Ethiopian Church

Ethiopian Church

ETHIOPIAN CHURCH. The Ethiopian or Abyssinian church, on the Horn of Africa, is one of the five so-called monophysite Christian churches that reject the Council of Chalcedon (451) and its formula of faith. The church does not call itself monophysite but rather Tāwaḥedo (Unionite; also spelled Tewahedo), a word expressing the union in Christ of the human and divine natures, to distinguish itself from the Eastern Orthodox churches, which accept the formulas accepted at Chalcedon. For the Tāwaḥedo Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, both Nestorius and Eutyches are heretics. Although formally under the jurisdiction of the Coptic church of Alexandria until 1950, the Ethiopian Orthodox church has managed to retain its indigenous language, literature, art, and music. It expects its faithful to practice circumcision, observe the food prescriptions set forth in the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament), and honor Saturday as the Sabbath. The church has its own liturgy, including an horologion that contains the daily offices (initially for each of the twenty-four hours of the day), a missal of over fourteen anaphoras, the Deggwā (an antiphonary for each day of the year), doxologies (various collections of nagś hymns), and homiliaries in honor of the angels, saints, and martyrs. The most innovative aspect of this church is the provision in the Deggwā for the chanting of qenē (poetic hymns) in the liturgy.

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