The Ethiopian Liturgy: A Birds Eye View
by Rev. Dr. Mebratu Kiros Gebru
Fr Mebratu's PhD Dissertation: "Liturgical Cosmology: The Theological and Sacramental Dimensions of Creation in the Ethiopian Liturgy", from St Michael's College, Toronto, 2012
Transcript:
So as the title shows my intention is just to present a brief overview of the history and development of the Ethiopian Liturgy and some of the features of the Eucharistic and Non-Eucharistic services. As I say throughout the centuries the Ethiopian Liturgy to be an important Rite and in this liturgical development historians usually see four different phases.
The first phase was from the 4th century to the 7th century, translations were made from both Greek and Syriac sources into Gez or Ethiopic a lay presentation language. Thank you for the reading from the Acts of the Apostles chapter 8, the Ethiopian Eunuch was baptized by the Apostle Philip in the 1st century around 4AD. And Eubsebius the historian says the Ethiopian Eunuch returned to his country and he sowed the seed of Christianity by proclaiming the Gospel. So we know that the proclamation of the Gospel was maintained in the early first centuries, of course we can`t claim that there was heirarchy and the administration of these sacraments. So the first sacramental administration was during the meal of the 4th century when a certain Frumentius of Syrian Origin, Ethiopians call him Abba Salama, was ordained as the first bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church by St Athanasius of Alexandria.
This is how the Ethiopian Liturgical Tradition is related to the Alexandrian rite. So Abba Salama or Frumentius brings from Alexandria the Ordo Communis or the preparatory services part of the Coptic Liturgy and he also brought the Hyppolytus Apostolic Tradition which is called Egyptian Church Order. Historians usually debate who this Hippolytus was but in the Ethiopian Apostolic Tradition we find an Anaphora, that anaphora is now developed in the Ethiopian Tradition to be the Anaphora of the Apostles. That is one of the oldest Anaphoras known in the Ethiopian Liturgy and it is the principle anaphora of the liturgies usually found with Ethiopian Liturgies as principal.
Also the Church developed another source which is called 'Sinodos' which is a canonical liturgical source which consists of a number of decrees of different eccumenical and local councils, pseudo-apostlica. And the anaphora of Hyppolytus is also found in the Ethiopian parts of the Sinodos called the Ethiopian Church Order, the Ethiopian Fathers exapanded the anaphora of Hyppolytus and named it the Anaphora of the Apostles.
During this time the Ethiopian Church was also able to receive the Greek Anaphora of St Mark. We have the exact translation of this anaphora into Geez. But unfortunately for unknown reasons the anaphora of St Mark is not part of the Ethiopian missa, it`s missing. If you take a look the first translated by Marcos Dawod a Coptic Priest, in the Ethiopian missal you can see 14 official anaphoras. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church generally has 20 anaphoras, 14 are official, but 6 of them are found only in monasteries, most of them are not printed. So even though the anaphora of St. Mark was one of the anaphoras recieved in this period of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church it's not part of the missal and not in the Church.
The other interest on the Ethiopian Orthodox Liturgy comes from the Syrian Tradition and this was in the 5th century. The nine saints who are know to have come from Asia Minor, some scholars debate as to if they were all Syrians who came to Ethiopia fleeing the Justinian persecution, related to the Chalcedonian debate. You know what happened in AD451, these Fathers were just looking for a country where they could be welcome due to their faith, like the other non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church does not accept the Chalcedonian formula, we believe that we are faithful to the Cyriline Formula which defined our Lord Jesus Christ as One Incarnate Nature of the Word. When we use the term Miaphysis, we are saying Jesus Christ is one united nature, we are not simply saying single one nature, or monophysis, as these Churches are prejoratively always calling us monophysite Churches. We prefer the term Miaphysite, because we believe in the hypostasic union was the divinity and the humanity in Christ were in them without being seperated.
So due to this debate, these saints fled to Ethiopia and since they know the Syriac language they translated the very important source which is known in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as nasafa Kidan, or the book of the "Testament of the Lord."
The Testament of the Lord, its title shows consists of The Anaphora of the Lord and to our surprise this Anaphora is maintained by the Ethiopian Church. All these sources even though they claim to have Apostolic roots, liturgical scholars believe that they were just composed first century. So still the Anaphora of the Lord is used in the Ethiopian Church and from the Testament of the Lord the Ethiopian Fathers were able to adapt a number of liturgical formulae.
For example the euchologion of the Testament of the Lord is used in the Ethiopian Church for Matins service and it's called Kidan. There are intercessory prayers, the mystagogia; the Baptismal text which was believed to be used in the Early Church for those who were Baptized as for catechumens while they were being initiated into Baptism.
Also these Fathers of Syrian Origin were able to translate the Anaphoras of Saint James Which was used by the Church of Jerusalem, into Geez. So during this period in the first phase of its development the Ethiopian Liturgy received translations from what was Greek and Syriac sources.
But what is interesting is that whenever Ethiopians scholars translate a certain source into their language, they usually make their own contribution. Even they ammend to their translation something different, making it totally different from what is extant in the original. So they didn't simply recieve these sources and adapt it to the Ethiopian Tradition but they were making their own contributions by adding some rubrics and some hymns into these anaphoras. So finally these anaphoras tend to look different from their originals.
The other local contribution to the Ethiopian Liturgy was made by Saint Yared the Ethiopian Hymnologist. St Yared lived from 505 to 580 AD and St Yared is credited for composing a number of hymnaries. The most know of the hymnaries is "Deggwa," the antiphonary of the year. It serves in the Ethiopian Church as the basis of its lectionary, and also he has another hymnaries which are used in the Sunday Office, Matins and Vespers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
From the 7th Century till the 11th Century we don't see any development in the Ethiopian Tradition because after the 7th Century there was the decline of the Aksumite Kingdom, the Aksum Kingdom was very powerful in the 4th and 5th Century and even Aksumen Kings were ruling over the Arabian peninsular. But after the rise of Islam in the 7th Century, Aksum which was the capital city of Ethiopia in those centuries, lost its power and there were internal conflicts in Ethiopia so we don't see any kind of development between those centuries but after another dynasty arose in Ethiopia so in this period translations were again made from Arabic sources. Still the Ethiopian Orthodox Tradition is borrowing Liturgical sources from the different Liturgical Rites.
In this period we find some of the texts like the Didascalia, also a canonical liturgical source which is mainly dealing with some orders within the Church. So the Didascalia is related with the Greek Didascalia Apostolorum, this was translated from Arabic to Geez. The Coptic Anaphora of St Basil as well was translated, the lectionary for the Passion Week from Arabic into Geez was translated, the Coptic Horologium also was translated.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church also received funeral rites from the Coptic Orthodox Church. In this period since the Coptic Orthodox Church was the Mother Church of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Bishops were coming from Alexandria to serve the Ethiopian Church, so the Metropolitan Abba Salama II was credited for translating a number of Arabic sources into Ethiopic. But as I say, even though scholars received different liturgical texts and formularies from both Greek, Syrian and Arabic sources they were making their own contributions. So even though the Coptic or Alexandrian liturgy was the root of the Ethiopian Liturgy, they weren't simply making the Ethiopian Liturgy a simple copy or directly copied liturgy. Rather they were making their own contribution and these local Ethiopic contributions is clearly seen in the third phase of the development of the Ethiopian Liturgy.
This period is know by scholars as the Golden Period, Ethiopian Scholars like Abba Giyorgis and some other local scholars make a serious liturgical reform. For instance, as I said earlier when the Ethiopian Church received translations from the Arabic sources, the Arabic Liturgy of Hours, or Horologium, was translated by Abba Salama II, but Abba Giyorgis composed another book of Hours which replaced the Coptic Horologium. So that was a pure Ethiopian contribution. Also ther were scholars like Retua Haymanot who composed homilies for the great feasts of the Lord , and when these scholars composed their homilies they were just prescribing some orders that these three homilies should be just read during the great feasts of the Church. Homily of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Book of Mystery to be read during the Resurrection of the Lord, during Ascension, during Pentecost.
This shows us that the Ethiopian scholars were able to understand the interdependence of liturgy and theologia. As the theologians say, Lex orandi, Lex credendi. The rule of faith is the rule of prayer. There is a clear connection or interdependence between the liturgy of the Church and its theology, even the liturgy of the Church is supposed to be a Theologia Prima, or primary theology. So these fathers while they were able to compose doctrinal treatises they wanted their homilies to be read during the liturgical services, so this shows their understanding of the interdependence of the two.
The other theological reform in the Ethiopian liturgy resulted from the Theological controversies, many of them which took place in the 15th century. This is the Golden period of Ethiopian Literature, in this period Ethiopian literature reached it's peak. Some of the controversies were Trinitarian, like the anthropomorphism controversy.
Ethiopian scholars in this period were debating and interpreting how the human person was created in the image and likeness of God. They were asking how to understand when the Bible says the human person was created in the image and likeness of God. Some of them simply relied on the literal interpretation of the Bible they say since the human person was created image and likeness of God as the same human form, like human beings.
Some of them said, when the Bible says when we're created in the image and likeness of God, it doesn't mean God has the same form or figure like human beings, but we look like God in our conscience or in our soul, because we given soul from Divine power which is immortal by nature.
So these scholars while debating on anthopomorphism or the celebration of Sabbath, because the Ethiopian Church's roots are Jewish, and when you see its liturgy there are a number of Jewish elements, and there is no Church which is more Jewish than the Ethiopian Church in terms of maintaining Jewish practices and elements. So whenever these fathers debated they wrote at the same time formulas and anaphoras. Their plan was just to make their theological position accepted by the Church, so they composed about 15 local anaphoras. And most of these local anaphoras are now received by the Ethopian Church and they are official anaphoras. During this period the Church had just two anaphoras, the first anaphora of the Apostles received from the Hyppolytian Apostolic Order, and the Anaphora of the Lord, the Anaphora which was merged from the Testament of the Lord.
But after these fathers composed a number of anaphoras, these anaphoras were received, of course when you look at the Ethiopian missal, you read titles like Anaphora of St Athanasius, St Cyril, St Dioscorus, St John Chrysostom, and so on, but these designations are spurious. The pseudonyms were given because the Scholars knew that unless they ascribe their words to fathers of the Church, their words weren't to be accepted by the Church. So there were naming their works by the names of the fathers of the Church for the sole purpose of getting credibility. So after their lifetime the Church finally was able to accept their own anaphoras and if you look at Ethiopian anaphoras they appear more like Theological treatises than Liturgical anaphoras or Eucharistic prayers. This is because the anaphoras were result of theological controversies in Ethiopia.
Contrast the Anaphora of St Mary, is full of Trinitarian confessions and doxologies so this is clear from the context the anaphoras were a result of theological debates in Ethiopia.
The final phase of the Ethiopian Liturgy was made in the 16th and 17th Century the Jesuit or Portuguese missionaries did their best in order to convert the Ethiopian Church into Catholicism, even though this was a result for bloodshedding in Ethiopia. Even though the Ethiopian scholars debated with the Jesuits it didn't have any apparent influence on the Ethiopian Liturgy due to this debates there was crossing the Ethiopian Literary tradition at all.
What we see in this period is revision of the Ethiopic Missal, the scholars were able to revise the missal and to add a number of rubrics and liturgical orders. Like the priests and deacons do that, and the hymns, and also they composed festive hymnaries. These are commentaries like the book of baptism and the book of ordination were adapted from the Ethiopian Church order. They were received in the first phase, so these were simply revised, whereas other Sacramentaries such as the book of Matrimony and Annointing of the Sick were composed by Ethiopian Scholars.
So this is a brief outlook how they contain the Liturgical Tradition or this interdependent Rites, and how it developed into a distinctive Rite throughout the centuries.
When we look at the celebration of the Ethiopian Liturgy as I said earlier, we call it Qeddase and it's related to the Arabic Khodas. The Syrian Orthodox Church calls its Eucharistic service Korbana. One of the elements that shows that the Ethiopian Church received Syriac influence is even though we do not call the Divine Liturgy Korbana, in Ethiopic language Korban is offering, we call the offering Korban, still this word is used in Ethiopia as are some Greek words like Agios, Kyrios, are still maintained in the Ethiopian Liturgy.
So the integration of Jewish, Coptic and Syrian elements has contributed to the peculiar beauty of the Ethiopian Divine Liturgy. I just mentioned earlier that in Ethiopia there was practice of Judaism before the introduction of Christianity in Ethiopia in the fourth century. Ethiopia became a Christian state in the mid of the fourth century, but before that Judaism was being practiced. In the book of Kings we read about the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, and Ethiopians claim that that queen was an Ethiopian queen and due to their relation, Judaic practices were in Ethiopia before the introduction of Christianity. So still you can see this element, for instance if you look at the architecture of the Ethiopian, a Typical Ethiopian Orthodox Church, if you go to Ethiopia especially the rural areas most of the Churches are circular, divided into three ambulatories and these three divisions of the Church, scholars usually argue, was taken from the structure of the Solomonic Temple. So this is clearly evident.
If you come to any Ethiopian Church you will see in the Divine Liturgy, still the deacons use umbrellas, and this is a reminiscent of the tabernacle in the Old Testament, as we read in the Bible, God was speaking with Moses and saying the Divine glory which they call Shekinah, God was just coming down with His Glory. So in order to signify this Jewish background and to show our respect during Eucharistic services we still use umbrellas in the Divine Liturgy, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church also claims that the Ark of the Covenant is still maintained, still housed in the first ever consecrated Cathedral of St Mary of Zion, but my point is not to enter into this historical debate.
In every Ethiopian Church there is a replica of the Ark of the Covenant and we use that for the administration of the Eucharist.
The Priest celebrates the Host and the Wine on the replicas of the Ark of the Convenant and this is placed at the most sacred part of the Church, in the sanctuary, to which only the Clergy are allowed access. So still giving a New Testament meaning, the Ethiopian Church has these Jewish elements. So there are Coptic and Syrian elements.
Also there is a prevalence of Biblical symbolism in the Ethiopian Liturgy, for instance we have in general in the Mass, seven processions and the priest recites a prayer which shows the Biblical background of this procession. In the book of Joshua we read that the Israelites were rotating around the city of Jericho before the city just fell into their hands. So they were using trumpets and for seven days they did that so the priest says at the end of the seventh procession, "God as you were with Joshua, and as the wall of Jericho fell finally, and if we have committed any sin [In Orthodoxy, Sin is considered to be a stumbling block between us and God] so likewise remit, blot out our sins under the hands of myself your sinful servant."
So much Biblical symbolism is clearly evident in the Ethiopian Liturgy. And we'll see, breaking the structure of the Ethiopian Liturgy, the deacon and priests read from the Epistle of the Apostles and the Gospel, the directions are, these readings are differently. The deacons face toward the West when they read from the Epistle of St Paul in order to just remember his missionary service in the Western part of the world. And the Gospel is read toward the East. So this briefly serves as a symbolic of the mission of the Gospel throughout the whole world.
Another character of the Ethiopian Divine Liturgy is there is an exhibited note of joy and unity. Like the Syrian Liturgy, there are a number of responses given by the laity to the various acclamations and orders of the priests and the deacons. So you see the people are either responding to the orders of the deacons and the priests and you see a sense of unity while just attending Ethiopian Divine Liturgy.
Also there is a Exuberant procession, I think this is typical Ethiopian processional cross, the deacons hold this processional cross during the Divine Liturgy and the procession is made by this kind of processional cross, so there is an exhuberant thing of processions and there are variable melodies. The melodies used in preparatory part of the Divine Liturgy is completely different from what you see in the Anaphoras. So the reasons and the tunes, the melodies chanted are usually very variable and usually change often. So these are some of the features.
When we come to the structure of the Ethiopian Liturgy Qeddase, it has three main parts and the first part is called Preparatory Service as in the Byzantine Proskomedia. What is unique about the Ethiopian Liturgy is the Church has a small room which is not attached to whole part of the Church, nor to the sanctuary, but a detached room. This room is called Bethlehem, which means house of bread. In this place, deacons prepare the bread and wine at Bethlehem. Of course the Church doesn't receive offerings from people, in the Early Church you know the people were the ones who bring offerings to the Church, but the Ethiopian texts that you can say prayers which ask for the offerings of the people, this show antiquity of the Ethiopian Tradition.
So the deacons prepare the bread and wine at Bethlehem and when they are done there is a ceremony, they leave and come to the sanctuary. The symbolism is the Bread of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ Who was born at Bethlehem was crucified for us at Golgotha. So the sanctuary symbolizes Calvary where Jesus Christ was sacrificed. As you know the Eucharistic service in general enacts the whole life of our Lord Jesus Christ, since His birth to His ascension, of course symbolically. And we believe that there is a mystical presence of Jesus Christ in the Body of Christ. So that is the interesting symbolism that we find at the very beginning of the Divine Liturgy. And the Ethiopian Liturgy has a very solemn aspect and this solemnity is declared by the celebrant priest at the very beginning. When the priest just begins the Divine Liturgy he says "How awesome is this time. How terrifying is this time when the Holy Spirit descends on this offering and overshadows them and transforms the bread and wine into the real Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ." Of course in a mystical way that we can't understand.
So offertory is part of the initial service, there is prayer of thanksgiving, this is the very exact translation of the Coptic prayer of thanksgiving, since the Coptic Liturgy is the basis for the Ethiopian Liturgy, we have absolution of the Son at the very beginning and there is a very interesting part which we call the Intercessors. Intercessory prayer for the whole created order. One of the interesting aspects which we find in the Ethiopian Liturgy is the ample place given to creation. My Doctoral Thesis was on the Creation Hymns of the Ethiopian Liturgy. As you know the Church offers the Eucharist as Thanksgiving for God's salvific work through the Lord Jesus Christ. But not also to thank God for salvation only, but to thank God for His beautiful work of creation. So Orthodox theologians usually are doing that, they call the Eucharistic service is for anamnesis, which means remembrance of creation and salvation. In the Ethiopian anaphoras and in the Holy Liturgy there is a close link between creation and salvation.
At the very beginning the deacon beseeches God for the, on behalf of the whole created order, for the safety of the whole world, of those who travel. Even the deacon prays for the rains, for the earth and even there is a part in which the assistant priest blesses the winds and the airs. This shows us that the Church is interested in creation and as creation was created by God and it was sacred, and when the Logos assumed flesh, the Logos entered into His creation and assumed it, so the Church usually in each liturgy presents or offers the bread and wine to God and the bread and wine represents the rest of creation, while human beings are also joining angels when we sing the sanctus, Holy Holy Holy God, Heaven and Earth are full of Thy glory. We believe that the unseen heavenly powers are joining us. So the liturgy of the Church is the joint work of angels, human beings and the other inanimate things. So there is a sense of universal liturgy which the liturgical scholars call cosmic liturgy offered to God. This aspect is clearly reflected at the beginning of the Ethiopian Liturgy.
The second part is called Liturgy of the Word, this is ordinary of the liturgy, because this is invariable, it doesn't change for any kind of Eucharistic service. In the Latin Tradition this part is called ordo communis, whereas the Armenians call it synaxis. Even the Armenians have different synaxis which is non-Eucharistic without offering the Eucharist, they have synaxis, and their synaxis consists of these basic parts.
There is incense prayer and lections of course, readings from the readings of St Paul, Catholic epistles and the Acts of the Apostles. Rarely we read also from the Regulation of God, but in the Ethiopian Liturgies, the synaxaries is not read as it is in the Coptic Liturgy. Synaxary is the story of the lives of the saints, so it's read after the matins prior to the beginning of Qeddase or Divine Liturgy.
Trisagion, Holy Holy Holy, which is particularly addressed to the Second Person of the Trinity, even though it has Trinitarian aspects. Then Gospel reading and homily. The Gospel reading mostly is followed by a short homily, but sometimes only could be conducted at the end. Dismissal of the Catechumens even though we don't have catechumens now [Transcribers Note: we should though! Catechumenate and the Dismissal should be incorporated into the approach of Orthodox Missiology] the deacons say the catechumens are dismissed and this is one of the proofs for the antiquity of this Tradition. This if followed by three great litanies, for the peace of the Church, for the Hierarchy of the Church and for the Laity.
Proclamation of Creed, what is peculiar again about the Ethiopian Liturgy is the Church uses two kinds of Creeds, the first one is the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed which is recited in every Liturgical Tradition, but the Ethiopian Church recites Apostolic Creed when four of the Anaphoras are chosen, the Anaphora of Apostles, Anaphora of the Lord, Anaphora of St Mary, and that of John the Evangelist. When these anaphoras, four of them, are chosen from the fourteen official anaphoras, we recite the Apostolic Creed in stead of the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed. In terms of Doctrine, these Creeds are quite similar, the only difference is the latter is very detailed and besides showing some of the doctrinal aspects like our confession of the Trinity, Baptism and the Resurrection and the Life after Death, It deals with the sacredness of marriage and so and so on. The Church still maintains this Tradition.
Lavabo is the washing of the hands of the priest.
Now the Third part is the Eucharistic prayer or Anaphora. Anaphora from the Greek which means to offer up, anaphora means offering. Is to lift up, and it signifies our offering up of eucharistic elements. Before we venture to this final part I'd like to say a few important things about the Ethiopic Anaphoras. I just mentioned that the Ethiopian Tradition received five anaphoras from Coptic and Syriac sources, whereas 15 of the anaphoras were composed by Ethopian Scholars, now these anaphoras clearly reflect the theological stand that the Liturgy or Worship of the Church establishes its faith. Any Liturgical scholar can draw various kinds of theological doctrines from these anaphoras. In the anaphora of St Mary there are interesting discourses on Tridology on the features of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity and there is an interesting contemplation on the mystery of Incarnation of the Lord. So these anaphoras are soundly doctrinal and theological in their features.
Christology is in detail discussed in the Ethiopian Anaphoras of St Dioscorus and St Cyril, the Ethiopian Anaphora of St Cyril is different from the Coptic Anaphora of St Cyril of the same name. There also a Coptic Anaphora of St Gregory, which is not the same as the Ethiopian Anaphora of St Gregory, the only similarity is that of St Basil which is an exact translation of the Coptic Liturgy. It's a different Anaphora, but the miaphysite Christology is discussed in detail.
In the Anaphora of St John the Evangelist and that of St John Chrysostom, we find the Orthodox concept of apophatic theology. Orthodox theologians usually tend to the negative way of theologizing, by apophatic theology they mean that it is safe to speak about God in negative ways like saying God is incomprehensible, God is unknowable, than simply claiming that we are ever able to fully explain God. Even apophatic theology is very mysterious at depth that it goes beyond assertion or denial when we speak about God. What apophatic theologians usually say is God is beyond our human language so God couldn't be expressed. Even in this mystical journey God is finally know by unknowing. When we remain that way we say that we know nothing about God, we know something about Him, and we will have a close relationship with God and even ascend to that darkness as you remember Moses was going to the darkness in the mount of Sinai, as Gregory of Nyssa discusses, while he was communicating with God. So the more we venture into the darkness [ie. unknowing] the better we know about God. So these kind of theologizing is found the Ethiopian Anaphoras of John the Evangelist and that of John Chyrsostom. Creation themes are ample in the Ethiopian Anaphora of course as I said, all these are pseudonyms, these fathers when you look at the works of these fathers you don't find liturgical works, the Ethiopian scholars composed their own anaphoras and named them after these fathers of the Church. There is an anaphora of the 318 Nicene Fathers and that of St Epiphanius, in these anaphoras, in the preface there are creation themes and interesting narratives which are related to biblical creation accounts that clearly shows God's majesty and God's Lordship over creation.
So at the beginning of the anaphora we find a dialogue and preface, as I said, in most of the Ethiopian anaphoras, Salvation is preceeded by beautiful contemplations on creation and God's majesty.
Intercessory Prayers, the diptychs of the Ethiopian Anaphoras varies. In some anaphoras the diptychs interrupt the preface, whereas in some of them the diptychs these are memorized services, the remembrance of the dead the Church prays in the Liturgy. The diptychs come at the end of the preface.
What comes next is the sanctus, Holy Holy Holy, which is also know as angeliki.
The institution narrative comes next in which the Church repeats the words of our Lord Jesus Christ at the last supper. In the Anamnesis the Church proclaims the Liturgy is for the remembrance of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Epiclesis is the invocation of the Holy Spirit, in most of the Ethiopian Anaphoras, Epiclesis is clearly evident, even though we have a couple of anaphoras that lack epiclesis and liturgical scholars are debating whether an anaphora without epiclesis is considered to be called an anaphora proper. Some scholars like Robert Taft are saying in the earliest Tradition, epiclesis was for the sanctification of the life of the laity not for the transformation of the elements. Anyway, two of the Ethiopian anaphoras lack epiclesis.
Prayer of Fraction comes next, the Lord's Prayer is recited in most of the anaphoras and the doxology. And what is interesting is that each anaphora has its own unique post-Communion service after both the laity and the clergy have partaken of the elements.
This is the eucharistic service of the Ethiopian Liturgy but I can't go into all the details.
The Ethiopian Liturgy has a couple of non-Eucharist services the first one is called Sa'atat or Horologium. Abba Giyorgis the Ethiopian Scholar who lived in the 15th century composed his book which is called book of hours that replaced the Coptic Horologium in the Ethiopian Tradition. This is in two parts for the daylight and for the night hours, nocturnal services and for the day services as well. What is interesting is that this book is prepared with a number of prayers and hymns to be chanted at the seven canonical hours of the daily prayer. In the Orthodox Tradition the liturgical day begins at Sunset not at Sunrise. The Liturgical day always begins with vespers, so Sunset is the first liturgical hour, compline will be before we go to bed, midnight the third one, sunrise/prime, the third hour, by the third hour we mean 9am. In Ethiopia the time begins at sunrise not at midnight as in the Western countries, so when we say Third hour which means 9am, the sixth hour is noon or 12pm, and none, the ninth hour is 3pm.
All these prayers have their own selections of Biblical readings at each hour there are readings from both the Old Testament and the New Testament books. Fr Robert Taft has a wonderful book on the Liturgy of the Hours, and while studying the Ethiopian liturgy of hours said, since the Ethiopian book of the liturgy of hours was composed in the Arabic period of the 15th century it is said that the Ethiopians can claim that they were able to construct a Liturgy of Hour full of Biblical readings a century before the rise of Luther. His argument was the Catholics were, the Catholic Liturgy lacking Biblical reference but in Ethiopia it was done a century before the rise of Luther as you can see in this liturgy of hours.
The other non-Eucharistic service is called The Divine Offices or the Cathedral Offices. 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.
Father has a handout during the break that has a description of the Liturgy of Hours in the Ethiopian Liturgy and its clearly.
So this is a non-Eucharistic service and one of its interesting aspects is we have a service called Mahalet or Cantillation during the great feasts of the Lord, like for Christmas where the midnight service, and this cantillation is throughout the night. For Easter and for the other feasts of the saints, the service takes place throughout the night. And also we have another fasting office which is called Soma Daggwa. As I said this is completely different from the Divine Liturgy which is a Eucharistic Service.
Any questions?
Q: So this isn't necessarily topics you had brought up but is there similarity between or is it exactly the Eritrean Liturgical Tradition is that similar to the Ethiopian?
A: Thank you for this section. Geographically Eritrea was part of Ethiopia and when the current government took power a couple of decades ago the country got independence from Ethiopia. So we even had an Eritrean diocese some twenty years ago, so the Church in Eritrea twenty years ago wasn't different from the Ethiopian Church. The Liturgy which is used in the Eritrean Church is the same as the Ethiopian Church. They're using the Ethiopian Church Liturgical Language which is Geez or by Scholars its also know as Ethiopic. As Coptic is the language of the Copts, Ethiopic is the language of the Ethiopians, so it's no different. But since the according to their wish we should be respectful to their Tradition of this Eritrean Church since the Church became Autocephalous and the Church has its own Patriarch, so now another liturgy has developed but they even don't dare to call it Eritrean, because there is not such kind of Liturgy. They would thus be using the Ethiopian Liturgy but they are independant. For instance the Malankaran Church in India is using the Syrian Liturgy, but the Church of Malankara in India is an Autocephalous Church.
Q: Also when you mentioned the preparatory service, the Proskemedia, are they actually baking the bread?
A: Yes, in that space, in Bethlehem, not in the sanctuary. In the Byzantine Tradition the Proskemedia is attached to the sanctuary, in the Ethiopian Tradition there is a special room which we call Bethlehem or house of bread. The deacons bake it, it has its own steps.
Q: Also one more question. About the frequency of partaking of the Communion, I had gone to an Eritrean Parish one time and I noticed that its not necessarily very frequent practice. Is that the same in the Ethiopian and if so what's the mindset or what's the understanding of infrequent participation of the Sacrament?
A: Thank you for this question. As I understand there are some Jewish elements in the Ethiopian Tradition of course it may be due to the witness of the priest to teach the people in just showing them the significance of partaking of the Holy Communion. With Ethiopians and Eritreans, of course most of them partake of the Holy Communion but they have huge respect for this Sacrament and whenever they are asked how often they partake of the Holy Communion they are reluctant to how often they do that and there is a sense of unworthiness, they say we are unworthy to partake of this Holy Mysteries so even those who partake really, partake of Holy Communion, they do three times a year or just ten time every year, so it's not that frequent. But now whenever we preach we are encouraging the people and these days there is change. Of course we welcome them, we tell them that as long as they are able to take they can partake of the Holy Mysteries every Sunday. But there is a sense of unworthiness in those traditions, and we even mention the experience of our brothers in the Coptic Orthodox Church. Whenever I've been to the Coptic Orthodox Church I see all the people, almost, partaking. These are coming and we are teaching our people and encouraging them to partake of the mysteries out of love.
Q: Thank you Father.
Q: Is there a Tradition using Icons in the Liturgy?
A: Yes, Yes, and even one of the developments in the 15th Century, Ethiopia was similarly experiencing the iconoclasm of the Byzantine Tradition. In every typical Ethiopian Orthodox Church you can see icons, we consider them as windows to heaven, and that Orthodox Tradition. We don't have what the Byzantines call Iconostasis which seperates from the sanctuary but icons are revered in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tradition and Venerated with the Orthodox understanding that whenever we pay homage to an icon the homage goes to prototype. So with that understanding we do use icons in the Ethiopian Church.
by Rev. Dr. Mebratu Kiros Gebru
Fr Mebratu's PhD Dissertation: "Liturgical Cosmology: The Theological and Sacramental Dimensions of Creation in the Ethiopian Liturgy", from St Michael's College, Toronto, 2012
Transcriber's Note: Fr Mebratu mentions a lot of very very good points, however there are some categories in this particular presentation which appeal to "Western Scholastic Methods" or maybe Roman Catholic Systematic Theology which divides Liturgy into identifiable parts and compartments. Ie. the danger being of course that one kills the frog when one dissects it to study it.
Father does briefly reference 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. Glory to the Holy Trinity.
Transcript:
So as the title shows my intention is just to present a brief overview of the history and development of the Ethiopian Liturgy and some of the features of the Eucharistic and Non-Eucharistic services. As I say throughout the centuries the Ethiopian Liturgy to be an important Rite and in this liturgical development historians usually see four different phases.
The first phase was from the 4th century to the 7th century, translations were made from both Greek and Syriac sources into Gez or Ethiopic a lay presentation language. Thank you for the reading from the Acts of the Apostles chapter 8, the Ethiopian Eunuch was baptized by the Apostle Philip in the 1st century around 4AD. And Eubsebius the historian says the Ethiopian Eunuch returned to his country and he sowed the seed of Christianity by proclaiming the Gospel. So we know that the proclamation of the Gospel was maintained in the early first centuries, of course we can`t claim that there was heirarchy and the administration of these sacraments. So the first sacramental administration was during the meal of the 4th century when a certain Frumentius of Syrian Origin, Ethiopians call him Abba Salama, was ordained as the first bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church by St Athanasius of Alexandria.
This is how the Ethiopian Liturgical Tradition is related to the Alexandrian rite. So Abba Salama or Frumentius brings from Alexandria the Ordo Communis or the preparatory services part of the Coptic Liturgy and he also brought the Hyppolytus Apostolic Tradition which is called Egyptian Church Order. Historians usually debate who this Hippolytus was but in the Ethiopian Apostolic Tradition we find an Anaphora, that anaphora is now developed in the Ethiopian Tradition to be the Anaphora of the Apostles. That is one of the oldest Anaphoras known in the Ethiopian Liturgy and it is the principle anaphora of the liturgies usually found with Ethiopian Liturgies as principal.
Also the Church developed another source which is called 'Sinodos' which is a canonical liturgical source which consists of a number of decrees of different eccumenical and local councils, pseudo-apostlica. And the anaphora of Hyppolytus is also found in the Ethiopian parts of the Sinodos called the Ethiopian Church Order, the Ethiopian Fathers exapanded the anaphora of Hyppolytus and named it the Anaphora of the Apostles.
During this time the Ethiopian Church was also able to receive the Greek Anaphora of St Mark. We have the exact translation of this anaphora into Geez. But unfortunately for unknown reasons the anaphora of St Mark is not part of the Ethiopian missa, it`s missing. If you take a look the first translated by Marcos Dawod a Coptic Priest, in the Ethiopian missal you can see 14 official anaphoras. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church generally has 20 anaphoras, 14 are official, but 6 of them are found only in monasteries, most of them are not printed. So even though the anaphora of St. Mark was one of the anaphoras recieved in this period of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church it's not part of the missal and not in the Church.
The other interest on the Ethiopian Orthodox Liturgy comes from the Syrian Tradition and this was in the 5th century. The nine saints who are know to have come from Asia Minor, some scholars debate as to if they were all Syrians who came to Ethiopia fleeing the Justinian persecution, related to the Chalcedonian debate. You know what happened in AD451, these Fathers were just looking for a country where they could be welcome due to their faith, like the other non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church does not accept the Chalcedonian formula, we believe that we are faithful to the Cyriline Formula which defined our Lord Jesus Christ as One Incarnate Nature of the Word. When we use the term Miaphysis, we are saying Jesus Christ is one united nature, we are not simply saying single one nature, or monophysis, as these Churches are prejoratively always calling us monophysite Churches. We prefer the term Miaphysite, because we believe in the hypostasic union was the divinity and the humanity in Christ were in them without being seperated.
So due to this debate, these saints fled to Ethiopia and since they know the Syriac language they translated the very important source which is known in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as nasafa Kidan, or the book of the "Testament of the Lord."
The Testament of the Lord, its title shows consists of The Anaphora of the Lord and to our surprise this Anaphora is maintained by the Ethiopian Church. All these sources even though they claim to have Apostolic roots, liturgical scholars believe that they were just composed first century. So still the Anaphora of the Lord is used in the Ethiopian Church and from the Testament of the Lord the Ethiopian Fathers were able to adapt a number of liturgical formulae.
For example the euchologion of the Testament of the Lord is used in the Ethiopian Church for Matins service and it's called Kidan. There are intercessory prayers, the mystagogia; the Baptismal text which was believed to be used in the Early Church for those who were Baptized as for catechumens while they were being initiated into Baptism.
Also these Fathers of Syrian Origin were able to translate the Anaphoras of Saint James Which was used by the Church of Jerusalem, into Geez. So during this period in the first phase of its development the Ethiopian Liturgy received translations from what was Greek and Syriac sources.
But what is interesting is that whenever Ethiopians scholars translate a certain source into their language, they usually make their own contribution. Even they ammend to their translation something different, making it totally different from what is extant in the original. So they didn't simply recieve these sources and adapt it to the Ethiopian Tradition but they were making their own contributions by adding some rubrics and some hymns into these anaphoras. So finally these anaphoras tend to look different from their originals.
The other local contribution to the Ethiopian Liturgy was made by Saint Yared the Ethiopian Hymnologist. St Yared lived from 505 to 580 AD and St Yared is credited for composing a number of hymnaries. The most know of the hymnaries is "Deggwa," the antiphonary of the year. It serves in the Ethiopian Church as the basis of its lectionary, and also he has another hymnaries which are used in the Sunday Office, Matins and Vespers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
From the 7th Century till the 11th Century we don't see any development in the Ethiopian Tradition because after the 7th Century there was the decline of the Aksumite Kingdom, the Aksum Kingdom was very powerful in the 4th and 5th Century and even Aksumen Kings were ruling over the Arabian peninsular. But after the rise of Islam in the 7th Century, Aksum which was the capital city of Ethiopia in those centuries, lost its power and there were internal conflicts in Ethiopia so we don't see any kind of development between those centuries but after another dynasty arose in Ethiopia so in this period translations were again made from Arabic sources. Still the Ethiopian Orthodox Tradition is borrowing Liturgical sources from the different Liturgical Rites.
In this period we find some of the texts like the Didascalia, also a canonical liturgical source which is mainly dealing with some orders within the Church. So the Didascalia is related with the Greek Didascalia Apostolorum, this was translated from Arabic to Geez. The Coptic Anaphora of St Basil as well was translated, the lectionary for the Passion Week from Arabic into Geez was translated, the Coptic Horologium also was translated.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church also received funeral rites from the Coptic Orthodox Church. In this period since the Coptic Orthodox Church was the Mother Church of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Bishops were coming from Alexandria to serve the Ethiopian Church, so the Metropolitan Abba Salama II was credited for translating a number of Arabic sources into Ethiopic. But as I say, even though scholars received different liturgical texts and formularies from both Greek, Syrian and Arabic sources they were making their own contributions. So even though the Coptic or Alexandrian liturgy was the root of the Ethiopian Liturgy, they weren't simply making the Ethiopian Liturgy a simple copy or directly copied liturgy. Rather they were making their own contribution and these local Ethiopic contributions is clearly seen in the third phase of the development of the Ethiopian Liturgy.
This period is know by scholars as the Golden Period, Ethiopian Scholars like Abba Giyorgis and some other local scholars make a serious liturgical reform. For instance, as I said earlier when the Ethiopian Church received translations from the Arabic sources, the Arabic Liturgy of Hours, or Horologium, was translated by Abba Salama II, but Abba Giyorgis composed another book of Hours which replaced the Coptic Horologium. So that was a pure Ethiopian contribution. Also ther were scholars like Retua Haymanot who composed homilies for the great feasts of the Lord , and when these scholars composed their homilies they were just prescribing some orders that these three homilies should be just read during the great feasts of the Church. Homily of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Book of Mystery to be read during the Resurrection of the Lord, during Ascension, during Pentecost.
This shows us that the Ethiopian scholars were able to understand the interdependence of liturgy and theologia. As the theologians say, Lex orandi, Lex credendi. The rule of faith is the rule of prayer. There is a clear connection or interdependence between the liturgy of the Church and its theology, even the liturgy of the Church is supposed to be a Theologia Prima, or primary theology. So these fathers while they were able to compose doctrinal treatises they wanted their homilies to be read during the liturgical services, so this shows their understanding of the interdependence of the two.
The other theological reform in the Ethiopian liturgy resulted from the Theological controversies, many of them which took place in the 15th century. This is the Golden period of Ethiopian Literature, in this period Ethiopian literature reached it's peak. Some of the controversies were Trinitarian, like the anthropomorphism controversy.
Ethiopian scholars in this period were debating and interpreting how the human person was created in the image and likeness of God. They were asking how to understand when the Bible says the human person was created in the image and likeness of God. Some of them simply relied on the literal interpretation of the Bible they say since the human person was created image and likeness of God as the same human form, like human beings.
Some of them said, when the Bible says when we're created in the image and likeness of God, it doesn't mean God has the same form or figure like human beings, but we look like God in our conscience or in our soul, because we given soul from Divine power which is immortal by nature.
So these scholars while debating on anthopomorphism or the celebration of Sabbath, because the Ethiopian Church's roots are Jewish, and when you see its liturgy there are a number of Jewish elements, and there is no Church which is more Jewish than the Ethiopian Church in terms of maintaining Jewish practices and elements. So whenever these fathers debated they wrote at the same time formulas and anaphoras. Their plan was just to make their theological position accepted by the Church, so they composed about 15 local anaphoras. And most of these local anaphoras are now received by the Ethopian Church and they are official anaphoras. During this period the Church had just two anaphoras, the first anaphora of the Apostles received from the Hyppolytian Apostolic Order, and the Anaphora of the Lord, the Anaphora which was merged from the Testament of the Lord.
But after these fathers composed a number of anaphoras, these anaphoras were received, of course when you look at the Ethiopian missal, you read titles like Anaphora of St Athanasius, St Cyril, St Dioscorus, St John Chrysostom, and so on, but these designations are spurious. The pseudonyms were given because the Scholars knew that unless they ascribe their words to fathers of the Church, their words weren't to be accepted by the Church. So there were naming their works by the names of the fathers of the Church for the sole purpose of getting credibility. So after their lifetime the Church finally was able to accept their own anaphoras and if you look at Ethiopian anaphoras they appear more like Theological treatises than Liturgical anaphoras or Eucharistic prayers. This is because the anaphoras were result of theological controversies in Ethiopia.
Contrast the Anaphora of St Mary, is full of Trinitarian confessions and doxologies so this is clear from the context the anaphoras were a result of theological debates in Ethiopia.
The final phase of the Ethiopian Liturgy was made in the 16th and 17th Century the Jesuit or Portuguese missionaries did their best in order to convert the Ethiopian Church into Catholicism, even though this was a result for bloodshedding in Ethiopia. Even though the Ethiopian scholars debated with the Jesuits it didn't have any apparent influence on the Ethiopian Liturgy due to this debates there was crossing the Ethiopian Literary tradition at all.
What we see in this period is revision of the Ethiopic Missal, the scholars were able to revise the missal and to add a number of rubrics and liturgical orders. Like the priests and deacons do that, and the hymns, and also they composed festive hymnaries. These are commentaries like the book of baptism and the book of ordination were adapted from the Ethiopian Church order. They were received in the first phase, so these were simply revised, whereas other Sacramentaries such as the book of Matrimony and Annointing of the Sick were composed by Ethiopian Scholars.
So this is a brief outlook how they contain the Liturgical Tradition or this interdependent Rites, and how it developed into a distinctive Rite throughout the centuries.
When we look at the celebration of the Ethiopian Liturgy as I said earlier, we call it Qeddase and it's related to the Arabic Khodas. The Syrian Orthodox Church calls its Eucharistic service Korbana. One of the elements that shows that the Ethiopian Church received Syriac influence is even though we do not call the Divine Liturgy Korbana, in Ethiopic language Korban is offering, we call the offering Korban, still this word is used in Ethiopia as are some Greek words like Agios, Kyrios, are still maintained in the Ethiopian Liturgy.
So the integration of Jewish, Coptic and Syrian elements has contributed to the peculiar beauty of the Ethiopian Divine Liturgy. I just mentioned earlier that in Ethiopia there was practice of Judaism before the introduction of Christianity in Ethiopia in the fourth century. Ethiopia became a Christian state in the mid of the fourth century, but before that Judaism was being practiced. In the book of Kings we read about the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, and Ethiopians claim that that queen was an Ethiopian queen and due to their relation, Judaic practices were in Ethiopia before the introduction of Christianity. So still you can see this element, for instance if you look at the architecture of the Ethiopian, a Typical Ethiopian Orthodox Church, if you go to Ethiopia especially the rural areas most of the Churches are circular, divided into three ambulatories and these three divisions of the Church, scholars usually argue, was taken from the structure of the Solomonic Temple. So this is clearly evident.
If you come to any Ethiopian Church you will see in the Divine Liturgy, still the deacons use umbrellas, and this is a reminiscent of the tabernacle in the Old Testament, as we read in the Bible, God was speaking with Moses and saying the Divine glory which they call Shekinah, God was just coming down with His Glory. So in order to signify this Jewish background and to show our respect during Eucharistic services we still use umbrellas in the Divine Liturgy, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church also claims that the Ark of the Covenant is still maintained, still housed in the first ever consecrated Cathedral of St Mary of Zion, but my point is not to enter into this historical debate.
In every Ethiopian Church there is a replica of the Ark of the Covenant and we use that for the administration of the Eucharist.
The Priest celebrates the Host and the Wine on the replicas of the Ark of the Convenant and this is placed at the most sacred part of the Church, in the sanctuary, to which only the Clergy are allowed access. So still giving a New Testament meaning, the Ethiopian Church has these Jewish elements. So there are Coptic and Syrian elements.
Also there is a prevalence of Biblical symbolism in the Ethiopian Liturgy, for instance we have in general in the Mass, seven processions and the priest recites a prayer which shows the Biblical background of this procession. In the book of Joshua we read that the Israelites were rotating around the city of Jericho before the city just fell into their hands. So they were using trumpets and for seven days they did that so the priest says at the end of the seventh procession, "God as you were with Joshua, and as the wall of Jericho fell finally, and if we have committed any sin [In Orthodoxy, Sin is considered to be a stumbling block between us and God] so likewise remit, blot out our sins under the hands of myself your sinful servant."
So much Biblical symbolism is clearly evident in the Ethiopian Liturgy. And we'll see, breaking the structure of the Ethiopian Liturgy, the deacon and priests read from the Epistle of the Apostles and the Gospel, the directions are, these readings are differently. The deacons face toward the West when they read from the Epistle of St Paul in order to just remember his missionary service in the Western part of the world. And the Gospel is read toward the East. So this briefly serves as a symbolic of the mission of the Gospel throughout the whole world.
Another character of the Ethiopian Divine Liturgy is there is an exhibited note of joy and unity. Like the Syrian Liturgy, there are a number of responses given by the laity to the various acclamations and orders of the priests and the deacons. So you see the people are either responding to the orders of the deacons and the priests and you see a sense of unity while just attending Ethiopian Divine Liturgy.
Also there is a Exuberant procession, I think this is typical Ethiopian processional cross, the deacons hold this processional cross during the Divine Liturgy and the procession is made by this kind of processional cross, so there is an exhuberant thing of processions and there are variable melodies. The melodies used in preparatory part of the Divine Liturgy is completely different from what you see in the Anaphoras. So the reasons and the tunes, the melodies chanted are usually very variable and usually change often. So these are some of the features.
When we come to the structure of the Ethiopian Liturgy Qeddase, it has three main parts and the first part is called Preparatory Service as in the Byzantine Proskomedia. What is unique about the Ethiopian Liturgy is the Church has a small room which is not attached to whole part of the Church, nor to the sanctuary, but a detached room. This room is called Bethlehem, which means house of bread. In this place, deacons prepare the bread and wine at Bethlehem. Of course the Church doesn't receive offerings from people, in the Early Church you know the people were the ones who bring offerings to the Church, but the Ethiopian texts that you can say prayers which ask for the offerings of the people, this show antiquity of the Ethiopian Tradition.
So the deacons prepare the bread and wine at Bethlehem and when they are done there is a ceremony, they leave and come to the sanctuary. The symbolism is the Bread of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ Who was born at Bethlehem was crucified for us at Golgotha. So the sanctuary symbolizes Calvary where Jesus Christ was sacrificed. As you know the Eucharistic service in general enacts the whole life of our Lord Jesus Christ, since His birth to His ascension, of course symbolically. And we believe that there is a mystical presence of Jesus Christ in the Body of Christ. So that is the interesting symbolism that we find at the very beginning of the Divine Liturgy. And the Ethiopian Liturgy has a very solemn aspect and this solemnity is declared by the celebrant priest at the very beginning. When the priest just begins the Divine Liturgy he says "How awesome is this time. How terrifying is this time when the Holy Spirit descends on this offering and overshadows them and transforms the bread and wine into the real Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ." Of course in a mystical way that we can't understand.
So offertory is part of the initial service, there is prayer of thanksgiving, this is the very exact translation of the Coptic prayer of thanksgiving, since the Coptic Liturgy is the basis for the Ethiopian Liturgy, we have absolution of the Son at the very beginning and there is a very interesting part which we call the Intercessors. Intercessory prayer for the whole created order. One of the interesting aspects which we find in the Ethiopian Liturgy is the ample place given to creation. My Doctoral Thesis was on the Creation Hymns of the Ethiopian Liturgy. As you know the Church offers the Eucharist as Thanksgiving for God's salvific work through the Lord Jesus Christ. But not also to thank God for salvation only, but to thank God for His beautiful work of creation. So Orthodox theologians usually are doing that, they call the Eucharistic service is for anamnesis, which means remembrance of creation and salvation. In the Ethiopian anaphoras and in the Holy Liturgy there is a close link between creation and salvation.
At the very beginning the deacon beseeches God for the, on behalf of the whole created order, for the safety of the whole world, of those who travel. Even the deacon prays for the rains, for the earth and even there is a part in which the assistant priest blesses the winds and the airs. This shows us that the Church is interested in creation and as creation was created by God and it was sacred, and when the Logos assumed flesh, the Logos entered into His creation and assumed it, so the Church usually in each liturgy presents or offers the bread and wine to God and the bread and wine represents the rest of creation, while human beings are also joining angels when we sing the sanctus, Holy Holy Holy God, Heaven and Earth are full of Thy glory. We believe that the unseen heavenly powers are joining us. So the liturgy of the Church is the joint work of angels, human beings and the other inanimate things. So there is a sense of universal liturgy which the liturgical scholars call cosmic liturgy offered to God. This aspect is clearly reflected at the beginning of the Ethiopian Liturgy.
The second part is called Liturgy of the Word, this is ordinary of the liturgy, because this is invariable, it doesn't change for any kind of Eucharistic service. In the Latin Tradition this part is called ordo communis, whereas the Armenians call it synaxis. Even the Armenians have different synaxis which is non-Eucharistic without offering the Eucharist, they have synaxis, and their synaxis consists of these basic parts.
There is incense prayer and lections of course, readings from the readings of St Paul, Catholic epistles and the Acts of the Apostles. Rarely we read also from the Regulation of God, but in the Ethiopian Liturgies, the synaxaries is not read as it is in the Coptic Liturgy. Synaxary is the story of the lives of the saints, so it's read after the matins prior to the beginning of Qeddase or Divine Liturgy.
Trisagion, Holy Holy Holy, which is particularly addressed to the Second Person of the Trinity, even though it has Trinitarian aspects. Then Gospel reading and homily. The Gospel reading mostly is followed by a short homily, but sometimes only could be conducted at the end. Dismissal of the Catechumens even though we don't have catechumens now [Transcribers Note: we should though! Catechumenate and the Dismissal should be incorporated into the approach of Orthodox Missiology] the deacons say the catechumens are dismissed and this is one of the proofs for the antiquity of this Tradition. This if followed by three great litanies, for the peace of the Church, for the Hierarchy of the Church and for the Laity.
Proclamation of Creed, what is peculiar again about the Ethiopian Liturgy is the Church uses two kinds of Creeds, the first one is the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed which is recited in every Liturgical Tradition, but the Ethiopian Church recites Apostolic Creed when four of the Anaphoras are chosen, the Anaphora of Apostles, Anaphora of the Lord, Anaphora of St Mary, and that of John the Evangelist. When these anaphoras, four of them, are chosen from the fourteen official anaphoras, we recite the Apostolic Creed in stead of the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed. In terms of Doctrine, these Creeds are quite similar, the only difference is the latter is very detailed and besides showing some of the doctrinal aspects like our confession of the Trinity, Baptism and the Resurrection and the Life after Death, It deals with the sacredness of marriage and so and so on. The Church still maintains this Tradition.
Lavabo is the washing of the hands of the priest.
Christology is in detail discussed in the Ethiopian Anaphoras of St Dioscorus and St Cyril, the Ethiopian Anaphora of St Cyril is different from the Coptic Anaphora of St Cyril of the same name. There also a Coptic Anaphora of St Gregory, which is not the same as the Ethiopian Anaphora of St Gregory, the only similarity is that of St Basil which is an exact translation of the Coptic Liturgy. It's a different Anaphora, but the miaphysite Christology is discussed in detail.
In the Anaphora of St John the Evangelist and that of St John Chrysostom, we find the Orthodox concept of apophatic theology. Orthodox theologians usually tend to the negative way of theologizing, by apophatic theology they mean that it is safe to speak about God in negative ways like saying God is incomprehensible, God is unknowable, than simply claiming that we are ever able to fully explain God. Even apophatic theology is very mysterious at depth that it goes beyond assertion or denial when we speak about God. What apophatic theologians usually say is God is beyond our human language so God couldn't be expressed. Even in this mystical journey God is finally know by unknowing. When we remain that way we say that we know nothing about God, we know something about Him, and we will have a close relationship with God and even ascend to that darkness as you remember Moses was going to the darkness in the mount of Sinai, as Gregory of Nyssa discusses, while he was communicating with God. So the more we venture into the darkness [ie. unknowing] the better we know about God. So these kind of theologizing is found the Ethiopian Anaphoras of John the Evangelist and that of John Chyrsostom. Creation themes are ample in the Ethiopian Anaphora of course as I said, all these are pseudonyms, these fathers when you look at the works of these fathers you don't find liturgical works, the Ethiopian scholars composed their own anaphoras and named them after these fathers of the Church. There is an anaphora of the 318 Nicene Fathers and that of St Epiphanius, in these anaphoras, in the preface there are creation themes and interesting narratives which are related to biblical creation accounts that clearly shows God's majesty and God's Lordship over creation.
So at the beginning of the anaphora we find a dialogue and preface, as I said, in most of the Ethiopian anaphoras, Salvation is preceeded by beautiful contemplations on creation and God's majesty.
Intercessory Prayers, the diptychs of the Ethiopian Anaphoras varies. In some anaphoras the diptychs interrupt the preface, whereas in some of them the diptychs these are memorized services, the remembrance of the dead the Church prays in the Liturgy. The diptychs come at the end of the preface.
What comes next is the sanctus, Holy Holy Holy, which is also know as angeliki.
The institution narrative comes next in which the Church repeats the words of our Lord Jesus Christ at the last supper. In the Anamnesis the Church proclaims the Liturgy is for the remembrance of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Epiclesis is the invocation of the Holy Spirit, in most of the Ethiopian Anaphoras, Epiclesis is clearly evident, even though we have a couple of anaphoras that lack epiclesis and liturgical scholars are debating whether an anaphora without epiclesis is considered to be called an anaphora proper. Some scholars like Robert Taft are saying in the earliest Tradition, epiclesis was for the sanctification of the life of the laity not for the transformation of the elements. Anyway, two of the Ethiopian anaphoras lack epiclesis.
Prayer of Fraction comes next, the Lord's Prayer is recited in most of the anaphoras and the doxology. And what is interesting is that each anaphora has its own unique post-Communion service after both the laity and the clergy have partaken of the elements.
This is the eucharistic service of the Ethiopian Liturgy but I can't go into all the details.
The Ethiopian Liturgy has a couple of non-Eucharist services the first one is called Sa'atat or Horologium. Abba Giyorgis the Ethiopian Scholar who lived in the 15th century composed his book which is called book of hours that replaced the Coptic Horologium in the Ethiopian Tradition. This is in two parts for the daylight and for the night hours, nocturnal services and for the day services as well. What is interesting is that this book is prepared with a number of prayers and hymns to be chanted at the seven canonical hours of the daily prayer. In the Orthodox Tradition the liturgical day begins at Sunset not at Sunrise. The Liturgical day always begins with vespers, so Sunset is the first liturgical hour, compline will be before we go to bed, midnight the third one, sunrise/prime, the third hour, by the third hour we mean 9am. In Ethiopia the time begins at sunrise not at midnight as in the Western countries, so when we say Third hour which means 9am, the sixth hour is noon or 12pm, and none, the ninth hour is 3pm.
All these prayers have their own selections of Biblical readings at each hour there are readings from both the Old Testament and the New Testament books. Fr Robert Taft has a wonderful book on the Liturgy of the Hours, and while studying the Ethiopian liturgy of hours said, since the Ethiopian book of the liturgy of hours was composed in the Arabic period of the 15th century it is said that the Ethiopians can claim that they were able to construct a Liturgy of Hour full of Biblical readings a century before the rise of Luther. His argument was the Catholics were, the Catholic Liturgy lacking Biblical reference but in Ethiopia it was done a century before the rise of Luther as you can see in this liturgy of hours.
The other non-Eucharistic service is called The Divine Offices or the Cathedral Offices. 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.
Father has a handout during the break that has a description of the Liturgy of Hours in the Ethiopian Liturgy and its clearly.
So this is a non-Eucharistic service and one of its interesting aspects is we have a service called Mahalet or Cantillation during the great feasts of the Lord, like for Christmas where the midnight service, and this cantillation is throughout the night. For Easter and for the other feasts of the saints, the service takes place throughout the night. And also we have another fasting office which is called Soma Daggwa. As I said this is completely different from the Divine Liturgy which is a Eucharistic Service.
Any questions?
Q: So this isn't necessarily topics you had brought up but is there similarity between or is it exactly the Eritrean Liturgical Tradition is that similar to the Ethiopian?
A: Thank you for this section. Geographically Eritrea was part of Ethiopia and when the current government took power a couple of decades ago the country got independence from Ethiopia. So we even had an Eritrean diocese some twenty years ago, so the Church in Eritrea twenty years ago wasn't different from the Ethiopian Church. The Liturgy which is used in the Eritrean Church is the same as the Ethiopian Church. They're using the Ethiopian Church Liturgical Language which is Geez or by Scholars its also know as Ethiopic. As Coptic is the language of the Copts, Ethiopic is the language of the Ethiopians, so it's no different. But since the according to their wish we should be respectful to their Tradition of this Eritrean Church since the Church became Autocephalous and the Church has its own Patriarch, so now another liturgy has developed but they even don't dare to call it Eritrean, because there is not such kind of Liturgy. They would thus be using the Ethiopian Liturgy but they are independant. For instance the Malankaran Church in India is using the Syrian Liturgy, but the Church of Malankara in India is an Autocephalous Church.
Q: Also when you mentioned the preparatory service, the Proskemedia, are they actually baking the bread?
A: Yes, in that space, in Bethlehem, not in the sanctuary. In the Byzantine Tradition the Proskemedia is attached to the sanctuary, in the Ethiopian Tradition there is a special room which we call Bethlehem or house of bread. The deacons bake it, it has its own steps.
Q: Also one more question. About the frequency of partaking of the Communion, I had gone to an Eritrean Parish one time and I noticed that its not necessarily very frequent practice. Is that the same in the Ethiopian and if so what's the mindset or what's the understanding of infrequent participation of the Sacrament?
A: Thank you for this question. As I understand there are some Jewish elements in the Ethiopian Tradition of course it may be due to the witness of the priest to teach the people in just showing them the significance of partaking of the Holy Communion. With Ethiopians and Eritreans, of course most of them partake of the Holy Communion but they have huge respect for this Sacrament and whenever they are asked how often they partake of the Holy Communion they are reluctant to how often they do that and there is a sense of unworthiness, they say we are unworthy to partake of this Holy Mysteries so even those who partake really, partake of Holy Communion, they do three times a year or just ten time every year, so it's not that frequent. But now whenever we preach we are encouraging the people and these days there is change. Of course we welcome them, we tell them that as long as they are able to take they can partake of the Holy Mysteries every Sunday. But there is a sense of unworthiness in those traditions, and we even mention the experience of our brothers in the Coptic Orthodox Church. Whenever I've been to the Coptic Orthodox Church I see all the people, almost, partaking. These are coming and we are teaching our people and encouraging them to partake of the mysteries out of love.
Q: Thank you Father.
Q: Is there a Tradition using Icons in the Liturgy?
A: Yes, Yes, and even one of the developments in the 15th Century, Ethiopia was similarly experiencing the iconoclasm of the Byzantine Tradition. In every typical Ethiopian Orthodox Church you can see icons, we consider them as windows to heaven, and that Orthodox Tradition. We don't have what the Byzantines call Iconostasis which seperates from the sanctuary but icons are revered in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tradition and Venerated with the Orthodox understanding that whenever we pay homage to an icon the homage goes to prototype. So with that understanding we do use icons in the Ethiopian Church.
