Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን^?; transliterated Amharic: Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan) is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Christian Churches. The Ethiopian Church was administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria since the first half of the 4th century until 1959, when it was granted its own Patriarch by the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa, Cyril VI. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, being one of the oldest Christian churches and a non-Chalcedonian Church, is not in communion with the Ethiopian Catholic Church, a Chalcedonian Church. Ethiopia is the second country only after Armenia to have officially proclaimed Christianity as state religion (in 333AD) though some argue it may even be the first.

One of the few pre-colonial Christian Churches in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has a membership of between 45 and 50 million people, the majority of whom live in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is a founding member of the World Council of Churches.

EOTC

EOTC can be an acronym for:

Ethiopia

Coordinates: 8°N 38°E / 8°N 38°E / 8; 38

Ethiopia (/ˌiːθiˈoʊpiə/; Amharic: ኢትዮጵያ^?, ʾĪtyōṗṗyā,  listen ), officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (የኢትዮጵያ ፌዴራላዊ ዲሞክራሲያዊ ሪፐብሊክ, ye-Ītyōṗṗyā Fēdēralāwī Dīmōkrāsīyāwī Rīpeblīk  listen ), is a sovereign state located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea to the north and northeast, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With over 100 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world, as well as the second-most populous nation on the African continent after Nigeria. It occupies a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi), and its capital and largest city is Addis Ababa.

Some of the oldest evidence for anatomically modern humans has been found in Ethiopia, which is widely considered the region from which Homo sapiens first set out for the Middle East and points beyond. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations settled in the Horn region during the ensuing Neolithic era. Tracing its roots to the 2nd millennium BC, Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history. During the first centuries AD the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region. followed by Abyssinia circa 1137.

Orthodox Tewahedo

Orthodox Tewahedo is the common and historical name of two Oriental Orthodox Christian Churches, which are dominant in Eritrea and Ethiopia. Until 1959, the Orthodox Tewahedo were administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. That year, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was granted autocephaly and its own Patriarch by Coptic Orthodox Pope Cyril VI.

Following the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1993, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church was granted autocephaly by Coptic Pope Shenouda III, and it officially separated from the Ethiopian Church.

Name

Tewahedo (Ge'ez ተዋሕዶ täwaḥədo) is a Ge'ez word meaning "being made one" or "unified". This word refers to the Oriental Orthodox belief in the one single unified Nature of Christ; i.e., a belief that a complete, natural union of the Divine and Human Natures into One is self-evident in order to accomplish the divine salvation of humankind, as opposed to the "two Natures of Christ" belief (unmixed, but unseparated Divine and Human Natures, called the Hypostatic Union) which is held by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Henotikon, around 500 bishops within the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem refused to accept the "two natures" doctrine decreed by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, thus separating themselves from the main body of the Christian Church at the time, which would later itself split in two factions (Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic) in the East-West Schism of 1054, although this later event was not about Christological views.