Kidist Mariam Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s new building in Lithonia, a suburb of Atlanta [Photo: Ethiopian Review]
.
Kidist Mariam (St. Mary) Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Atlanta inaugurated a new building on Saturday, August 29, 2009, in the presence of His Holiness Abune Merkorios, Patriarch of Ethiopia, and other dignitaries.
EOTC Patriarch Abune Merkorios and DeKalby County Chief Executive Officer Burrell Ellis at the ribbon cutting ceremony of Kidist Mariam Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s new building in Atlanta [Photo: Ethiopian Review]
EOTC Patriarch Abune Merkorios, EOTC Holy Synod Secretary Abune Melketsedik and other church leaders at the inauguration of Kidist Mariam Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s new building in Atlanta
[Photo: Ethiopian Review]
The new Kidist Mariam Ethiopian Orthodox Church building located at 1152 South Stone Mountain Lithonia Rd., Lithonia, GA [Photo: Ethiopian Review]
(News Release by Kidist Mariam Church) — The Atlanta Kidist Mariam Ethiopian Orthodox Cathedral was founded and established in 1987. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s deep tradition goes back to the fourth century A.D. at which time the Church was formed when the Christian church broke off into its two main branches: Orthodox and Roman Catholic.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has been a source of spiritual and cultural education to the people of Ethiopia. The church’s heritage goes back almost two thousand years and has been a major contributor to the development of modern Christianity.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo church is one of the oldest churches in the world. As a result Ethiopia is considered one of the longest lived Christian countries in the world.
Initially, Kidist Mariam Church was serving its congregation in a chapel rented from Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Atlanta. Since that time, the church has taken the lead in providing services to meet the spiritual, cultural, and economic needs of the Ethiopian immigrant population in the Greater Atlanta area. As the size of the congregation grew faster than expected, members of the church, encouraged by their strong conviction and deep religious dedication, purchased the current church located at 266 Robin Street Decatur, Georgia, in 1995. However, the Church was still unable to provide essential services for many hundreds of Ethiopians. Again, with members and all Christians’ fulfillment of their spiritual obligations, the church acquired and fully paid for 5.5 acres of land, to build bigger facilities.
Now that this complex is completed, the largest and most traditionally built Ethiopian Orthodox Church ever constructed outside of Ethiopia will provide adequate space for both worship and community outreach activities for many Ethiopians. The church plans to offer classes in health promotion and disease prevention, anti-crime meetings, social and youth activities, and English language training, educational and employment referrals and senior citizens activities. These services will be available to the entire Ethiopian community and other interested individuals, regardless of faith commitment. Members of our congregation continuously pray that God grants them guidance, unity, and vision in order to utilize the facilities of the new cathedral for the glory of His Holy Name.
The global financial crisis, originating from economically empowered countries, is hammering the economy of developing countries like Ethiopia due to a drop in exports and remittances.
According to a Ministry of Trade and Industry Report, the country has taken home around 1.4 billion US dollars from export, which has dropped from last year’s revenue of 1.5 billion US dollars. The Ethiopian government was hoping to collect 2.5 billion US dollars from the past fiscal year’s exports.
Making matters worse is that international remittances, transfers from Ethiopian and foreign nationals to Ethiopia, has declined by 9.6 per cent from last year, according to a National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) report.
In the previous budget year (2007/08) the Central Bank reported that the country earned around 800 million dollar from remittances. A figure that falls 200 million US dollars short of the number reported by Ethiopia’s ruling party, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) who stated that it was around one billion US dollars.
According to Capital’s source, in the past budget year (2008/09) that ended in July, the country earned about 723 million US dollars from international remittances transferred by the Diaspora and foreigners.
Since the financial crisis hit Europe and the US, giant companies and organizations have been shedding jobs. Many of those falling victim to the job cuts are low paid, low skill workers, many of whom are immigrants to these countries, working to support families in their country of origin.
“The number of remittance service providers has increased in the past year but the transfer rate has not been like the previous year because of the crisis,” a source said.
In the fiscal year spanning 2006-07 remittances were only 633 million US dollars. Still a year before the crisis, Ethiopia generated 2.5 billion US dollars in foreign exchange. Sector experts say this increase was the result of an NBE’s directive issued in 2006, allowing various mode of money transfers. The 2006 Remittance Service Providers (RSPs) directive stated that users of this system can obtain information from access points such as bank branches, post offices and related organizations.
The directive aimed to improve the operations of the formal remittance service in Ethiopia, to reduce the costs of remittance transfers and to increase access to international remittance service for nationals all to make the service quick and reliable.
Most types of remittances are from personal funds, investments, international cash donations, deposit and service payments and temporary and permanent migrant transfers.
(JTA) — The Ethiopian-Israeli community is protesting discrimination by three Orthodox schools in Petach Tikvah.
The Israeli Association for Ethiopian Jews called Thursday for action against three private religious schools in the Tel Aviv suburb that have refused to admit several Ethiopian-Israeli children for the coming school year, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“To our great sorrow, the children of the Ethiopian olim are not allowed to enter the gates of some of the religious educational institutions in Petach Tikvah,” the organization wrote in a letter addressed to the Chief Rabbinate. “We would ask the honorable chief rabbis: Are these children, whose parents underwent a stringent process of conversion for two or more years, not good enough to study in all the religious and haredi schools in Petach Tikvah?”
Israeli President Shimon Peres said the schools’ decision to deny admission to children from the Ethiopian community was a “disgrace no Israeli can accept,” according to Ha’aretz.
Government officials have been debating ways of cutting off funding for the schools — which despite being private rely on support from the government — unless they reverse their decision.
The three schools have responded by claiming children from the Ethiopian community require more time and funds than other children to bring them up to academic standards.
Moti Zaft, the acting mayor of Petach Tikvah, told Army Radio that he believes separate classes should be held for Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian children so that each can student can receive education that best serves their needs.
UK (BBC) — A fourth member of an Ethiopian exchange programme has gone missing from Hartlepool, UK.
Police have launched a missing persons inquiry following the disappearance of Konjit Assefa, 22, who was last seen in the town centre on Tuesday.
Three other members of the nine-strong group, all men in their 20s, vanished while visiting London, though one later made contact and has since left the UK.
Organisers Global Xchange said the incidents were damaging to its work.
The programme is designed to give young people from different countries an opportunity to work on community development projects and promote cross cultural understanding.
A team of 18 young people, nine from Hartlepool and nine from Ethiopia, have been working together for three months in each country.
Phil Hudson, head of Global Xchange, said: “Our primary concern is for the safety of Konjit and we are helping the police with their inquiries.
Others ‘distressed’
“However, we take very seriously any actions that damage the reputation of the programme, which over the past 10 years has had a significant impact on community development and enhanced the skills and perspectives of thousands of young people.”
The organisation will review its security procedures, and give “serious consideration” to which countries it works with in the future, he added.
The remainder of the Ethiopian group are due to fly home on Monday, and are said to be distressed and disappointed.
Those still missing are not yet being treated as illegal immigrants, as they still have visas until mid-September.
Anyone who knows the whereabouts of Ms Assefa should contact Cleveland Police.
Asmara, Eritrea — Two Ethiopian religious leaders arrived in Eritrea opposing the ongoing conflict and anarchy within the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church (EOC) that is being instigated by Ato GebreMedhin (formerly Abune Paulos).
The two religious leaders are Aba Abiy Yohannes, who used to serve at the Lideta Church in Addis Ababa, and Kes Tibebu Assfaw, who used to serve at the Selassie Monastery administered by the Addis Ababa Synod.
Both pointed out that Ato Gebremedhin is fomenting tribalism within the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. They also accused Ato Gebremedhin of corruption and causing anarchy inside the Church.
The religious leaders disclosed that photos of Ato Gebremedhin is being displayed churches and monasteries through out the country, more than images of saints.
South Africa’s SABC interviews Ethiopia’s ex-fashion model Anna Getaneh on her recent showing at Arise Africa Fashion Week. In the video, Anna discusses her label African Mosaique, making an impact on Ethiopia, relocating from abroad to South Africa and her passion for fashion.
Kidist Mariam Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s new building in Lithonia, a suburb of Atlanta [Photo: Ethiopian Review]
Asmara, Eritrea — Two Ethiopian religious leaders arrived in Eritrea opposing the ongoing conflict and anarchy within the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church (EOC) that is being instigated by Ato GebreMedhin (formerly Abune Paulos).