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Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo

Grew from
Oriental Orthodox
From
330 AD
Origin
Aksum

Christianity reached the kingdom of Aksum in the fourth century through Frumentius, consecrated for Ethiopia by Athanasius of Alexandria. The church remained under the Coptic patriarchate until 1959 and is one of the very few in Africa that owes nothing to European missions. Tewahedo means "made one", and names its account of Christ's natures.

What marks it out

The widest canon in Christianity, at eighty-one books, including 1 Enoch and Jubilees, which survive complete in Ge'ez and in no other language. Worship in Ge'ez, with drums, sistra and liturgical dance. Both Saturday and Sunday are kept. Eleven churches at Lalibela are cut downward out of solid rock, and the church holds that the Ark of the Covenant rests at Axum, with a replica in every sanctuary.

Alongside it

Also from Oriental Orthodox.

In the record

  1. 451 AD Division

    Council of Chalcedon

    Defined Christ as one person in two natures. The Coptic, Syriac and Armenian churches rejected the formula, becoming the Oriental Orthodox.

This body appears in the history but does not carry recorded doctrinal positions here, so it is absent from the comparison panels.

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