Mekelle፡ 7 June 2024 (Tigray Herald)
The Orthodox Church has expressed disappointment at the independent Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission for starting the selection of delegates and the agenda items without inviting it. In a statement issued on Thursday by the Holy Synod, the church’s highest executive organ, the church said it had established a committee to engage the commission to ensure its rights are respected. The church has also called on all the parties to resolve the ongoing conflicts through “dialogue”. The church said it had established two separate committees to ensure the incorporation of its recommendations in the draft Bill regarding religious organisations, and facilitate communications with the authorities, in a bid to create a positive relationship with the government. The church has, for the past five years, had a tenuous relationship with the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has rejected homosexuality and same sex marriage as “unacceptable in natural law” and “human way of life”, and “totally prohibited in the Bible, in its dogma and is illegal in civil law”. In a statement on Thursday, the church said homosexuality and same sex marriage endangered personal identity, family life and social fabrics. Homosexual practices are criminal offences in Ethiopia. The church has also vowed not to tolerate the clergy who preach incitement to violence. Last week, a Federal Court sentenced a top Orthodox archbishop in Australia to six years in abstentia, for “inciting violence” among the church’s congregation in Texas, United States, last year.
