Ethiopia: past memories, future hopes for a Spirit-led church

Ruth Abraham: Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus 

(LWI) - A lay member of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) and daughter of one of its former presidents, Ruth Abraham has many stories to tell. Some of them are past memories of her school days at a British boarding school. Or the traumatic times in the 1970s when her father was imprisoned and many of his government colleagues killed by Ethiopia’s military junta.  

But Abraham is also passionate about the present and future of her church, especially about the role of women whose skills and leadership abilities, she believes, are still not adequately recognized and valued for the good of the whole community.  

A former Gender Focal Point with the Ethiopia office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Abraham is currently spearheading a project to support elderly members of her church at the Addis Ababa Mekane Yesus congregation.  During the recent Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Council meeting in the Ethiopian capital, she shared some of her stories from both past and present.

Tell us something about your family and your earliest memories? 

Well, we are two girls and two boys, all of us now in our seventies. My father was Emmanuel Abraham, who served as the second president of the EECMY from 1963 to 1985. He was also a diplomat in Emperor Haile Sellasse's government, appointed as ambassador first to India, then to Italy and later to the United Kingdom. 

We had a happy childhood, but I left my country when I was just two years old and returned when I was 21. When I was 11, my sister and I were sent to a boarding school in north Wales and then I went to Leeds University in the UK to do a degree in political studies. I remember that my father was always very supportive of us girls, encouraging us to go forwards and not be held back. He encouraged me in my career, as a manager with Ethiopian Airlines, then with the UNDP, and he was very supportive of women’s issues. 

What was it like being the daughter of such a well-known political and church leader? 

There wasn’t a lot of fanfare about him, as I remember it. But it was very hard when he was put in prison with his government colleagues, especially for my mother who took food to him every day during that time. We wanted to go with her to visit him, but we weren’t allowed into the underground prison where he was being held. 

What do you remember most from that turbulent era? 

It was a very difficult time for us. In late 1974, most of his government colleagues were murdered, and later also the first general secretary of our church, Rev. Gudina Tumsa, who was abducted and killed after refusing an offer to leave the country. But I believe God had a plan for my father’s life and he lived to be 103. He passed away in 2016, having accomplished so much for the church and for our people.  

Tell us something about the church and about the Addis Ababa Mekane Yesus congregation that you belong to? 

It’s called the mother church, as it is the oldest congregation, founded by Swedish missionaries at the beginning of 20^th century, before the EECMY was officially established in 1959.  

Many members of the congregation have been there all their lives and some are very elderly now. A few years ago, I became active in trying to do something for them, because we have committees for youth, for adults, for women, for prison ministry and so on, but we had no program for the elderly.  

Many of them have no transport to get to church and rely on visits from the pastors who are often very busy. I saw how isolated my father became in his later years, and I wondered how difficult it must be for others who often suffer from great loneliness. I initiated a discussion on elderly care, both at the church’s Central Office and within my own congregation, to see what we could do, not just in providing sermons or theological resources, but in addressing some of their issues and enabling them to come together for leisure time to combat that loneliness. 

Mekane Yesus is currently the largest LWF member church with 12 million members and growing rapidly – what do you think is the key to this success? 

Well, we take it for granted, but I think I would say it is the work of the Holy Spirit. Not everyone will agree, but I believe that it is not us human beings who are in control, but the Spirit who opens hearts and minds. 

You are keen to support a stronger role for lay people, especially women, aren’t you?  

Yes, you know the church was started by lay people, like the first president Dr Emmanuel Gabre Sillassie and my father after him. The vast majority of its members are lay people and I think we should do more to highlight the importance of lay ministries. 

I also believe that we must do much more to support the role of women in the church, both ordained and lay women. We have just celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the decision to ordain women, but I feel we should be moving faster. More work needs to be done at grass roots level to encourage and support them to come forward for training.  

But we also have so many professional women in our congregations with education and skills that are not being used and valued by our leaders. I was very encouraged to see the recent publication of a book called ‘In Memory of Them: Women witnessing to Christ in Ethiopia’ which was edited by Christel Ahrens and Ebise Ashana. It’s inspired by the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation and recounts the history of women reformers in our church from the early missionaries to present day pioneers, whose stories are not often told.