The head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Abune Mathias, has called on all bishops around the world to urgently convene in the capital, Addis Ababa, as the church faces a major split. This comes after a group of three bishops announced the formation of a separate church decision-making body. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church forms Ethiopia’s largest religious group with tens of millions of followers. A previous division in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which lasted for nearly three decades, was only resolved in 2018. The patriarch called the bishops’ action illegal and other bishops have denounced it as a conspiracy to divide believers on the basis of ethnicity.

Source: Ethiopian News January 24, 2023 18:02 UTC