Music, fasts and exorcism with the Ethiopian Orthodox

A three-hour Mass probably wouldn’t go down well in the average Irish parish, but according to a priest from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Ireland, his congregation can’t get enough.

It’s not only the length of Mass that makes Ethiopian Orthodoxy different. Almost all the liturgy is musical and has copious singing between the priest and worshippers.

With Christian Orthodoxy being the fastest growing religion in Ireland, according to the latest census, The Irish Catholic spoke to the first and only Ethiopian Orthodox priest in Ireland, Abba (Father) Yohannes Amsalu, to learn more about his congregation and faith.

“Almost all our liturgy is in music, for example the priest says something and the congregation responds. Almost half our prayers they respond to. There’s a lot of singing,” Abba Yohannes said.

He admitted that “if all those three hours the priest is only praying it would be boring”, but because they are part of the liturgy they “feel comforted”.

Not eating meat on Fridays seems easy compared to the intense 265 days of fasting throughout the year that Abba Yohannes observes. No other Church has as many fast days as the Ethiopian Orthodox (Tewahedo) Church.

The fasting periods are Lent, Ninevah, Gehad, the Fast of the Apostles, Advent and the Assumption which vary with regard to length and what can be consumed.

Wednesday and Friday are always fast days as well, and generally Ethiopian Orthodox would fast from all animal products and live on a strictly vegan diet.

Not all fast days are mandatory, with Abba Johannes saying: “There are exceptions for pregnant women, if you are sick you are allowed to eat, young children are allowed to eat. After the age of 7 they do a little bit of fasting maybe two or three hours until they are 10 or 12. If the family are fasting, they would like to fast as a family all together.”

Penances

He added that the congregation are happy to fast, and don’t complain, but sometimes it’s difficult to get food that has no animal products in Ireland, whereas in Ethiopia it’s very easy.

It’s also very rare for people to take Communion at Mass, commonly teenagers and children would, but generally not adults.

Abba Yohannes said: “We, as Church leaders, encourage the congregation to receive the Eucharist every Sunday, but they say they are not worthy enough to receive it every Sunday because you have to go to Confession, they have to talk to a priest before they receive it and their penances. If they receive the Holy Communion they give honour and respect, they are not allowed to work on a Sunday.”

Abba Yohannes graduated with a BA in Divinity from St Patrick’s College Maynooth last year. Before that he spent eight years in the oldest and largest monastery in Ethiopia, called Waldeba, which has 150km of land and is in the middle of the desert.

The culture shock was tough for the Ethiopian priest, who was given little to no information about the climate or culture he was entering.

It didn’t help that he arrived in the winter of 2010, when Ireland and Britain were covered in heavy snow, and temperatures plummeted to record breaking lows, generally around -10C. In Mayo temperature dropped to -17C, and Ballyhaise had the coldest day on record at -9.4C according to Met Éireann.

“When I came to Ireland in the end of 2010 there was really really heavy snow on that day. I had no information about the snow because we have no snow in Ethiopia, it was my first time,” said Abba Yohannes.

“Everything was white, I didn’t have warm clothes because I have no information about weather, and my God I was feeling cold.”

He said before he was sent to Ireland “they trained me how to preach and celebrate Mass, and give penance – everything spiritual – but not about the weather or the culture”.

Sayings like ‘thanks a million’ baffled the priest, who mentioned to his archbishop that anyone doing pastoral work abroad should be fully prepared for the trip.

However he said there are also similarities, as people go out of their way to help strangers in both countries, and there is also a lot of respect for priests.

“When I came to Ireland I found people so welcoming, helping us and even the younger people, I think most people complain ‘they’re young they have no faith’, but they have good ethics. I have never met a violent young person here,” he added.

Ethiopian Orthodoxy is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches and is not in communion with the Eastern Orthodox Churches which include the Russian Orthodox – covered last week in the series – as well as several others.

They are in communion with the Coptic Christians, mainly based in Egypt as well as several others including the Armenian Apostolic and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches. They do not accept the primacy of the Pope; the Ethiopian Orthodox’s patriarch is Abune Mathias. However they have six autocephalous Churches in the Oriental Orthodox Church, and each have their own patriarch, but Pope Tawadros II is known as the ‘first among equals’ and acts as president when there are gatherings of the Oriental Orthodox.

Stone tablets

In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church the priest can’t celebrate Mass without a Tabot. It is a copy of the Ark of Covenant which is described in the Book of Exodus as containing the two original stone tablets where the Ten Commandments were written.

Tabot is a Ge’ez word, which is an ancient language not used in Ethiopia anymore except during liturgies.

A church can’t exist without a Tabot, and when it is consecrated it is kept in the Qeddest Qeddusan, or Holy of Holies, where only the clergy can enter. The Tabot is only brought outside during festivals, and is covered by vestments and carried on the priest’s head in a procession around the church. The Tabot is generally made from wood or alabaster.

Fasting

While the Catholic Church recognises 73 canonical books, the Ethiopian Orthodox recognise 81, some of which they recognise almost exclusively – such as the Book of Enoch.

Abba Yohannes told the paper that fasting and the food they eat is influenced by the Old Testament, and they focus more heavily on Trinitarian teaching: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Exorcism is highly practiced in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, with many people travelling to Holy places to have rituals performed on them.

“It is common in our Church especially in Ethiopia where we have Holy Water in the monasteries and in holy places. In the churches we have stream water flowing from the relics of the Saints,” said Abba Johannes, adding that he has witnessed successful exorcisms.

Ethiopian Orthodox are Judeo-Christians, as they received Judaism before the coming of Christ, they still have Jewish links such as the practice of not eating pork. They also rest on both Saturday (Sabbath) and Sunday.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin allows the Ethiopian Orthodox to share St Mary’s Catholic Church on Haddington Road as they don’t have a Church of their own.

Abba Yohannes expressed his great appreciation and thanks to Archbishop Martin, saying: “We have a dialogue towards unity”.

“The Catholic Church here in Ireland are so positive towards us, we couldn’t survive or worship here without their help. For example Archbishop Martin allowed us to worship every Sunday for free, and I live with the parish priests,” he said.

We live peacefully and help each other in tolerance, I think this encourages us to work more closely with the Catholic Church.”

He added that in Ethiopia at his monastery there was “no transportation access, no light because it’s a desert and so no radio, no TV, no internet access even, so imagine how it’s different from Ireland”.

“But when I came here it was difficult to find a place to worship, but the support of the Irish Catholic Church helped our community since the beginning. They granted me a place to stay in the presbytery, and other supports.”

Abba Yohannes added that his congregation is growing with about 50 people attending his Dublin service every Sunday, and this rises to over 100 people on a feast day.

He travels all over Ireland to minister to his faithful, where over 30-40 people attend his Saturday Mass.

“The parish is growing and there are many reasons for that. We have students, university staff, qualified people working in Ireland and asylum seekers as well,” adding: “as a priest I am very happy to work here in a Christian country”.

In the next part of the series we meet the Georgian Orthodox :