The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church today issued a statement in which it expressed disappointment about its exclusion from National Dialogue.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church held a meeting in which all the synod members participated and Patriarch Abune Matias also participated. The meeting went on for around a week, and after EOTC issued a statement and it formed three committees.
One of these committees will work for inclusion of EOTC in National Dialogue. The National dialogue was formally launched this week in Addis Ababa by the Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed. Main political and armed groups are boycotting the dialogue.
The second committee will work to resolve misunderstandings and disputes between the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the government. Abune Lukas, an archbishop of EOTC based abroad, recently called for the assassination of PM Abiy. The government filed a case against the archbishop. He has been sentenced in absentia by an Ethiopian court. The church distanced itself from Abune Lukas saying that the archbishop’s remarks should not be seen as representative of EOTC.
The government says that some elements of church support Fano fighters but Church denies. The church says that government is backing Prosperity Gospels and some other religious institutions
The third committee will look into a proposed religious law. It will propose amendments to this law. This new law is called “Religious Affairs Proclamation.” This law states that the religious institutions must establish an accounting and audit system and submit their audit report to the Ministry of Peace. The institutions will have to use an accounting system containing a list of income, expenditure and total assets. Income received from abroad will have to be declared and the institutions will have to open bank accounts to raise money in the country. Support, aid and donations given from abroad will have to be declared as well.
After discussions between the government and Ethiopian Religions institutions, an amendment has been made to this law. According to the amendment, the religious institutions do not have to show the donations they get from abroad.
The third committee formed by the EOTC will propose more changes to the proposed Religious Affairs Proclamation.
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