Christ, Fasting, and Long Liturgies: Discovering the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Editor’s Note: Drawing from personal engagement with Ethiopian Christians and research on the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, CFNA staff member Richard Leigh highlights some of the theological beliefs that differ from the Lutheran and broader Protestant traditions. 

I have always loved working with immigrants and have always been interested in religions, not just my own but just about everyone else’s I meet. Though I have worked with many non-Lutheran Christians in the past, I recently began working with a man who is Ethiopian Orthodox. I’d like to share with you aspects of this very interesting and ancient form of Christianity. 

Ethiopian Orthodoxy is a variety of the Oriental as opposed to the Eastern branch of our common religion. The distinction is that since the Fourth Ecumenical Council in 451 (called Chalcedonian), the Oriental branches could not bring themselves to confess the two natures of Christ, teaching rather that in Christ, the two natures are united in a way that does not mix them.[1] In contrast with this view, Lutherans agree that there are two distinct, inseparable natures in one person (Jesus Christ) which aligns with the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic perspective. 

Another interesting aspect is that the Ethiopian Orthodox use a different calendar than we do. Back in the day there was (besides the Jewish calendar) the Julian calendar, which was later updated by Pope Gregory XIII to be “the Gregorian Calendar.” Our Ethiopian friends live under a calendar called the “Alexandrian Calendar”, named after Alexander the Great of the fourth century BC. It has the same number of days but it happens to start on September 10th, and each of the 12 months have 30 days (the days start at sunrise, or roughly 6 AM). 

To have a complete calendar cycle of 365 days, there is a five or six-day period called the month of Pagumen. Though there are seven days within a week, believers fast on two of those days (not one, like the Catholics). This comes from the history of Jewish Pharisees who fasted two days per week, each on a market day. Remember that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his disciples to not fast as the hypocrites did. The early church quickly took that to mean “not on the same days”, so they (and the Ethiopian Churches) still fast on Wednesdays and Fridays (instead of on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which were designated days of fasting for Jews). You cannot eat dairy products, meat, fish, or eggs during the fasts (though vegetables are allowed). 

Something else of great interest is that the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible is quite different from any other found within the Christian tradition. First, it is translated from the Septuagint (or Greek translation of the Old Testament), and then, like the Catholic Bible, it contains what we call the Apocrypha. However, the Ethiopian Orthodox’s Apocrypha is far more extensive than the one found in the Catholic Bible. It includes books originating from the Apostolic Fathers, III Maccabees, five books of Enoch detailing the fall of the angels from heaven before the flood, an explanation for why demons are still allowed to wander the earth, and Jubilees. This last book describes in detail the activities of our first parents (Adam and Eve), the errors they made when sin entered the world, and, yes, the names of the sisters of Cain and Abel. 

Finally, the Ethiopian churches hold fast to the first century church tradition of separating the men from the women and children during services (the Ethiopian Orthodox churches even have an elaborate liturgy that can take up to 5 hours)! To that I always repeat the old cliché, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” I hope they are.            

By Richard H. Leigh, M.A. Historical Theology (Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago)
Outreach Facilitator

[1] This theological position is often referred to as Miaphysitism which is associated with Cyril of Alexandria.