Schism of EOTC Bishop in Oromia Region of Ethiopia; Coptic Orthodox Church response

[dzheremi]

I suppose with much of the news coming out of Ethiopia these days being on the trouble with Tigray, we're bound to miss some things as laypeople in her sister churches, but I was still shocked to learn yesterday that about a month ago, a bishop within the EOTC in the Oromia region of Ethiopia went into schism by attempting to elevate himself to 'Patriarch of Oromia', a position which obviously does not exist (the EOTC Patriarch is HH Abune Matthias, period), and moreover could not exist because Oromia is not a separate country. This is, as far as I'm concerned, one step away from the dreaded heresy of ethnophyletism that has plagued our EO friends in the past (the only reason I'm even writing 'one step away' is because I don't know anything about the ethnic background of the renegade bishop in question, so I don't know if he is an ethnic Oromo or not). Ethiopia itself as a country may arrange its regions according to their primary ethnic makeup (e.g., Tigray from the Tigrayans, Oromia from the Oromo, Afar from the Afar, etc.), but the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is a fittingly 'supra-ethnic' institution, embracing every people from the Semites of the highlands, to the Cushites of the south and east (the Oromo themselves being the largest single group), to the Omotic and other peoples of the south like the Dorze and many others. So this is distressing, and certainly not something that the EOTC or Ethiopia more generally needs on its plate right now (or ever; Lord have mercy).

Obviously HH Abune Matthias and all others within the EOTC who are not among those who conspired to hold this 'Oromia Holy Synod' which announced this phony elevation in the first place completely reject this action (HH already summoned bishops from the around the world to discuss this when it originally happened, back in January). In addition, here is the official statement of the Coptic Orthodox Church concerning this situation:

May the Holy Trinity protect our bishops in every place within the holy Orthodox Church of God, and may schisms cease and those who precipitate them renounce their evil works and return in obedience, with a spirit of repentance.

 

[archer75]

I was waiting for you to weigh in on this. Sad, and worse.

 

[archer75]

With us, in the Western Hemisphere, there are two ethnic phenomena.

1) Parishes now or formerly consisting of immigrants from the same area, naturally, tend to keep the traditions from those areas. The Romanians do things a little different from the Greeks and so on. This is entirely inoffensive. I used to go to a parish that was unusually mixed. Some stuff (I mean para-liturgical stuff: birthday things, what the family does for a memorial service, all that) is done in a Romanian way, sometimes in a Russian way. It was clearly understood there are different ways of doing things. As far as I know, this is main form of "ethnic" stuff, and it's inoffensive.

2) Actual ethnophyletism. You hear tales of older people saying to the dark-skinned African visitor, or the Greek, or anglophone type, "Why are you here? This is a Russian church!" I don't think this happens all THAT often, but I may be wrong, and it is very memorable when it does.

Part of the trouble is that, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolutions and Civil War, a lot of emigres identified Orthodoxy (their flavor) with "being Russian." They didn't generate this: it existed even in the tsarist days. Sometimes there's just a hint of it, sometimes it's on the unpleasant side.