By: Nackachew Ayele
Addis Ababa (Ethiopia Today), July 13, 2023: The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s (EOTC) Holy Synod denounces the move that Tigray religious leaders plan to make to appoint bishops in the region.
The planned appointment of bishops violates articles 37 and 38 of the church’s constitution, and it violates the church’s canon, which is the pillar of the church and harms its unity, it says in its emergency plenary session held yesterday.
In a letter addressed to the media calling for coverage of the nomination event, the head office of the See of Selama Kessate Berhan Archdiocese said 10 Episcopates are due to appointed said in the holy city of Aksum, marking another major turn in the widening schism within the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church.
This came against the backdrop of the return of a delegation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC), led by His Holiness Abune Mathias I, the patriarch, from Meklle to Addis Ababa, on Tuesday without securing a face-to-face meeting with the leaders of the See of Selama Kessate Berhan Archdiocese in Tigray.
Tigray Orthodox religious leaders announced yesterday their intentions to adhere to the planned nomination of bishops for dioceses organized under the newly established See of Selama Kessate Berhan Archdiocese of the Tigray Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which is scheduled to take place on July 16.
In its statement today, the Holy Synod has called on the federal and Tigray regional governments “to help solve problems through dialogue and to facilitate a forum for dialogue.”
