Black Monophysites

In Addis Ababa two Sundays ago the Abuna, "Father of Peace" to the Coptic Christians of Ethiopia, donned a black cassock, long cape and purple cap. As nominal head of the Church, Emperor Haile Selassie arose early, stepped into his automobile which took him up a hill to the octagonal, ornate Cathedral of St. Ghiorghis. He took off his wing-tipped sport shoes, padded into the gold-veiled sanctuary. Empress Waizeru Menen, who dearly loves the Christian solace of confession, and 70 plump brown Ethiopian ladies entered the Cathedral by another door. In concentric circles according to rank squatted court functionaries, deacons, laymen, foreign missionaries and U. S. Charge d'Affaires Cornelius Engert. With rain beating monotonously outside, there arose the sound of bells and, from the sanctuary, the clash of cymbals and the jingle of sistra. Then began a two-hour mass, chanted in a long-dead patois of Greek and Arabic which many a worshipper mouthed without knowing what it meant.

Finally Haile Selassie moved to the west side of the Cathedral, his wife to the south, the bearded Abuna to the east, the Etchague (assistant) to the north. Before four ikons they prayed aloud for world peace. Then the Abuna prayed God in Arabic to "break arms and quench the fire of war," to know that Ethiopia is thankful for the sympathy extended by other peace-loving nations. Haile Selassie approached the Abuna, kissed the prelate's silver cross draped in silk. The bearded Emperor put on his shoes, walked out among his subjects, drove back to his palace and breakfast.

Last Sunday Haile Selassie was back in Church, praying harder than ever for peace. He also announced that he would swear off meat for a month as a means of winning Divine help.

Meanwhile throughout the U. S., at the behest of the Committee for Ethiopia which claimed to represent 5,000 ministers, 4,000,000 communicants in a dozen or more faiths, many a Sunday worshipper also prayed for Ethiopia's peace and put money in the collection box for the new Ethiopian Red Cross. Last week the Federal Council of Churches came out officially against an Italo-Ethiopian War, as did a number of bishops and clergy of all sects in a petition signed by the Washington Clergy Committee against War and Political Corruption. In many a Christian heart there persisted a belief that the rape of Ethiopia would be particularly reprehensible be cause she is "the oldest Christian nation in the world." Actually she is nothing of the sort.

Though according to legend Ethiopia was evangelized by St. Matthew, and Egypt, her spiritual mother, by St. Mark, the earliest fact of any authenticity is that Ethiopia's first bishop, St. Frumentius, was consecrated in 340 A. D. by the Patriarch of Alexandria. Ethiopia early took from the Coptic Church a vast number of "errors," lamentable not only according to Roman Catholic but also Eastern Orthodox theology. Ethiopia also nurtured some non-Coptic customs, among them being the circumcision of children of both sexes by their mothers at two weeks. Dietary laws are kept, the Sabbath is observed, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Esther are honored with feasts. Ethiopian Christians practice Baptism, take the Eucharist in both forms (wine and bread) but reject Extreme Unction, Confirmation, Transubstantiation and the veneration of images. Their most notable heresy is that they are Monophysites, believing that Christ had one nature, the human and divine being fused instead of coexistent.

The Abuna, scholarly head of 5,000,000 Ethiopian Coptic Christians, has for hundreds of years been a monk chosen by the Egyptian Patriarch from the monastery of St. Anthony in Cairo. Once installed in the walled city of Harrar he is practically independent, holding the right to anoint the Emperor, consecrate bishops, settle matters of faith and morals, wield the dread power of excommunication. The priesthood he heads is vast--100,000 persons, many of whom are deplorably dirty and ignorant. There are numerous monasteries, some of them scandalously paired with convents. Last week the Abuna made ready, if war breaks, to send to the front 50 priests with vestments and a historic portable altar.

In the 17th Century, Jesuits penetrated Ethiopia and for a time that land was actually reconciled to the Church of Rome. But the Jesuits were soon banished and today there are but 11,843 Ethiopian Catholics, shepherded by Capuchins, Lazarists and the Missionary Institute of the Consolata. A valiant handful of U. S. Protestants labor there--United Presbyterians, Seventh Day Adventists and members of the interdenominational Sudan Interior Mission. Two months ago the U. S. State Department warned U. S. nationals to leave Ethiopia. Most of the missionaries declined to depart, declaring that they put their trust in God, not the U. S. consul.

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