Addis Journal — The Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is set to hold an emergency meeting Monday, Addis Neger reported.

[ER sources say that Azeb Mesfin, Meles Zenawi’s wife, is backing the move by the Synod to strip most of Aba Gebremedhin’s authority (formerly known as Aba Paulos).]

The Synod is expected to look at recent actions taken by Patriarch, Abune Pauols such as ‘disbanding the recently formed executive committee, suspending the bishop the Addis Ababa Dioceses and other unlawful hiring and dismissal of church leaders’.

Chair of the Executive Committee, Abune Timoties was said to have written letter to the Federal Police asking special protection and safety to the session.

In the last Holy Synod session from May 14 -21, a landmark resolution affecting the administration of the Church endowment was passed. It was decided that the hitherto administrator, Abune Paulos, was to hand over administrative power to the committee made up of seven bishops. But the committee was disbanded by the Patriarch weeks later.