Ay

Ay was the penultimate Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty. He held the throne of Egypt for a brief four-year period (probably 1323–1319 BC or 1327–1323 BC, depending on which chronology is followed), although he was a close advisor to two and perhaps three of the pharaohs who ruled before him and was said to be the power behind the throne during Tutankhamun's reign. Ay's prenomen or royal name—Kheperkheperure—means "Everlasting are the Manifestations of Ra" while his birth name Ay it-netjer reads as 'Ay, Father of the God.' Records and monuments that can be clearly attributed to Ay are rare, not only due to his short length of reign, but also because his successor, Horemheb, instigated a campaign of damnatio memoriae against him and other pharaohs associated with the unpopular Amarna Period.

Origins

Ay is usually believed to be a native Egyptian from Akhmim. During his short reign, he built a rock cut chapel in Akhmim and dedicated it to the local deity there: Min. He may have been the son of Yuya, who served as a member of the priesthood of Min at Akhmin as well as superintendent of herds in this city, and wife Tjuyu. If so, Ay could have been of partial non-Egyptian, perhaps Syrian blood since the name Yuya was uncommon in Egypt and is suggestive of a foreign background. Yuya was an influential nobleman at the royal court of Amenhotep III who was given the rare privilege of having a tomb built for his use in the royal Valley of the Kings presumably because he was the father of Tiye, Amenhotep's chief Queen. There are also noted similarities in the physical likenesses of monuments attributed to Ay and those of the mummy of Yuya, and both held similar names and titles.

P'ent'ay

P'ent'ay (from Amharic: ጴንጤ^?, also transliterated as Pentay or Pente) is an Amharic and Tigrinya language term for a Christian of Protestant denomination, widely used in modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea and among Ethiopians and Eritreans living abroad. It is used to describe Christians who are not members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo, Roman Catholic or Ethiopian Catholic churches. The term P'ent'ay is a shortening of the word "Pentecostal", however, it is widely used when referring to all Protestant Christians whether they are actual Pentecostals or not. The equivalent rendition in many other languages is Evangelicals. The four major Evangelical denominations in Ethiopia are: the Kale Heywet (Word of Life); Mekane Yesus (Place of Jesus) or Lutheran; Mulu Wongel (Full Gospel) and Meserete Kristos (meaning "Christ foundation") or Mennonite. Some P'ent'ay communities - especially Mekane Yesus - have been influenced by the Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which represents mainstream, traditional Ethiopian Christianity. But for the most part they are very Pentecostal in their worship and theology.

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.

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.