Church Unearthed in Ethiopia Rewrites the History of Christianity in Africa

From Smithsonian-

In the dusty highlands of northern Ethiopia, a team of archaeologists recently uncovered the oldest known Christian church in sub-Saharan Africa, a find that sheds new light on one of the Old World’s most enigmatic kingdoms—and its surprisingly early conversion to Christianity.

An international assemblage of scientists discovered the church 30 miles northeast of Aksum, the capital of the Aksumite kingdom, a trading empire that emerged in the first century A.D. and would go on to dominate much of eastern Africa and western Arabia. Through radiocarbon dating artifacts uncovered at the church, the researchers concluded that the structure was built in the fourth century A.D., about the same time when Roman Emperor Constantine I legalized Christianty in 313 CE and then converted on his deathbed in 337 CE. The team detailed their findings in a paper published today in Antiquity.

More here-

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/church-unearthed-ethiopia-rewrites-history-christianity-africa-180973740/?fbclid=IwAR0xKqeT6zi-VaK1jzKWTdx85_LBc-3_FY0Bh9u9i0JZAeR0VC0Zv3C4sOU

Martin Luther’s ‘dream’ church? It wasn’t in Europe

From RNS-

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the launching of the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Commemorations will be held from Memphis to Mombasa to Mumbai to Munich.

Yet, most events and books on the Reformation explore it without any reference to African Christians.

This silence is profound, and I would like to break it by offering possible Ethiopian connections to Martin Luther and the Protestant movement.

Luther launched the Protestant Reformation in 1517, but he had begun that year fascinated with Ethiopian Christianity.

That will come as a surprise to many of today’s Christians, even scholars, who are accustomed to discussing Luther and the Protestant Reformation as solely European subjects.

But Luther esteemed the Church of Ethiopia because he thought Ethiopia was the first nation in history to convert to Christianity.

More here-

http://religionnews.com/2017/10/28/martin-luthers-dream-church-it-wasnt-in-europe/

The oldest, most complete Gospel book on Earth is in Ethiopia

From Aleteia-

The world’s earliest known illustrated copy of the Gospels, the Garima Gospels, has been saved for centuries in a remote Ethiopian monastery. 

The astonishingly beautiful Garima Gospels are named after a monk, Abba Garima, who arrived in Ethiopia in 494, from Constantinople. Legend says he copied the Gospels in just one day because God delayed the sun from setting so the monk could finish his work. The incredible relic has been kept ever since in the Garima Monastery, near Adwa, in northern Ethiopia at 7,000 feet.

The survival of the book is the more surprising considering all throughout its history, the country has suffered different invasions, and that, in 1930, a fire destroyed the monastery’s church. 

More here-

http://aleteia.org/2016/07/06/the-oldest-most-complete-bible-on-earth-is-in-ethiopia/?ru=e04bf1fda54c96b0e2e4932a8d655814

Archbishop Mouneer Anis Opens Ethiopia's First Anglican Theological College

From All Africa (Ethiopia)-

The first Anglican theological college in Ethiopia, named after Saint Frumentius, has been officially opened by the Archbishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Mouneer Anis. Ethiopia is part of Archbishop Mouneer's diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa.

For many years, St Matthew's Church in Addis Ababa was the only Anglican congregation in Ethiopia. But that changed with the arrival of large numbers of refugees arriving in the country seeking sanctuary from the protracted civil war in Sudan from the mid-1970s.

"Many of these new refugees were Anglican and they began churches in the refugee camps," the college said. "Later, Anglican churches were established in the villages of the Gambella region, in the west of Ethiopia.

More here-

http://allafrica.com/stories/201511270822.html

Anglican bishop expresses horror at ISIS killing of Ethiopian Christians

From ENS-

The Anglican bishop for Ethiopia has hailed as martyrs 28 Ethiopian Christians shot or beheaded in Libya by members of the terrorist group known as ISIS or ISIL.

LeMarquand is Anglican Area Bishop for the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Ethiopia) and Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa.

“It is too early to learn the names of these newest martyrs. It is also too early to know what churches they came from.” the bishop said.

“I have just learned the horrifying news that as many as twenty-eight Ethiopian Christians have been shot or beheaded in Libya by members of the terrorist group known as ISIS or ISIL. This alarming act of violence against those that ISIS calls ‘people of the cross’ comes just two months after twenty-one other Christians – twenty Egyptians and one Ghanian, were beheaded on a Libyan beach.” Bishop Grant LeMarquand said in a letter to be read in Ethopian churches and distributed overseas.

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2015/04/21/anglican-bishop-expresses-horror-at-isis-killing-of-ethiopian-christians/