The fake patriarch in Ethiopia is facing the worst crisis since he took over the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church’s (EOTC) leadership at the barrel of the gun 19 years ago. According to reports reaching Ethiopian Review’s office this week, alms collected from churchgoers have declined considerably in the past few days.
The EOTC members have decided to stop giving money to the Church after learning about the statue that Aba Diabilos (Tagay Gebremedhin) erected for himself and that he bought a fleet of cars for his personal use at the cost of millions of birr.
Desperate for money, Tagay Gebremedhin’s Synod has ordered priests around the country to ask members of their congregations for emergency donations of 1000 birr per family.
Church members are refusing saying that they are not willing to give money to be used for erecting statues and buying cars for Tagay Gebremedhin.
If the alms boycott spreads through out the country, it could lead to a revolt by the priests themselves who will be left with no salary.
Tagay Gebremedhin loyalists are accusing Abune Samuel, who was arbitrarily ousted last year, of being behind the alms boycott. Abune Samuel has been under house arrest for several months following his ouster.
Ethiopian Orthodox Church is said to have over 40 million members. Its legitimate leadership is currently in exile following its overthrow by the Woyanne junta in 1991.
16 thoughts on “Ethiopian Orthodox Christians boycotting alms”
Woyanes have no shame. I would not be surprised if the priest imposter had gone back in history and picked a good representative of the religion into a sainthood, but nominating himslef to be a saint is funny at best.
alms money, food, or other donations given to the poor or needy; anything given as charity: The hands of the beggars were outstretched for alms.
sacrileges
1. the violation or profanation of anything sacred or held sacred.
2.
an instance of this.
3.
the stealing of anything consecrated to the service of God.
apostate 1.
a person who forsakes his religion, cause, party, etc.
blasphemy
1. impious utterance or action concerning god or sacred things.
2.
Judaism .
a.
an act of cursing or reviling God.
b.
pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) in the original, now forbidden manner instead of using a substitute pronunciation such as Adonai.
3.
Theology . the crime of assuming to oneself the rights or qualities of God.
4.
irreverent behavior toward anything held sacred, priceless, etc.: He uttered blasphemies against life itself.
heresy
1.opinion or doctrine at variance with the orthodox or accepted doctrine, esp. of a church or religious system.
2.
the maintaining of such an opinion or doctrine.
3.
the willful and persistent rejection of any article of faith by a baptized member of the church.
4.
any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs, customs, etc.
unorthodox opinion, especially in religious matters, agnosticism, apostasy, atheism, blasphemy, defection, disbelief, dissent, dissidence, divergence, error, fallacy, heterodoxy, iconoclasm, impiety, infidelity, misbelief, nonconformism, nonconformity, paganism, revisionism, schism, sectarianism, secularism, sin
abuse, cursing, cussing, desecration, execration, heresy, impiety, impiousness, imprecation, indignity, lewdness, profanation, profaneness, profanity, reviling, sacrilege , scoffing, scurrility, swearing, vituperation, anathema, ban, bane, blaspheming, blasphemy, commination, cursing, cuss word, cussing, damning, denunciation, dirty name, dirty word, double whammy, execration, expletive, four-letter word, fulmination, imprecation, malediction, malison, naughty words, no-no, oath, objuration, obloquy, obscenity, profanation, profanity, sacrilege , swear word, swearing, vilification, whammy
tithe 1. the tenth part of agricultural produce or personal income set apart as an offering to god or for works of mercy, or the same amount regarded as an obligation or tax for the support of the church, priesthood, or the like.
2.
any tax, levy, or the like, esp. of one-tenth.
3.
a tenth part or any indefinitely small part of anything.
4.
to give or pay a tithe or tenth of (produce, money, etc.).
5.
to give or pay tithes on (crops, income, etc.).
6.
to exact a tithe from (a person, community, parish, etc.).
7.
to levy a tithe on (crops, income, etc.).
4.
to give or pay a tithe or tenth of (produce, money, etc.).
5.
to give or pay tithes on (crops, income, etc.).
6.
to exact a tithe from (a person, community, parish, etc.).
7.
to levy a tithe on (crops, income, etc.).
The book of Malachi has some of the most quoted Biblical verses on tithing, Malachi 3:8-12. Jews, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christians who tithe, understand that no man may outdo God in the act of charity. These verses talk about the supposed cause and effect of tithing. If one gives to God, they are to be blessed, where if one refuses to give they will be cursed. They also refer back to the storehouses mentioned in Malachi 3:8-12:
8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How are we robbing thee?’ In your tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me; the whole nation of you.
10 Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.
11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts.
12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.
The statue is a sign of some thing gone wrong. If the churches have board members, the members of the churches, attendants of the mass and alms givers might have to demand to reform a system of payment. Even with a minimum of a $1 a person, the sum should be announced, documented and kept in escrow account until Abune Paulos and Company explain the purpose of the statue, financial source and the statue’s possible relocation to his private compound.
Tagay Gebre Medhene (a.k.a. Aba Diabilos) who is answerable to TPLF, will continue to commit additional crimes against the E.O.T.C. The blood of Bahetawi Fekade Selassie is in the hands of Aba Diabilos.
What does Tagay Zebene have to say about this?
This pope is not the real pope. He is fascist, terrorist, tribalist, murderer, and un-holy thug. We Ethiopians do not respect this stinky rag head woyanne. We Ethiopians respect the right patriarch in the Diaspora. However, killer Paulos please go back to Tigray. You are a thief taking money from the church for your own selfish uses. *spits*
Elias, I suggest you promote this boycott to the next level using your resources back home, I am one of those people who can say a lot about the Church and its administration because my non-clerical involvement in the Church back in the days. The “Bete Kihnet” has never invested a dime to renovate or build Churches and monasteries, all the money that they say are investing in prevention of HIV is also political bogus. One thing is for certain, the “Bete Kihnet” pays salaries for priests but even that, in some cases, it is the people who take cares of the priests, all the Churches are maintained by ordinary individuals and groups sympathetic about their Church and faith. The Holy Trinity Cathedral’s roof leaks and it is the first Church tourists visit due to its grandeur and special place in our Church and country history. Abune Paulos frequent that Church coming in his entourage of limousines and Land Cruisers and never even tried to fix the problem, in that Church case, if we assume he has no money at command to invest on the Church, selling only one of his cars can cover the entire renovation of the Church, engineers estimate its cost at not more than 700,000 Ethiopian Birr, each one of his cars are worth more than 700,000 Birr and the new ones are over 1.5 million birr. The Saint Mary Church at Arat Kilo where his office is at the back was on a brink of total damage due to excess leaks, one woman tried to put new carpets but the priest suggested that its of no use since the roof leaks that will eventually destroy the carpet, fortunately, the woman happened to be the wife of the Ethiopian multi-millionaire businessman At Samuel Tafesse, when the family decided to maintain and renovate the Church, they made one thing for certain, that the money planned for the Church must not be given to the Bete Kihnet but must be handled and managed by their Construction firm which they did and accomplished. This happened right infront of Abune Paulos’ nose relaxing in his palace. One thing used to amaze me so much, when Abune Paulos goes to the Holy Trinity Church, all his cars are parked right infront of the Tomb of the late Ethiopian Patriach Abune Teklehaymanot who is considered a saint, he lived during the derg regime and defied the communist party, he was not like the Saints we read about in history books, we actually witnessed his resilience and leadership in our age, he never wore shoes, never had a penny in his pocket, never had a golden Cross and never wore expensive wardrobe adorned by jeweleries let alone embezzle the Church money to buy limousines and construct palace for his own use. I wonder what he feels when he actually gets out of his car and see the statue of Abune TekeleHaymanot whom he has known personally when he was a priest. I wish to see him asked about what he feels about it.
elias,
thank you for your articulate explananation of tagay g/medhin….you are one of the best person who clearly defines and explains tagay g/medhin using the best description…..as ethiopians say no to tagay g/medhin…we ethiopians in diaspora should say not only no to tagay g/medhin but also no to those mercenaries of tagay g/medhin who are dividing our chruch using diffrent dirty game…..
You hurting the priests and the Ethiopian orthodox church and our faith not one MAN. I think our church is going through a difficult time since the Abuna Paulos assumed leadership. If priests left the church there would be no faith.
The devil outmaneuver MAN but JESSUS is the protector of the church may he strength our faith Tewohedo and destroy all his enemies. AMEN
Elias!
I beg of you to refrain yourself from satanic attitude.
Dear Peter!
Despite my differ when you said, “I think our church is going through a difficult time since the Abuna Paulos assumed leadership”, I commend your opinion for solution and may the Graceful GOD himself destroy Ethiopia’s Enemies?
Hey Elias why do you only post comments that support your article? I post a comment to this article yesterday I have not seen it yet
the only way to kill A strong Animal is by withholding food from this animal calld ABA DIABILOS.so E.O.T.C is doing the right thing in STARVING THIS HODAM BANDA ABA DIABLOS OUT OF OUR CHERCH and in to the animal house and in chen in the everlasting hell.
FYI
Recently some people went to Ethiopia and wanted to give several thohusand US Dollars to the church they wanted. The head priest whisspered to the ear that they give materials for building instead of cash money.The church would not get a penny if it was in cash because Bete Khenet would keep it. It was appalling.
Amid Furor on Islamic Center, Pleas for Orthodox Church Nearby
By PAUL VITELLO
The New York Times, August 23, 2010
The furor over plans to build an Islamic center two blocks from ground zero had already been joined by several politicians. On Monday, two politicians were joined in turn by officials of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, who sought to use the controversy to focus attention on their long-stymied effort to rebuild a church destroyed on 9/11 at the foot of the World Trade Center.
At a news conference near the trade center site, church officials appeared with former Gov. George E. Pataki and a Greek-American Congressional candidate from Long Island — both opponents of the Islamic center — to make their case: Government officials who appear to be clearing the way for the center, which includes a mosque, are blocking the reconstruction of St. Nicholas Church, the only house of worship destroyed in the terrorist attacks.
And though church officials did not go quite as far, Mr. Pataki and the candidate, George Demos, drew a sharp line between the rightness of the Greek Orthodox project and the wrongness of the Muslim one.
Mr. Pataki cast doubt on the wisdom of city officials’ allowing a community center and mosque near ground zero when “we don’t know the funding, we don’t know the view of the people behind it.” By contrast, he said, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the trade center reconstruction site, had failed to “reach out and engage in a dialogue” about rebuilding the church with Greek Orthodox officials, who, he suggested, were a known quantity.
Bishop Andonios of Phasiane, chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, stood beside Mr. Pataki and Mr. Demos, who is seeking the Republican nomination in New York’s First Congressional District. Mr. Demos said, without offering evidence, that the Islamic center would be built with money from Saudi Arabia, “a nation that prohibits people from even wearing a cross or the Star of David.”
But the bishop said he did not intend to fan the bitter dispute over the Islamic Center with his presence at the news conference. “It’s unfortunate that it took a controversy over a mosque to bring attention to the church,” he said. He described that attention as “a silver lining” of the increasingly bitter clash.
On Sunday, demonstrators for and against the mosque faced off across police barricades at ground zero.
Opponents of the proposed Islamic community center, planned as a 13-story building at 51 Park Place, have voiced an array of arguments against it. Some say it is insensitive to the families of those who died at ground zero; others see it as a symbol of triumph for the Muslim terrorists behind the attacks.
Organizers of the project, led by a Sufi imam and a group he founded, the Cordoba Initiative, say the center would help foster understanding among people of all faiths, and stand as a symbol of pluralism and tolerance. Calls to the organizers seeking comment were not returned.
Unlike some religious leaders who have spoken in favor of the Muslim center, including the pastor of Trinity Wall Street, the historic Episcopal church near ground zero, Bishop Andonios said he and other Greek Orthodox leaders remained neutral.
“We didn’t want to say anything that might jeopardize the plans for rebuilding our church,” he said in a telephone interview. “That is our No. 1 concern: building our church.”
Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said there was never any doubt that the church would be rebuilt. In 2008, the authority agreed to accommodate a 24,000-square-foot church building just east of St. Nicholas’s original location on Cedar Street, and promised $20 million to subsidize construction. But the following year, he said, final negotiations broke down over the precise siting and size of the building.
Bishop Andonios said the issues were more complex than that, and he criticized the Port Authority as having “cut off all communications” with church officials. He expressed some discomfort at stepping into the dispute on the side of those who are adamantly opposed to the Cordoba project.
“To us, this is an opportunity for everyone — to see some progress in our negotiations with the Port Authority,” Bishop Andonios said. “But also, for the people involved in the mosque, this controversy is their opportunity to dialogue with the community; to reach a better understanding of people’s sensitivities, perhaps.”
It was the news media, and then a number of political candidates, who first brought attention to the purported disparity in the official treatment of the developers of the Islamic center and of the Orthodox church, the bishop said.
“Some Greek-American newspaper reporters called me first,” Bishop Andonios said. “Then I heard from the candidates. Then it was Fox News.”
Mr. Sigmund, the Port Authority spokesman, said the authority has no oversight of any building outside the ground zero reconstruction zone, including the community and mosque.
Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.
OF THE END OF TIMES AND THE CHANGE OF KINGDOMS