The Ethiopian Church delegation visited the Moscow Theological Academy

On February 13, a delegation of the Ethiopian Church arrived at the invitation of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill and with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch-Catholicos of Ethiopia Abuna Matthias made a guest visit to the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra and the Moscow Theological Academy.

The delegation consisted of the Archbishop of South Omo Abuna Philipos, Rector of the Holy Trinity Theological Academy in Addis Ababa, Co-Chairman of the Commission; Priest Daniel Seifemikhael, Head of the External Relations Department of the Ethiopian Church, General Director of the Broadcasting Corporation of the Ethiopian Patriarchy, Secretary of the Commission; Priest Weldeyesus Sefugalato, Deputy Administrator of the Ethiopian Church, Dean of the Addis Ababa Parishes.

The guests were accompanied by the Metropolitan of Klin Leonid, Co-Chairman of the Commission for Dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Church, Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), DECR Secretary for Inter-Christian Relations, Hierodeacon Peter (Akhmatkhanov) and R.O. Obrosov.

At the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra the delegation was met by Archimandrite Macarius (Veretennikov), who conveyed the greetings of the Bishop of Sergiev Posad and Dmitrov Thomas, Abbot of the Lavra.

After that, guests were taking on a guided tour round the Lavra. They venerated relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh at the Trinity Cathedral, visited the Assumption Cathedral and the bell tower of the monastery.

The Bishop of Zvenigorod Kirill, Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, met the delegation at the academic Library.

Pavel Alexandrovich Turkin, a library director, showed them library halls and book depositories, which contain valuable theological works in ancient and modern languages, as well as unique handwritten fragments of liturgical texts in Ethiopian. 

During the tour, the guests got acquainted with the storage conditions for ancient texts and shared their experience in preserving written manuscripts. 

Then, the members of the delegation went to the faculty of Icon-painting and Church art guided by Archimandrite Luka (Golovkov), Dean of the Faculty.

The students of the icon-painting faculty told about the origins of the Russian iconographic tradition, special features of Russian iconography as well as the history of the MThA icon-painting faculty, which began with an icon-painting class led by nun Juliana (Sokolova).

Walking through the classrooms, the guests could observe the process of creating icons and see students’ works.

After that, the delegation proceeded to the academic building of the Moscow Theological Academy, looked around the classrooms, a canteen and learned about the daily routine of the MThA students.

They also visited the Intercession Academic Church and learned about its history.

At the Cristian Art Museum of the Academy, the delegation had a guided tour and observed a unique collection of church art items and objects of Christian antiquity.

At lunchtime, they discussed with the Rector Bishop Kirill some prospects for academic cooperation between the Moscow Theological Academy and the Holy Trinity Theological Academy in Addis Ababa.

Later, the delegation of the Ethiopian Church met with students of the Moscow Theological Academy at the Great Hall.

At the presidium desk there were representatives of the Ethiopian delegation, the Metropolitan of Klin Leonid, Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, Bishop Kirill, Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy and Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), DECR Secretary for Inter-Christian Relations.

In his welcoming speech Bishop Kirill noted:

Despite the fact that we live in the information age, we know very little about the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and its Theology. Apparently, we know a bit more about its history, but some linguistic issues become serious problems for a researcher that likely to prevent him from studying ancient traditions of the Ethiopian Church. 

Undoubtedly, we should be interested in History and Theology of Ancient Eastern Churches and study their liturgical traditions. However, we have to do all this without compromising the dogmas of our Orthodox Church.

The visit of representatives of the Ethiopian Church is primarily related to further cooperation between our theological schools in the field of theological education. For us, this is a great chance to learn about traditions of the Ancient Eastern Churches from its native bearers.”

During the meeting, the Archbishop of South Omo Abuna Philippos and Priest Daniel Seifemikhael, Head of the Department of External Relations of the Ethiopian Church, told about relations between the Ethiopian Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as the current situation of Christian communities in Ethiopia.

After that, the students were able to ask their questions.

At the end, Bishop Kirill thanked the distinguished guests for their visit and expressed hope for further close cooperation between the Moscow Theological Academy and the Holy Trinity Theological Academy.

Background information:

The Ethiopian Church is a part of the Ancient Eastern Churches. It is one of the largest Churches of the pre-Chalcedonian tradition and the biggest Christian communities in the world (over 60 million people).

Despite the fact that relationships between Russia and Ethiopia date back to the XV century, regular interchurch contacts were established at the end of the XIX century. In 1950-1980, they reached a particularly high level, thanks to activity of the Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod Nikodim, Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. Today, they are revived again by the Commission for Dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Church.

Agreement was reached by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and His Holiness Patriarch Matthew during the visit of the Primate of the Ethiopian Church to Russia on May 15–20, 2018. Earlier, in November 2017 and March 2018, meetings of a joint working group to prepare the dialogue were held in Moscow and Addis Ababa. On July 14, 2018, staff members of the Commission were chosen by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church; in December 2018, a similar decision was made by the Synod of the Ethiopian Church. On January 21-25, 2019, the first meeting of the Commission took place in the capital of Ethiopia.

The main working areas are measures against Christianophobia, supporting traditional moral values ​​in the modern world; the pastoral care of the believers of the two Churches living in Russia and Ethiopia; interaction between two Churches in foreign communities and on international platforms; partnership in the academic and youth spheres and church art, experience exchange in media, social work and diakonia; contacts between Russian and Ethiopian monasteries and development pilgrimage programs in Ethiopia and Russia.

MThA Press Office