We have enough Church buildings in Ethiopia for those who need to worship God in the Church; to tell you the truth, God can be worshipped anywhere, either in the Church, in a private house, in an open place, in a cave or in one’s own heart. Remember what Jesus said to that Samaritan woman: “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21). Instead of putting stones upon stones, we should build the hearts of the people by bringing into their hearts the word of the living God.

Time has changed, and we should not collect money in the names of dead people. We do not even know whether they are saints or sinners like you and me. It is only in the last days, when Jesus comes, that we will be able to know who is a saint and who is a sinner. You mentioned Abune Tekle-Haimanot. You know there is a saying in Amharic language: ” Yayith misikura dinbith.” Abune Tekile-Haimanot has nothing to do with the cheater Aba Kewstos, the servant of Abune Paulos.

Abune Petros and Abune Tekle- Haimanot are dead people, and they had never left a will or a nuzazie that we should build churches in their names; it is people like you who made them gods or saints for their own benefits: to collect money in their names for their own personal interests.

You wanted to know whether I’m doing something to help the hungry children; what I do is my own business, and after all, didn’t the Master say: “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men”? (Matthew 6:2)

Serawit, I think you are in the same wagon with Aba Kewstos and Abune Paulos, the illegitimate Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church at home.

It is easy to know who wrote Abaout Mahibere Kidusan those bad stuff. MENAFEKAN!!! LEBONA YESTEN! few Menfikan orthodox church they already made the prayer and fasting shorter and the song is with Piano and Gaithar. I am sure recently they will allow Starbucks coffe and cigaretts during KEDAS time. EGZIOOOOOOOOOOOO. ENDBEDELACHEN ATFREDBEN.

If you are worried about the money being stolen, then don’t give it to the church but once you agree to give it, is not “your” money. After all, 10% of your income belongs to God and you should not claim it as yours. Yemeset Bedesta Yesit.

You wrote: “Our Church problem should be kept in the Church….”

Our main problem is Abune Paulos,and we will not keep him in the Church, for he is a sinner for taking the legitimate appointment from Abune Merkorios, Patriarch of the entire Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

I told Abune Paulos to give up the holy office he is illegitimately occupying to Abune Paulos but refused to do so. Then, other people told him the same thing, to give up his patriarchate to Abune Merkorios, and he remained adamant and refused to listen to some of these Church members. In return, these groups of people went forward and told the Church in the diaspora, and the Church in humility reminded Abune Paulos that he should give up his sovereignty over the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Ethiopia to the legitimate Patriarch Abune Merkorios; however, he refused to listen to me; he refused to listen to the group of people; and finally, he became defiant to listen even to the Church in diaspora.

Therefore, most of us in the diaspora are not going to respect him; according to the word of God, we are going to treat him as “a heathen” or as “a tax collector” (Matthew 18:13-17), and, in fact, that is what he is doing now – collecting taxes and building his own houses and entertaining himself with the Holy Wood celebrities.

When there is something wrong in our Ethiopian Orthodox Church, we have to speak out and correct the error without hurting the person who erred. We must remember that Martin Luther was a Catholic monk, but when he saw corruption in the Catholic Church, he protested against that Church and formed his own church – the Protestant Church. There are no doctrinal differences in our Ethiopian Orthodox Church; fortunately, those differences have been settled long time ago by our Church Fathers. What we have now is a power-hungry Patriarch, and we have to say no to him; he cannot be a patriarch according to our Ethiopian Orthodox Church rule as long as the other patriarch is well and alive.

Meles Zenawi
‘Aba’Gebremedhne, a.k.a. Abune Paulos
‘Aba’Kewstose
‘Aba’Abrehame
‘Aba’ Gebreal
Mahabere ‘kidusan’
Daniel Kibret

This person is one of the few holy fathers what Ethiopian Orthodox Church have, He is preaching the the word of God. Plus he is saying about the objective reality of the Church.
What he had said was ” …I agree America is a blessed country. It became a home of so many nationality people. But still America could not be Ethiopia. Ethiopia is Ethiopia. Ethiopia could not be America either. Both countries has its own people, culture, religion…During Judit Guidet The Ethiopian orthodox church suffers 40 years and 15 years at Gragn Mohamed at home. The church never and ever run away from Ethiopia.” Which is true. ESKI AMLAKE LEBONA YESTEN!

elias keep up the good work

Your testimony about the holiness and sincerity of Aba Kewstos may be true; however, collecting money from the diaspora people to build a monastery for the dead person while millions of Ethiopian children are hungry and sick is unethical.

After all, Abune Petros has a statue erected in his name in Addis Ababa (Abune Petros Hault) if I remember correctly, and what is the most important thing for someone is to have his name written in the Book of Life in heaven rather than to have a perishing statue or a monastery in one’s own name on this evanescent world.

Famous kings, queens, army generals may need statues built in their names but not spiritual fathers and mothers like Abune Petros, and Mother Theresa respectively. For example, Moses, Abraham, Elijah, and many other spiritual fathers did not have statues in their names on this earth. Their good names are their statues, their banners, and their lasting prides.

Therefore, Aba Kewstos’ vision is a misguided vision – a vision that deals with the dead rather than with the living that wants to become like Abune Petros or Mother Theresa but could not achieve those dreams because of a dictatorial government in their country – a government that knowingly subjects them to diseases and famine.

If Aba Kewstos is collecting money to build a monument or a monastery for Aba Petros, why doesn’t he also collect money to build a monastery for Patriarch Theophelos, who was gunned down by Mengistu Haile Mariam?

As far as the Debre Genet Medhanialem Church property is concerned, Aba Kewstos has no right to be involved in someone’s personal property. For instance, when Jesus was preaching the crowd as usual, “someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ Jesus replied, ‘Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed….’” (Luke 12:13-15)

So, who are you, Aba Kewstos, to be involved in the Debre Genet Medhanialem Church property unless you have some personal interest in someone’s land or Church building? Let the members of the Genet Medhanialem Church handle their own belongings. Please, the Genet Medhanialem Church members “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.”

I can give you an example about Rusuan Orthodox church in diaspora.
Rusuan orthodox have about 2022 Church in the continental USA regested as Rusuan Orthodox. The past four years they are busy selling them most, among the 2022 church property 1093 were sold for the past three years. Do you know the reason? They do not have any one will take over from them. Thier sons and daughters not ready at all. They hare all mixed up with western cultures and hipop musics, not even few individuals ready to take over.
Our church will will have same fate as Rusuan Orthodox even worst because it’s regesterd as private property of some group of people
Let us wake and do some thing forget about Abune Paulos/gebremedehin/ God has it’s time to take him to the end if we do not do some thing about it. We will be in trouble then.
Wake up and do some thing.