In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the One God, Amen. This is a statement from the Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Since the national peace treaty was concluded, His Holiness the Patriarch has repeatedly asked to resolve the dispute between our church’s administrative structure and the Diocese of Tigray Region, which was interrupted during the war in the Tigray Region.
Despite repeated calls for peace and dialogue by the Holy Synod, blessed fathers and scholars in the region violated our structural organization and established the office of the Tigray Archdiocese. On July 6, 2023, 10 bishops announced in various media that a program had been arranged for their appointment. In response, the Holy Synod discussed the matter at its plenary session on June 29, 2023, and issued an official statement apologizing for the lack of structural communication and humanitarian support during the war.
In an effort to solve the problem, our church sent a peace envoy led by His Holiness the Patriarch to the region and donated Birr 20,000,000.00 (Twenty Million Birr) to be used for humanitarian aid. However, the main mission of the Peace Envoy was to discuss the agenda with blessed fathers in the region.
Following these developments, on July 13, 2023, an emergency meeting of the Holy Synod passed several resolutions in accordance with Article 19 Sub-Number 13 of our Church’s Constitution. The Holy Synod decided that the election of bishops scheduled for July 16 in the Tigray region does not respect our constitutional church and articles 37 and 38. It violates our church’s centrality, is inappropriate from a canonical perspective, harms our unity, and does not benefit those who have suffered property damage or seen their monasteries and churches destroyed.
The federal government and the temporary administration of the Tigray region have resolved to address this problem through dialogue. Our church has not stopped seeking peace, but it is unfortunate that this has not been successful. We call upon Honorable Federal Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed and Honorable Ato Getachew Reda, President of Tigray Region Provisional Administration, as well as officials of federal and regional governments to halt this unconstitutional election of bishops and support efforts to bring about peace through dialogue with government assistance.
We invite you to pray and stand by your church so that our unity may be preserved and our mother church’s call for peace may be heeded. May God bless Ethiopia and its people. Dedicated to God by Father Matthias I, Patriarch Archbishop of Ethiopia; Archbishop Zeaxum Wechige Mabere Tekle Religion; July 13, 2023; Addis Ababa; Ethiopia.
In unrelated development Reuters has reported that Egypt’s Sisi and Ethiopia’s PM have met in Cairo yesterday to discuss Sudan’s crisis and Ethiopian dam. That is encouraging news that the two countries are talking now face to face to sort things out about all issues between them in general and Sudan in particular. The facts are laid bare about the dam for everyone to see. There is no secret about it. The process of filling the dam has taken place twice already without affecting the flow of water reaching Egypt even by a single cup. Mother Nature has been doing the job herself by pouring torrential rain during the three months between June and September. To prove the Ethiopian people’s goodwill the scheduled filling of the dam is postponed until September. This is called bending backwards to make your neighbors feel at ease. This shows those glorious and generous people who produced us all have never been their intention to do harm to other nations. This meeting between the two leaders is great news and to hope for.