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Christianity in Ethiopia: Ancient buildings, living congregations

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Last week’s blog featured the Church of St. George, part of the monolithic churches in Lalibela. Also of interest are the churches and monasteries on the islands and peninsula of Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia and source of the Blue Nile River. The churches, said to be built on “earlier religious sites,” date from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries and introduce “a new church architecture … based [on] the designs of regular round houses with conical thatched roofs.” Today’s banner photo is an example of this architecture. The interiors of these churches have three parts: an “outer ambulatory,” which pilgrims may enter; an “inner ambulatory” where worshipers gather, and “the inner sanctuary,” which only priests may enter.

As one enters the outer ambulatory, the exterior side of the inner ambulatory walls are covered with Ethiopian iconography of biblical stories and the lives of the saints. The diptych is easily recognizable as Jesus praying in Gethsemane (top) and carrying his cross to Golgotha (bottom panel). Characteristic of Ethiopian Orthodox art is the contrast between those who are part of the household of faith, shown with full, frontal view of their faces (Jesus, the sleeping Peter, James, and John) in contrast to those outside the faith, shown in profile, as the Roman soldier is depicted in the lower panel.

If our guide shared the story of these two saints with a snake in the basket, I do not recall the details; but I can say with confidence that both are followers of Jesus by their full-on frontal faces.

For the past 25 years of traveling to Christian pilgrimage sites as a liturgy geek, I have rarely missed an opportunity to hop into ancient baptismal font for a photo. What struck me as posed in this font from Lalibela was the realization that this font is still being used by an active Christian community. Though we may have theological differences, I share with those baptized her a faith in Christ Jesus, whose death and resurrection raises us to new life and bring us into the household of the Triune God.

Sources consulted:
https://www.nationalparks-worldwide.com/eaf/ethiopia/lake-tana/lake-tana.html
https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6580
Photos by Rhoda Schuler, June 2024

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Christianity in Ethiopia

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The long history of Christianity in Ethiopia begins with the account of Philip and the Ethiopia eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). Ethiopian Orthodox Christians claim to be one of the earliest nations to embrace Christianity when King Ezana, leader of the Kingdom of Aksum (located in the northern part of the modern state of Ethiopia), embraced the Christian faith in the fourth century. The church was strengthened by the arrival of “the nine saints” from Syria (frequently depicted in churches’ iconography) in the 5th century.

Today’s banner photo is a baptismal font from Bete Amanuel (House or Church of Immanuel), one of numerous monolithic churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia, named for King Lalibela (r. ca. 1181-1221). According to legend, after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, King Lalibela received a vision to build a “new Jerusalem,” and this complex of churches, carved out of mountains, was the work of the king with assistance of angels. While twenty-first-century Christians may approach this hagiography of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church with skepticism, one can say that King Lalibela’s decision to create these amazing structures indicts strong devotion to the Christian faith.

The most spectacular of the Lalibela churches is the Church of St. George, which, like the baptismal font, has a cruciform structure. Again, putting aside one’s skepticism about the story of their origins, the structures themselves communicate the core witness of the Christian faith—that Christ’s death on the cross has accomplished the salvation of the world, and a person is assured of that salvation by being joined to Christ’s death and resurrection in baptism (Romans 6).

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Sources used:
“Ethiopian Church” in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edition
“Ethiopia” in Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
“The Rock-hewn Churches of Lalibela,” https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lali/hd_lali.htm
Photos by Rhoda Schuler, June 2024