+ OUR FAITH +

To be true to the Gospel, the total teaching of any Christian church must proclaim the truth according to the great purpose of the church and its head, Jesus Christ. The church’s main task must be to maintain an interest in helping people in their responses to the one true God, who suffered for our salvation and who established unity and only one Church of God on earth. It is necessary, therefore, for all Christians to admit that God is not a Roman Catholic or a Protestant. God is neither Monophysite nor Dyophysite or any other kind of indicated denomination that refers to political authorities and nationalistic ideas, which are contrary to the high principles of equality, unity, and Christian love. But Jesus Christ, Our Lord and God, is one Creator, one Savior, for all human kind, who has the blood of all races in His veins, as He is the universal redeemer.

The teaching of the Ethiopian church is founded on the Apostles’ experience of the Lord Eyesus Kristos (Jesus Christ) as the Creator and Savior of the world and on the conviction that the Holy Spirit is in the church.

Reference: Archbishop Yesehaq The Ethiopian Tewahedo Church: An Integrally African Church Diocese of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the Western Hemisphere Vantage Press: New York, NY, 1989

The Creed or Prayer of Faith

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and all things visible and invisible. And, we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, Who was with Him before the creation of the world; light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made, and without Him was not anything in heaven or earth made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, was made man and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and from the Holy Virgin Mary; became man, was crucified for our sakes in the days of Pontius Pilate, suffered, died, was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day, as was written in the Holy Scriptures; ascended in glory into heaven, sat at the right hand of His Father and will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. There is no end of His reign. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the life-giving God Who proceedeth from the Father. We worship and glorify Him with the Father and the Son, Who spoke by the prophets. And we believe in one Holy universal apostolic church. And we believe in one Baptism for the remission of sins, and wait for the resurrection from the dead and the life to come, world without end. AMEN.

Basic Requirements for Ethiopian Orthodox Church Members

Members must know and understand:

• The Seven Sacraments
• The Five Pillars of Mystery
• The Creed and Prayer of Faith (See above)
• The Lord’s Prayer and the Prayer of the Virgin Mary
• The Ten Commandments
• The Six Words of the Gospel