The most innovative aspect of this church is the provision in the Deggwā for the chanting of
qenē (poetic hymns) in the liturgy. There are several types of
qenē varying in number of lines from two to eleven, which one of the clergy usually improvises during the service in keeping with the spirit of
Psalms 149:1, "Sing unto the Lord a new song."
Until the Ethiopian revolution of 1974, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (the population of which was at least sixteen million in the early twenty-first century, according to the World Council of Churches) had been a national church defended by the political leader of the country. The monarch's reign had to be legitimized by the church at a religious ceremony where the new king swore allegiance to the church and committed himself to defend the Christian kingdom.
Early History
Historians disagree in assigning a date to the introduction of Christianity into Ethiopia, depending upon which Ethiopian king they think first adopted the faith. The conversion of the monarch, however, is a poor indication of the date of that introduction because not only was he by no means among the country's first converts, but also because until about 960, the monarchy changed hands so frequently that the ruler was not as consistently Christian as were certain segments of the population.
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