Ethiopian Orthodox church summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

Ethiopian Orthodox church, Independent Christian patriarchate in Ethiopia. Traditionally thought to have been founded by the preaching of the apostle Matthew or the eunuch of the Acts of the Apostles, the church was established in the 4th century by St. Frumentius and his brother Aedesius. Based in Addis Ababa, the church adheres to Monophysite doctrine (see Monophysite heresy). It accepts the honorary primacy of the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, who appointed its archbishops from the 12th century until 1959, when an autonomous Ethiopian patriarchate was established. Its customs include circumcision, rigorous fasting, and the participation of laypersons known as debtera, who perform liturgical music and dances and act as astrologers, scribes, and fortune-tellers. Its principal adherents are the Amhara and Tigray peoples of the northern and central highlands. See also Coptic Orthodox church.

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Christianity, major religion stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century ce. It has become the largest of the world’s religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. It has a constituency of

church Summary

Church, in Christian doctrine, the Christian religious community as a whole, or a body or organization of Christian believers. The Greek word ekklēsia, which came to mean church, was originally applied in the Classical period to an official assembly of citizens. In the Septuagint (Greek)

Addis Ababa Summary

Addis Ababa, capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is located on a well-watered plateau surrounded by hills and mountains in the geographic centre of the country. Only since the late 19th century has Addis Ababa been the capital of the Ethiopian state. Its immediate predecessor, Entoto, was