More pictures from Ethiopia.

Local resident girl coming to see who this group of visitors is.

Inside one of the Rock-hewn churches.

Outside of the largest church.

Some churches are free standing, and others are carved into rock walls. This is one that is carved into the rock.

Monk standing at the entrance of the Church of St. Mary.

Inside carved rock and wood make for beautiful decorations, all of which are highly symbolic. This one is very rare, a Star of David with a Cross inside. Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity blends together both Old and New Testament in a very unique way.

The most famous church, Biet Giyorgis, or the Church of St. George. The church is cruciform, and highly symbolic not just internally, but externally as well there is some reference to Noah's ark.

Side view of St. Georges.

Biet Giyorgis, Church of Saint George.

Biet Giyorgis, Church of Saint George.

Pastor Steve with Biet Giyorgis in the background.

Photos from Lalibella, Ethiopia

As promised, here are some pictures from our time in Lalibella. More pictures will be forthcoming later today, provided we have no more internet problems.

Entrance to the Cave Church of Ymrehane Kristos

Front facade of the Cave Church of Yemrehane Kristos

Carved rock and wood make beautiful designs in the ceiling of the Cave Church of Yemrehane Kristos

Painted archway inside cave church, paint is original from the 12th century.

In the back of the cave church, there are the bones of 5000 faithful people who add to the sacredness of this place, even if it is a bit creepy.

The view from the trail up to the cave church.

The village of Yemhara, below the cave church. This village is over 1000 years old.

External view of one of the Rock Hewn churches in Lalibella.

External view (front facade) of one of the rock-hewn churches of Lalibella.

Lalibella

    Today started out extremely early. Our alarm went off at 4:30 am and we were downstairs ready for breakfast at 5:15. After a healthy and delicious breakfast, we headed off to the airport to catch the morning flight to Lalibella. After about an hour in the air, our plane landed in the city of Gondar. It looked quite beautiful there, so I am excited to return to Gondar after Lalibella and Axum. Our plane took off again and we flew a brief 30 minute flight and landed in Lalibella.

    Lalibella is one of the best known tourist spots in all of Ethiopia. Getting off the plane, I was awed by the mountains around us. There are mountains in Addis Ababa, but the mountains in Lalibella are totally different, less green, terraced farming fields, small villages with round thatched houses. Riding in the van from the airport to our hotel we were blessed with amazing views and beautiful country.

   

Over the past two days we spent in the remote area around Lalibella. This region is well known for the world famous rock-hewn churches. Much of our time was spent touring all of the churches in the area. It is hard to find a word to truly describe what these churches are like.

Each one is different which speaks to when and why they were made. The story goes that King Lalibella (which means honey eater in Amharic) made a journey to Jerusalem and saw the important sites of Christianity and Judaism. It is important to note that Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity is a very unique blend of Christianity and Judaism. Having the Ark of the Covenant (supposedly) on Ethiopian soil has created an almost cultic (not intended to have a negative connotation) belief in the mixture between the two religions. Upon his return from Jerusalem, King Lalibella went about building these churches with each one dedicated to one of the important sites in Jerusalem. They are all highly symbolic. They also occur in three groups, separated by a small waterway symbolizing the Jordan River. As a whole, the churches were built in the twelfth century and it took 23 years to build all thirteen churches. There have been estimates to how many people it would have taken to build all the churches, and they are in the tens of thousands. However, local lore points to the help of Angels who would come at night and continue work through the night. In one church, there is even the legend that King Lalibella's wife carved the entire church herself with the help of the angels at night.

The thirteen churches are all distinct and are varied in layout and design. Many loosely follow a basilica format, yet somewhat altered in that they must still contain the three sections of the church, the outside where hymns and chants are sung, the secondary area where Holy Communion is served to the priests and deacons and the most important, the holy of holies, wherein a replica of the Ark of the Covenant is kept, out of view of all but the head priest.

One of the most amazing experiences took place on the afternoon of our first day there. We were able to enter into one of the larger churches where we were able to sit and listen to the ritual chanting for an hour or so. It was almost time-warping, to sit in this church carved out of a single stone over 800 years ago and listen to the chants of the priests and deacons, accompanied by drums and with the scent of incense thick in the air. To close your eyes and spend some time in prayer was both refreshing and powerfully meaningful. To be in a place so far from home and yet feel so close to God, brings to mind the reality that wherever God “is” is where we are. Distance is a state of mind more than it is a physical reality. We spend our lives trying to get to heaven. A noble task, but in our modern church, maybe a bit misdirected. Rather than trying to live our lives to go somewhere else, maybe we should spend more time working on making that someplace else a reality here. Isn't that what Jesus means when he talks of the Kingdom of God?

There is a reverence here that is refreshing, from seeing the faithful attending church even when it is difficult to do so. Even when there are other demands in life, still they come. Yet, we look for excuses not to attend church, even when it is just one day a week, even when we have nothing better to do. There is a lack of reverence in the US, and I fearit is stifling us. I don’t even necessarily mean a reverence for Jesus Christ, but even just a reverence for the Divine, that essence or spark that is in us and around us, regardless of where we believe it came from. We lack a reverence for our inherent humanity and the connections that unite us into communities of individuals, communities of faith, communities of change and communities that seek to know more and do more and love more and learn more.

From this sacred place, we leave for Axum, the ancient capital of Ethiopia. More from there in a following post.

Day Two in Addis Ababa

Day Two

Addis Ababa

Our second day in the Ethiopian capital  was dedicated to a celebration of both the religious and political history of Ethiopia, at least since the founding of Addis Ababa, the capital in the 1880’s. The day started with a visit to St. George’s Cathedral. this was the first time I have ever been inside of an Ethiopian Orthodox Church, or really any Orthodox church save Russian. The layout is vastly different from the traditional protestant church and even from the basilica format common in many Roman Catholic churches. The structure is an octagon and the outside of the church is considered holy as well and many worshippers will come and prostrate themselves in prayer on the outside wall, sometimes even kissing it. There are also a number of entrances and each are for a particular group of people. The priests enter on the side closest to an outside structure on the eastern side which is used to prepare the elements for Holy Communion. During the mass, the men and women enter on opposite sides of the church. Shoes are to be removed and women are to keep their heads covered. Upon entering, one finds three concentric circles. The outer circle is where the music is played, consisting of chants with accompanying drums. Men sit on the inside of the outer circle while women sit on the outside of the outside circle. The second circle is for the priests and deacons and is where Holy Communion is served. Regular parishioners cannot enter this area during the mass. The third circle, the innermost, is where one finds the holy of holies. Only certain priests are allowed to enter and even view this area. There is a curtain keeping the contents out of the view of all who are not allowed to enter. However, while there are a few different things that can be found there, one requirement is a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. Each church must have one of these, except for the main church in the city of Axum which supposedly holds the actual Ark of the Covenant, which according to legend was brought to Ethiopia by the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

Priest demonstrating the use of the ceremonial drum used in chanting.

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Here you can see the outer circle of the cathedral with men sitting on the inside and women, with head coverings, sitting on the outside of the outer circle.

Amazing picture in St. George's Cathedral showing judgment, heaven, earth, and the Kingdom of God.

Our day then took us to the top of Mount Entoto, the highest point in Addis Ababa. On the top of the mountain is where the Emperor Menilek II lived with his wife, the Empress prior to moving down into what is now the city and founding Addis Ababa in the 1880’s. The mountain today houses what used to be their palace and church. In addition, the mountain is covered with Eucalyptus trees which were brought to Ethiopia from Australia as they grow fast and could provide wood for construction quicker than the indigenous plants could. Many women climb up and collect fallen branches and bind them together and then carry them down into the city to sell for construction materials. The view of the city was amazing.

Church at top of Mount Entoto where the Emperor Menelik and his wife lived prior to the founding of Addis Ababa.

On the way back down we stopped at a market area and looked around at the various shops. Carl, Jason, and I sat down a local bar and had some Fanta (the orange soda) before we continued down to the city where we enjoyed lunch at an amazing Italian restaurant.

Taken from the top of Mount Entoto looking down into Addis Ababa.

Haile Selassie's Cathedral and location of the tomb of both Emperor Selassie and his wife.

The afternoon took us to the office of the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. (This would be parallel to the Pope in the Roman Catholic Church). The office contains a museum full of many paintings recounting the story of the Church from the very beginning up to the present. The current Patriarch is rather new as the former Patriarch died two years ago. The museum showed how the previous Patriarch really tried to form connections with other Christian traditions and there were pictures of various religious and political leaders who had met with him over the years. There were a number that I didn’t recognize as they were the leaders of various Eastern Orthodox traditions, however, there were a number of pictures with both Pope John Paul II as well as Pope Benedict XVI. Other dignitaries included Syrian president Bashar al Assad (yes, I know it is a huge stretch of the imagination to call him a dignitary, but the picture was from the late 90’s or early 2000’s before the Syrian Civil War), the presidents of Lebanon, Germany and Bill Clinton.

Following this we went to the Cathedral that was built by the Emperor Haile Selassie and which is also where both the late Emperor and his wife are buried. The cathedral is in the basilica format but still contains the three sections found in the other churches. The place where normally the congregation would sit also serves as the place where the chants are sung. The area where the priest would normally stand in the Western tradition is reserved for the Priests and Deacons and the important people, including a special throne for the Emperor and Empress. Finally, the Holy of Holies is behind this area and walled off by a curtain, past which only certain priests may pass.

In the naves of the church, men are given the nave on the left side of the church if you are facing where we would place the altar and the women have the right nave for prayer. In this church, the left nave also includes the tomb of Haile Selassie and his wife. The question was posed to our guide about Rastafarians and how their views of Haile Selassie differ from traditional Ethiopian Orthodox views. I didn’t realize how very different the two theologies were. For the Ethiopian Church, Haile Selassie was the Emperor, a benefactor of the church and was crowned with the approval and support of the Orthodox structure, but at the end of the day he was a man, no more divine than anyone else. Rastafarians, the name taken from the name of Haile Selassie before becoming emperor, Ras (a title of rank, similar to Duke) Tafari, believe him to be the “black messiah.” It makes sense when one thinks that much of Rastafarianism came about in the Caribbean in the 1960’s and slightly before when many Caribbean nations were becoming independent from their colonial powers. Ethiopia was the one country in Africa that was never truly colonized by any European power, especially not in the way much of the rest of the world was. So, for Rastafarians, Haile Selassie was the Black Messiah, a representation of Black power at a time when many in the post-colonial world were facing a crisis of identity, fighting for power in a world structure that had racism as one of it’s underlying political, economic, and theological foundations. There are some Rastafarians in Ethiopia, but their numbers are very small compared to the larger numbers seen in the Caribbean, specifically in Jamaica.

May 25-26, 2014

Arrival and first day in Ethiopia

Despite some nervousness over having to be in an airplane for almost 13 hours (my longest flight ever by 3 hours), the flight from Washington to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines was decent. It was aggravating when shortly after heading out over the Atlantic Ocean the plane’s map system stopped functioning so I couldn’t follow the flight’s progress as we flew over the ocean, onto the African continent somewhere around Casablanca, Morocco, proceeded across Algeria and Libya, Sudan and finally into Ethiopian airspace.

Nonetheless, arriving and deplaning provided us with some great views of the area around Bole International Airport which lies a few kilometers south of the center of the city. After two hours in immigration, customs and currency exchange, we were finally able to leave the airport to board our van that was to take us to the DebreDamo Hotel, our home for the next two days. A few quick hours rest was broken up by our afternoon activities which started with lunch at Lucy Restaurant which is next door to the Ethiopian National Museum. A smaller building than I would have imagined, the contents of the museum are well organized and enlightening. The highlight was the opportunity to see the famous “Lucy” skeleton. This is the oldest skeleton found of a hominid that walked on two legs. Discovered in the Rift Valley not too far from Addis Ababa, Lucy has been dated to about 3.2 million years ago. I had seen pictures in books before, but it was neat to see her up close. Including a replica that was in a standing position gives one the true stature of this famous archeological find. She stood at about 1.1 meters (3 ft 7 inches).

In addition, there were a number of artifacts from Ethiopia’s storied history of emperors, kings, and even the communist period from the mid 1970’s to the early 1990’s. There was a floor dedicated to artwork which is largely religious in theme, especially due to the Eastern Orthodox traditions and the Ethiopian Orthodox church and its somewhat shared history with the Coptic church.

We were supposed to visit St. George’s cathedral, but we opted to head back to the hotel as a number of us were so tired we couldn’t think straight, so we will head back to the cathedral tomorrow morning.

I look forward to spending all day tomorrow exploring this amazing city, the “Capital of Africa” as it is the home to the African Union as well as other important institutions of the African Continent.

As for now, I am exhausted and looking forward to a few hours rest.