The Ethiopian Church Journal Blog

 Royal Wedding      “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Save the Children By Mitiku Adisu No one knows what actually happened to finally force Ethiopian government to clampdown on international adoption. No one can tell if details of scams that have been going on since the late-1990s will ever come to light. Is it ok to be part of a scam in order to do some good? Does the end ever justify the means? Unfortunately, those who dispense information are the same ones with a stake in the adoption ‘business’ now busy sanitizing their side of the story. Having endured emotional and financial hardships, adoptive parents would be defensive and not easily swayed to want to undergo another round of scrutiny. Much is at stake; above all, at stake is hopes and dreams of a motherless child and a mother without a child. Several factors have come into play to result in what appears an interminable problem in Ethiopian adoptions. First, numerous agencies are authorized to deal with children with little or no coordination among themselves. There are

Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has

The Cross, The Power of God He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son , that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. You see, at just the right time, when w

Ethiopia, The Bible ... Professor Edward Ullendorff, who died on March 6 aged 91, was an authority on Ethiopia and the Bible and held the chair of Semitic Languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London from 1979 to 1982. Edward Ullendorff was born on January 25 1920 in Berlin and educated at the city's Gymnasium Graues Kloster. He taught himself Hebrew and Arabic and, from the age of 15, attended university classes in Arabic. In 1938 he went to Palestine to study Semitic languages at the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, living in the North Talpiot neighbourhood of Jerusalem, a city which, as he recalled, was still relatively empty and stunningly beautiful. He soon, however, became aware of the huge gulf between the Arab and Jewish residents. His own days were filled with studies, visits to bookshops, music and amateur theatre, and evenings spent with neighbours debating everything from Palestinian politics to Henry VIII's wives and fluid mech

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The

Directors charged with defrauding adoption agency of $420,000 Source: The Globe and Mail The founder and general manager of an international adoption agency are accused of defrauding the agency of hundreds of thousands of dollars almost two years after trustees first found “questionable” spending in its records. Cambridge, Ont.-based Imagine Adoption, which matched up Canadians with orphans from Ghana and Ethiopia, declared bankruptcy in July, 2009, leaving hundreds of families in adoption limbo. Now, the agency’s founder, Susan Hayhow, and its general manager, Rick Hayhow, are charged with breach of trust and multiple counts of fraud, totalling more than $420,000. Police allege the frauds took place between January, 2007 and the agency’s bankruptcy declaration. During that time, police say, money paid for adoption services was spent on international vacations, renovations to the couple’s shared home in Cambridge, food and clothing. The charges are cold comfort to the families, man

Egypt and Ethiopia: Mixing Religion and Politics? By Mitiku Adisu Almasry Alyoum in its 13 April 2011 edition seemed eager to divert the “Nile water crisis” to the courtyards of the church. “Egyptian and Ethiopian churches discuss Nile water crisis” run the headline. How deep should the church be wading in troubled waters? Would such involvement get in the way of the church’s primary responsibility to point people to the Living Water, even our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Ethiopia and Egypt have had ties spanning centuries; or time immemorial, depending on whether you start with Christian history or the Blue Nile River. Egypt, we forget at our own peril, was once majority Christian. As recent as four centuries ago more than 40% of Egypt was Christian. Compare that to 11% at present and, considering persecution and out migration, you begin to understand why and how societies change. Ethiopia, on the other hand, has remained majority Christian due in part to initial theolo