wfn.org | Correction: TCN E-NEWS: Former Ethiopian Church Moderator visit

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> Taiwan Church News
> 2981 Edition

> April 13~19, 2009

> Former Ethiopian Church Moderator visits PCT

> Reported and written by Lydia Ma

Former Moderator of Ethiopian Evangelical Church Makene Yesus (EECMY) Rev. Iteffa Gobena is visiting the Presbyterian

Church in Taiwan (PCT) in April and has been invited to attend this year¡¦s 54th General Assembly Meeting.

Led by PCT Ecumenical Relations Secretary Stephen Hsu, Gobena visited PCT headquarter office and PCT organizations.

EECMY is seeking closer partnership with the PCT as both churches help each other in ministry and evangelism issues. PCT is

> EECMY¡¦s first partner church in Asia.

During a tour at Taiwan Church Press on April 8th, Gobena, Hsu, Taiwan Church Press President Chen Yu-sheng and Taiwan

Church News General Editor Fang Lan-ting shared about issues such as freedom of press, development and use of mother tongues

in churches, holistic ministry, partnership goals, and writing and broadcast ministries in both countries and made comparisons

> between Taiwan and Ethiopia.

According to Gobena, the greatest challenge facing Ethiopian churches is that though young people are attracted by the gospel

message and coming to church in great numbers, churches do not have enough resources to nurture new believers. Most church

members are peasants from rural areas or young people who have not begun working, and these people do not have means to

support their own churches. Therefore, church leaders are encouraging small and regular donations.

With regards to freedom of the press in Ethiopia, Gobena said that Ethiopians enjoy very limited freedom of press. He  mentioned

that Christian churches in Ethiopia used to have their own radio broadcast ministry and publishing house, but when the Communist

government came to power 30 years ago, all broadcast programs were restricted and all radio and television stations were seized.

To this day, private ownership of media outlets is not allowed. Churches in Ethiopia hope to restart Christian broadcast ministries

by creating a base outside of the country and broadcasting programs back to Ethiopia.

There are approximately 200,000 new Christian converts every year in Ethiopia. The country¡¦s population is mostly Christian.

Christian churches worship in 53 different native languages and there are currently 24 Bible translation projects in process.

Presbyterian Church in Taiwan missionary Rev. Fu-Lan Ritter Chen and her husband Stefan Ritter are involved in Christian

education and Bible translation ministries in Ethiopia.

> Correction: Monday, April 20th, 2009:

During last week's report on this article, it was incorrectly listed that Ethiopia's population is mostly Muslim. In fact, Ethiopia's

population is mostly Christian. It is estimated that 63% of the country's population is Christian, while 33% of the population is

> Muslim.

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