of Churches for a period of five years. The Special Committee and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church should during this period seek endowment and contributions for the running of the institution thereafter.
The special committee, in cooperation with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the World Council of Churches, will also make arrangements for the allocation of the trained candidates to work among their various tribes and to create the necessary means for their support.
The Special committee will be responsible for the administration of the school, and from the beginning seek to enlist the cooperation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and its lay members in the running of the school, so that within a period of five to eight years the school may no longer have to depend on outside aid for its regular administration.
The school, including the land, buildings and equipment, will remain the property of the Special Committee during the initial five years of its operations after which the special Committee may, if they so decide, transfer the ownership of the same either to an appropriate department of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church or to such other organization or society connected with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as the Special Committee may decide upon.

The exact cost of construction for the school is yet to be estimated. We can reasonably expect ten or twenty acres of land as a gift from someone. The buildings are to be simple and inexpensive; at the initial stage they need not cost any more than US $40,000, including two classrooms, hostel for fifty, a workshop, a clinic, a cattle shed and living quarters for four teachers. The furniture and equipment and transport would cost another $15000.

Ruining costs may be estimated as follows for the first year: -


Food for 50 students at U.S. $6.00 per student per month for ten months ... U.S.$ 3,000--
Salaries for director of school at U.S. $,200.00 per Month ... 2,400--
Salaries for three teachers at US $ 120.00 per month ... 4,320--
Cooks, office staff, guards etc. 10 at $30.00 per month ... 3,600--
Administrative expenses 1,200-
Total: US $ 14,500
Building and furniture: 55,000--
Total investment for first year. US $ 69,500

We need to take into account the fact that some assistance will have to be given to the Ethiopian Church towards the annual salaries of these men at least in the first few years after their training. Eventually the programme must become entirely supported by the Ethiopian Church. It is reasonable to expect some contributions from the Ethiopian Church to the running costs of the training programme after the second year, perhaps earlier.

III The Awama Project

The Awamas are a people who inhabit the north-west corner of the Province of Bale; south-east of Shashemanne, between the towns of Dodolla and Kokkosa. In 1957, three of the Bishops of the Ethiopian Church led by Abuna Theophilos, Archbishop of Harrar, within whose archdiocese Bale was at that time administered, made an Apostolic visit to the area and several thousands of Awama people were baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Archbishop preached every day, often for hours together, teaching the people the Christian faith, and spent hours every day baptizing those who believed. The number so baptized at that time has been recorded as 28,000.

Very little however has been done for these people since their baptism. The people have themselves out of their own initiative built five schools and four churches. The schools are now run by the Ministry of National community Development, but several of the Churches have no regular services due to financial difficulties. There is no school run by the Ministry of Education in the whole area. There is a Basic Education School in the town of Dodolla, but this benefits mostly the Amharas who form the majority of the town's population, and attracts very few of the Awamas. There is no clinic in the whole area.

The people are a simple pastoral people, very friendly and amenable to training. They inhabit some of the richest land in this agriculturally rich country, but they refuse to plough the land. They drink milk and eat meat but do not consume cereals or any vegetables. The root of the Ensete (mock banana) forms the major item of their food outside of milk. The women wear cowhides, but the men have recently taken to cotton clothes. The area has a mild or temperate climate. Communications are extremely poor. Ethiopia Air Lines operates a weekly flight (C-47 cargo plane) between Addis Ababa and Dodolla (one hour flying time), during dry weather. The land route via Assella or via Shashenanne is passable only in dry weather and that too by four-wheel drive.

I consider this as a priority project and the following items of aid for the benefit of these 28,000 newly baptized Christians are urgently required:

Clothing. As an immediate and tangible expression of the love of the World Christian Church to the newly baptized Awama Christians, a certain amount of clothing could be supplied to them. I would recommend that used clothing-- especially trousers, shirts, underwear, sweaters, dressers blouses and skirts, as well as children's clothing - could be usefully given to them. It is perpetual spring in Awama country and heavy clothing can be of little use. I suggest that a test shipment of used clothing for about 5000 people be arranged early.

It may turn out that new cotton material could be supplied to them at less expense than it takes to collect and transport used clothing from the USA. to Ethiopia. If this is the case, locally manufactured textiles could be acquired at reasonable prices and distributed to the Awama Christians. An estimated cost for distribution of new cotton material to 15000 people (3,000 men, 3,000 women and 9,000 children, is given below).

Men 3,000 X 4 = 12,000 metres
Women 3,000 X 6 = 18,000 metres
Children 9, 000 X 2 = 18,000 metres
Total: 48,000 metres
At 60 cents (US) a metre = US 28,800

This works out to US $1.92 per head, which as one can see is more than reasonable. If the material can be secured outside Ethiopia, customs free privileges can be applied for and obtained. Ordinary khaki material, or plain white broad- cloth or sheeting would be most suitable.

B. Teachers and Preachers. The present staff of ten teachers for the five schools as well as for the general instructional work of the newly baptized is woefully inadequate. At present there is an urgent need for a few teachers to be appointed immediately for teaching the masses in regular school work, literacy work and so on. These cannot come from outside the country, in fact even non-Awama Ethiopians are found incapable of attending to the task, for language reasons, as well as for reasons of racial incompatibility. There are people on the spot, who have been brought up as Christians who can be entrusted with this job, until the training institution is able to produce better men. I would recommend that six men be chosen by a Joint committee composed of His Grace Abuna Markarius , (archbishop of Bale) ) Fitawari Woldemichael Buyi, (the governor of the District) who is himself an Awama convert) and Ato Workneh WoldeDawit (Governor of the of Kokossa, the layman on whom a great deal if the. responsibility for administering all Agama projects must eventually rest).

The cost for the first year of this project can be estimated as follows:

Salary for 6 preachers at US $30 per head per month: 2160.00
Aid for Six houses for 6 preachers at US $150: 900.00
Six mules at US $40.00 each 240.00
administrative expenses & books: 360.00
Total: US $3660.00

C. Schools.
Material assistance has to be given for the construction of three schools in the villages of Amensho, Arenna Fatcha, and Afersa. The local people according to the subdistrict Governor will contribute all the labor, which is all they have. It may be possible to persuade either the Ministry of education or the ministry of National community Development to depute the teachers necessary for these schools, but we must for the first year at least have provision for six teachers for these schools. The cost for these these schools during the first year would be as follows:

3 mud-plaster school-buildings with corrugated iron roofing...at US $400.00 1200.00
Living quarters for six teachers at US $400 per house.. 2400.00
Salary for six teachers - 3 at $120 p.month , and 3 at $60 per month: 6480..00
Administrative expenses & books: 1440.00
Lower Grade staff 6 X $12. X 12 + 864.00
Non-recurring
Total US$ 12384.008784.00

D. A New Centre For the Awama Christians.
There is a real and deep need for the Awama Christians to possess a visible centre around which to focus their new lives and from which to receive guidance and direction for their lives. I suggest that in the place called Noreba, a community centre be started, where the following institutions be established:

a church, small, attractive and constructed as far as possible, from local materials.
a school also made of local materials with local labour, or alternatively with synthetic materials brought in from Addis Ababa, the construction work being done by a work camp to be specially organized for this purpose
a squall hospital better built with 20 beds, one doctor, two non-Ethiopian nurses, and three Ethiopian nurses
a model farm and cattle-breeding centre run entirely without motor machinery, but with tools which the Awama can afford to use themselves
a mobile audio-visual unit for religious and social education.

Budget estimates for the hospital, farm, and audiovisual unit have to be prepared very carefully later on. I hope that a European or American Church could be persuaded to donate the mobile audiovisual unit as well as the salary for the two or three men who will be required to operate it. I hope that a doctor and two nurses for the hospital could also be similarly donated. on some such basis. Personnel from Asian- African countries should be more welcome in this area, but a western doctor could also be acceptable. The budget for the church and the school is estimated as follows:

Materials & skilled laborer for church : US $ 2,000
Salary and allowances for a staff of seven who would also be used as preachers and teachers at US $30 per head per month: 2,520
School building, materials, & labour: 2,000 .00
Furniture & equipment : 600.00
Teachers, 4 at $120 per head: 5760.00
Lower staff 4 at $20 per head: 960.00
Administrative & Maintenance expenses: 720.00
Books & equipment: 500.00
Salary for a director of the unit at $240 a month: 2880.00
Secretary for the Director (to be donated?)
Office and residential unit for Director with furniture and equipment: 2600.00
Office expenses: (lower staff to be identical with some of church staff) 1,200.00
Total for the first year: $21,740.00

Comprehensive Budget for the Awama Project

Clothing: 28800.00
B. Teachers & Preachers: 3660.00
Schools: 12384.00
Centre: 21740.00
Total: 66584.00

These are not final estimates. The cost of clothign has to be accurately ascertained. If the amount suggested is difficult to raise, the quantity can be safely reduced.

So also in regard to the centre, accurate estimates will have to be formed after the general idea is approved and proper plans and estimates can be made by technically qualified people.

Clothing Teachers and Preachers, and schools should receive priority and the centre can possibly afford to wait for a couple of years.

Some question may be raised in the minds of the readers of this concerning the problem of perpetuating the old patterns of missionary work. The following points should be borne in mind in this connection:

a) This is not the starting of a new mission. We are dealing with the question of educating newly baptized Christians and building up the body of Christ.
b) The situation in Ethiopia vis-a-vis the Orthodox Church and the pagan inhabitants of the country is far from typical. This is a unique situation in which people are genuinely anxious to experience the new life and the work can be done only by Ethiopian personnel, with considerable financial and technical aid.
c) The project must go on to help the Ethiopian Church in re-constructing the whole life of the Awama community on the basis of the Gospel, and it is at this stage that the new missionary patterns will be brought into operation.

IV. The Kunama Project
The Kunams inhabit the northwestern boundary of Eritrea adjoining the Sudan. They call themselves the ''Bazen'' tribe, tracing their ancestry to king Bazen, who, according to tradition ruled Ethiopia at the time of our Lord's birth. Whether or not the tribe was at one time Christian, I have not been able to ascertain. At present they are pagan, i.e. neither Moslem nor Christian like their neighbors around them. Moslem incursions into the tribe are of recent origin, and their success so far is not very noticeable. The Kunamas usually go naked and the casualty rate or malaria infection is known to be frighteningly high. They eat rodents and reptiles according to their Eritrean neighbors, but no proper anthropological study of their living habits is known to me.

The Mahbere Hawariat began work among this tribe some eight years ago. They claim to have baptized some 5,000 of the Kunama people. (Perhaps the figures are closer to four thousand). I have not keen able to ascertain the total number of people ln the tribe, but it could be in the neighborhood of 30,000.

The Mahbere Hawariat, unlike the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in general, appears to have done more than just baptize people. Among other things, they have built six schools for them at the following places:

1. boshoka St. Paul's School 170 children
2. Shambukko Galila Mariam School 156 children
3. Wugaro King Bazen School 100 children
4. Sheshebya Sheshebya school 65 children
5. Tekombiya Tekombiya school 53 children
6. Sosenna Sosenna school 57 children
Total 601 children

These schools were started in grass huts, but the first three are already reported as housed in proper buildings.

They have also built four churches for the Kunamna people and some of these are quite substantial structures.

The Mahbere Hawariat operates a very modern printing press which prints Bibles and other religious literature as well as earns money for the Society through its Job work. The society has opened nine of the schools in the various towns of Eritrea, meriting the high praise of the Government. The Secondary school run by the society in Asmara has 450 students and is well housed and properly administered. One of the outstanding churches in Asmara, the Netsannat Medhane Alem, was built and is being run by the Society. I think this society can be trusted with the proper administration of any aid given to it, but to be on the safer side I have asked for a special committee to be constituted, which will be an official committee of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and will be responsible for administering whatever aid is given to the Eritrean Church through ICA sources. The Archbishop of Eritrea Abuna Athanasios, I have suggested, should be the Honorary President of this committee with Melake Selam Di Itros, the President of Mahbere Hawariat (he is also President of the Eritrean Parliament) should Be the chairman of the Committee, with two other priests and a few prominent laymen as members.

I would recommend the following items of immediate aid to the Ethiopian orthodox Church in Eritrea for the work along the Kunama people:
A Land-Rover or other suitable vehicle for desert travel, with a battery-operated loud-speaking equipment, a battery-operated movie projection unit, and a tape-recorder. We should also provide them with suitable films for religious instruction and instruction in public health and hygiene. Two Malaria prevention and cure clinics in the Kunama country with supply of medicine and the salary of two trained malaria prevention officers. Budget for this will have to be worked out in detail. Plans can be drawn up for this in consultation with the Department of Public Health in Addis Ababa if the basic plan is approved. Aid for the construction and furnishing of two residence units attached to two of the schools run by the Mahbere Hawariat for the Kunama people. A budget for this can be prepared by the Mahbere Hawariat if the basic plan is approved. the supply of used tropical clothing through CWS or LWF for: 1000 Kunamma men, 1000 Kunamma women, 1500 Kunamma children of varying ages. I have talked to the Chief executive of Eritrea about obtaining customs free privileges for goods and equipment shipped either to the Special Committee or the Mahbere Hawariat, and he has assured me that this can be arranged.

V. The Kambatta Project
The Kambattas like in the province of Shoa, about 200 miles south of Addis Ababa. The name is loosely applied to a group or at least four related groups, the Kambatta, the Gudela, the Endagenh and the Ennarea, comprising an estimated total of some 200,000 people.

Of these about 40,000 people are now under the care of the Sudan Interior mission. The circumstances under which this faith mission group came into leadership in this area have yet to be cleared up. There are two stories current. The first one is to the effect that the SIM missionaries came to the area in the thirties and were able to "save" some fifty of the pagan people. The western missionaries had to leave the country during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia during the years 1936-41, and when they came back in 1942, they were welcomed by a group of some 3000 Christians. The group of 50 had grown, according to this version into three thousand entirely by the preaching of a fww committed Kambatta people in the group. The missionaries took over in 1942, built Bible training schools for the new converts and in five years the church grew to 30000. Since 1947, growth has been slow, and present estimates are between 40 and 50 thousand. This is the SIM version of the story.

The other version, which comes from the Ethiopian orthodox Church, is that an Ethiopian Orthodox priest who ran away from Addis Ababa during the Fascist occupation, went and settled in Kambatta, and the Church there was developed by his patient and painstaking work. The version of the story as given to me by a responsible source in the Ethiopian Orthodox church, came to a dramatic end, where soon after the missionaries came back, the missionaries arranged for the murder of this priest, and the taking over of the converts by the Sudan Interior Mission. The story seems to have many apocryphal elements in it.

In any case, the Orthodox Church has now appointed a young bishop to be in charge of the Kambatta and neighbouring areas. Abuna Abraham is suffragan to the Patriarch Basilios, who is also the Archbishop of shoa. It is only little more than a year since Abuna Abraham went to Kambatta, and he has already done some commendable evangelistic work. 1600 pagans have been baptized in the short time that he has been there. He has three young trained lay evangelists working for him, though a proper programme of training for the new converts has yet to be set up.

I have been told by the Government authorities in Kambatta, that there is a request pending from Roman Catholic Missionaries to open forty-eight new schools in the Kambatta area, and the Government is likely to consider this request favorably since the Education ministry's budget is very strictly limited and they are anxious to have as many private schools opened as possible. The Roman Catholics on the other hand are anxious to have a proper foothold in Ethiopia and they consider the Kambatta most receptive to the Church.

One of the important needs in this area s for proper catechetical instruction for the new converts and for further evangelistic work among the large number of unbaptized pagans. The best approach to a solution of this problem seems to be to train a number of newly baptized Kambattan young men to do the job, and this can be done only through a residential school, training young Kambattans on a 2-year basis. The school will begin faith 25 students and will grow to 50 in the second year. The boys will have a fifth-grade education to start with, and will have a two-year course of academic, biblical and practical training. A Curriculum for this school is in the course of preparation, and an approximate budget for this project ls given below.

School-building, with land donated by the community US $ 4,000.00
Residential Building for 50 to be built in the first year with kitchen and dining room- 12,000.00
2 teachers at monthly salaries of $120.00 -- 120X12X = 2880.00
2 teachers at monthly salaries of $60.00 -- 60X12X2 = 1440.00
Director at $160.00 per month = 1920.00
Lower Staff 100X12 -- 1200
Administrative Expenses 100X 12 = 1200
Food for 25 at $12 per month 12X 25X 10 = 3000
Cooks and other staff 120X 12 = 1440
Clothing & other expenses for students 25 X 20 = 500
Total for first year..... US $ 29, 580.00

If the school can be kept going for about five years, sufficient funds can be collected from Ethiopia and other sources to endow the institution's annual recurring expenditure.

Another immediate need for this area is the supply of used cloth and milk powder to the new converts. I hope CWS or LWF can take up the responsibility for this.

Epilogue
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Most of these projects have been drawn up without technical help in preparing accurate estimates. This will have to be done after one finds out what the immediate response of the Churches to these projects is. The projects have all been discussed with the appropriate Ethiopian bishops and approved by them.

There is a tremendous amount more to be done for the proper training of' these new Christians in Ethiopia whose number is approaching one million. But on the one hand, we have to see what our available resources are before we embark on too large a venture. On the other hand, one has also to test the ability of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to utilize properly the aid received from sister churches. These limited projects are suggested for the initial stage as an experimental venture.

I suggest that we can talk about these matters informally here in the staff at an early date, and find time perhaps at Paris to find out a few key leaders from the Churches to see that their response is.

I have no doubt whatever that the time has come for the Ethiopian Orthodox church to took for a new blowing of the wind of the Spirit. May we all be used in His work of renewal in that ancient Church.