wfn.org | NCC GENERAL SECRETARY BACK FROM ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH TRIP

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

TRIP
Reply-to: CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 96 18:00:14 EST

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

13NCC1/26/96                FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

 Imagine trees hanging heavy with lemons, limes,
bananas and avocados for the picking.  Nearly two
million people are in town for a three-day religious
celebration, intermingled with partying and
matchmaking.  Everyone is wearing festive clothing
and shielding themselves against the hot sun with
elaborately trimmed velvet umbrellas.

 New Orleans at Mardi Gras?  No, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, during Timket, the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church's greatest festival of the year,
commemorating Jesus' baptism.

 The Rev. Dr. Joan B. Campbell, General
Secretary of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the U.S.A. (NCC), was present for the Jan.
18-20 celebration by invitation of the Patriarch of
Ethiopia, Abuna Paulos.  He told Dr. Campbell, "I
wanted you to be here for this great and wonderful
festival so you can know who we are."

 "We know the Ethiopia with a face of poverty,"
Dr. Campbell commented upon her return to the NCC's
New York headquarters.  Timket, she said, reminds us
of "the Ethiopia that is rich in culture, rich in
history.  The people are physically beautiful, very
cultured, highly educated, acquainted with art,
music and history and steeped in the tradition of
their church."

 Dr. Campbell is the first NCC General Secretary
to visit the 40 million member Ethiopian Orthodox
Tewahedo ("Unity") Church.  Accordingly, her Jan.
15-24 trip was the first official NCC visit to that
church, although there have been many contacts,
including NCC staff visits to Ethiopia.

 Dr. Campbell was accompanied by the Rev. R.
Lawrence (Lonnie) Turnipseed, Executive Director of
the NCC's Church World Service and Witness Unit, and
Willis Logan, Director of the NCC/CWSW Africa
Office.

 U.S. churches through Church World Service, the
NCC's relief, development and refugee assistance
ministry, have provided millions of dollars in aid
over the years as Ethiopia has suffered drought and
famine.  They have supported irrigation, planting
and other self-help human development projects,
including the Ethiopian Orthodox Church's 33
orphanages.  The NCC delegation visited one where
the NCC had given funds to upgrade the kitchen,
enabling that orphanage to care for 300 children.

 The delegation also visited many Ethiopian
Orthodox historic sites and facilities, many of them
only recently returned to the church.  Many church
properties had been confiscated by Ethiopia's
previous Marxist government.

 The NCC supported the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
during all those years, advocating for the release
of imprisoned church leaders (including Abuna
Paulos, who spent eight years in prison) and
resettling many who became refugees.

 Abuna Paulos spent 10 years in exile in the
United States, during which he was active with the
NCC, served a local congregation and earned his PhD
at Princeton Seminary.  Shortly after his return to
Ethiopia in 1991, he was elected Patriarch by the
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's governing body,
the Holy Synod.

 Despite the fact that 95 percent of Ethiopians
continue to live at subsistence level and only 20
percent have access to a doctor, Abuna Paulos,
abundantly aware of the widespread poverty, asserts
that these are good days.  "There's not a drought,"
Dr. Campbell said.  There's not a war, even though
there were skirmishes on the border with the
Sudanese while we were there.  There is democracy or
at least an infant democracy.  The church is free to
choose its own leaders and to form partnerships with
other churches worldwide."

 At the same time, the Patriarch made it clear
that he wants "not only to do the liturgy but to
change the life of the people.  The well-being of
children is among his priorities, he said, as is
improving medical care.  Feeding of the people is
still a crucial matter.  They always live with the
spectre of another drought.

 "Having lived in the West, Abuna Paulos knows
our capacity to be of a great deal more assistance,
but he also knows the limits in current U.S.
policy," Dr. Campbell said, asserting that "the U.S.
government needs to make Africa a priority.
Ethiopia is a young democracy ready to grow and
change and find ways to feed its own people.  It
simply needs more resources to make the best of the
land."

 Dr. Campbell said Abuna Paulos is eager that
Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
become better known in the world.  Accordingly, he
invited Orthodox clergy from around the world to
hold a meeting on gospel and culture in Addis Ababa
during Timket.  Dr. Campbell said that during the
celebrations she was surrounded by participants in
that World Council of Churches-sponsored meeting
from across Africa, Russia, Greece, the United
States and elsewhere.

 "The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, among the
world's very oldest, reminds us that faith belongs
not only to today but to the ages," Dr. Campbell
said.  "Their history is our history.  To experience
the Christian faith from its earliest days,
experience it there."

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