Compass Direct

Eritrea - Wednesday January 18, 2006

GOVERNMENT FORMALLY SACKS ORTHODOX PATRIARCH

Abune Antonios challenges state-controlled synod’s arbitrary dismissal.

Patriarch Abune Antonios

Patriarch Abune Antonios

January 18 (Compass)

– The government-controlled Holy Synod of the Eritrean Orthodox Church last week served formal notice to Abune Antonios that he is no longer the patriarchal head of the nation’s largest religious body.

But Patriarch Antonios immediately rejected the notice. Striking back, Antonios announced that he was excommunicating or suspending those who signed his arbitrary dismissal order.

According to a report posted in the Tigrinya language on the website of the Asmarino Independent News, the synod notified Patriarch Antonios of his official discharge after “a series of hidden and closed-door meetings” held last week.

The secret sessions reportedly involved three Eritrean bishops and Yoftahe Dimetros, a layman installed by the government last August as chief administrator of the church. The three clerics were identified as Bishop Lukas, Bishop Petros and Bishop Marcos, all members of the church’s synod.

Dimetros reportedly forced some if not all the senior clergymen whose names appeared on the document to sign it.

The patriarch openly challenged the decision, declaring that it was a direct violation of Orthodox church canons. Under canon law, a patriarch’s election is considered a lifetime appointment that cannot be revoked. In addition, Dimetros’ takeover of church administration contravenes church statutes, which require that the position be held by an ordained bishop appointed by the patriarch.

Patriarch Antonios promptly excommunicated Dimetros from holding any position within the church and suspended the three bishops from officiating at liturgies or delivering any sermons.

On January 13, Dimetros ordered the confiscation of the patriarch’s car and dismissed his personal chauffeur.

Two days later, Abune Antonios caused a stir in Asmara when he emerged from his home, walking along the street to attend the Sunday prayers and liturgy at St. Mary’s Orthodox Church. Shocked that the elderly, robed cleric was not being driven to church as usual, several passersby stopped their cars to offer him a lift. The 78-year-old patriarch was quickly surrounded by a crowd of Orthodox faithful who escorted him to and from his residence for morning worship.

Since last August, when the Eritrean government stripped Antonios of his ecclesiastical authority and forbid him to administrate the affairs of the church, the patriarch has remained under virtual house arrest at his residence in Asmara.

From Asmara, sources confirmed to Compass today that if the patriarch continues to challenge the government-orchestrated takeover of his church, most people expect him to be arrested soon. Rumor has it that soon afterwards, the government would try to announce its selection of a new patriarch.

Antonios was installed by Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenoudah III as the third patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church in March 2004.

Protestant Teacher Jailed

The new year in Eritrea also saw a member of the Church of the Living God in Asmara arrested from his place of work on January 11. A university graduate teaching at the Mai-Nefhee Training Center in Asmara, Hanibal Tekeste is married with two children.

Tekeste is the fourth member of the charismatic church arrested within the past month. One of the church’s pastors detained just before Christmas later escaped from the security authorities and is now believed to have fled the country.

Since May 2002, Eritrea’s repressive regime has closed down and outlawed all Protestant churches except those that are Lutheran. Since that time, dozens of evangelical Protestant pastors and several thousand of their church members have been arrested and subjected to severe torture and detention in Eritrea for worshipping outside “legal” church buildings, even in their own homes.

The ancient Eritrean Orthodox Church had initially enjoyed relative immunity from government restrictions, along with the recognized Catholic, Lutheran and Muslim faiths. But Patriarch Antonios fell out of favor last year for protesting the jailing of three of his priests and other overt government interference in church affairs.

The Eritrean government issues routine, blanket denials that any religious persecution is occurring within the country, insisting that documented reports from Amnesty International, the U.S. State Department and other sources are “fabricated” and “groundless.”

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