"The Ethiopian Orthodox Liturgy: A Bird's Eye View" by Rev. Dr. Mebratu Kiros Gebru

edited July 2014 in Coptic Orthodox Church
Here's a nice talk by Abouna Mebratu:

"The Ethiopian Orthodox Liturgy: A Bird's Eye View" by Rev. Dr. Mebratu Kiros Gebru 

Father briefly references interdependence in the Divine Liturgy but his lecture doesn't emphasize that "the Sacrament of Communion cannot be isolated from Sacrament of the Assembly, Sacrament of the Kingdom, Sacrament of Entrance, Sacrament of the Word, Sacrament of Unity, Sacrament of Anaphora, etc." The other issue is that Fr Mebratu mentions modern absence of Catechumens which suggests that either the catechumenate is not in use as a missiological apparatus or that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church does not have Catechumens. One would hope that the existence of the rite of Dismissial of Catechumens would encourage the Church (this includes all Orthodox Rites) to have active work in Catechizing those we 'mission' too, and encouraging the use of the Catechumenate as the Traditional method of evangelism and mission instead of appealing to heterodox methodologies and presuppositions. If Orthodox missiology is Liturgical, Trinitarian and focused on Theosis, then the Official use of the office of the Catechumenate is an integral sacramental work of the Church, for the synergistic cooperation of man's union with God. Still, this lecture does give a fascinating insight into the Traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. 

For example did you know that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church does not do "Liturgical Dance"?

Abouna says: "These services are conducted by cantors, in Ethiopia you can find two kinds of clerics, the people simply called colloquial priests, we call all of them priests but not all are priests, there are special cantors who usually serve in these non-Eucharistic service which is conducted in the first ambulatory of the three divisions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. And this service is called Divine Office. For this service the Cantors use special drums and they have priestly staffs or cane and sistrums. European scholars who saw these services who paid a visit to the Ethiopian Church called them Liturgical Dances. Of course we don't use drums in the Eucharistic service because that is very solem. In this Divine Office service they use Choir Canes, Drums, and sistrums."

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