WorldWide Religious News-Three More Orthodox Church Leaders Jailed
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• Eastern Africa • Kenya • Nigeria • Northern Africa • South Africa • Southern Africa • Western Africa Africa - Christianity - Persecution "Three More Orthodox Church Leaders Jailed" ("Compass," May 20, 2006) Asmara, Eritrea - The Eritrean government jailed three more leaders of the Orthodox Church’s Medhane Alem renewal movement last month, cracking down on widespread reaction to the formal excommunication of 65 of the group’s members announced nearly two months ago. The standoff began on March 28, with a circular letter sent out by the Eritrean Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod, put under de facto government control nine months ago. Addressed to every Orthodox parish throughout the country, the letter officially excommunicated 65 key members and coordinators of Medhane Alem, a long-established Sunday School movement within the Orthodox church. The expelled Christians reportedly had refused to confess that the Medhane Alem movement and its leaders were “heretics” whose objectives were to destroy the Eritrean Orthodox Church. Formal excommunication from the church excludes the former member from participation in all sacraments of the church, including communion, baptism, marriage and funeral rites. A week later, on April 4, three of the excommunicants – identified only as Samson, Michael and Naemen – were arrested and sent to prison. The three men were accused of instigating open resistance to the church’s decree banishing them from their mother church. Dissension over three Medhane Alem priests jailed since March 2005 had caused the Asmara government to turn against Eritrean Orthodox Patriarch Abune Antonios last year. The church’s administration was taken over last August by a government-installed layman who, contrary to Orthodox canons, then led the church’s Holy Synod in ousting Patriarch Antonios. After keeping the elderly Antonios under strict house arrest last August, the co-opted Holy Synod notified him in January 2006 that he was no longer the head of his church. According to Orthodox sources in Egypt, Antonios’ arbitrary dismissal was a direct violation of canonical law, which only permits a patriarch’s removal for reasons of immorality, heresy or physical/mental infirmity. The only solution to the standoff believed to be acceptable to Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenoudah III, who ordained Patriarch Antonios, would be a joint “ecclesiastical tribunal” before representatives of the church synods of both Egypt and Eritrea, to hear the charges and allow the patriarch to defend himself. But it remains to be seen if the regime of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki would agree to such a hearing, independent of government interference and presumably presided over by Pope Shenoudah. Although there has been no formal announcement of the selection of a new patriarch, the Eritrean government’s Shabait website posted a short article on April 22, referring to “His Holiness Abune Dioscoros” as “Head of the EOC [Eritrean Orthodox Church] Holy Synod.” Related Sections | Orthodox Disclaimer: WWRN does not endorse or adhere to views or opinions expressed in the articles posted. This is purely an information site, to inform interested parties of religious trends. 10 Commandments Buddhism Christianity Anglican Baptist Catholic Deya Ministry Evangelicals General Jehovahs Wit. Lutheran Methodist Mormon Orthodox Other Groups Pentacostals Persecution • Eritrea releases gospel singer Berhane • Police Arrest 150 More Christians • Eritea: Two Christians Tortured To Death • Italian nun slain in Somalia, Pope link speculation • Anti-Christian sect members kill Catholic Priest in Bas-Congo • Singing church members attacked • Mob Stones Woman to Death for Evangelizing • Three More Orthodox Church Leaders Jailed • Sudanese priest released after convert found • 1 dead in Kenya religious station attack • Eritrea targeting 'permitted' churches • Attacks on Copts Expose Egypt's Secular Paradox • Nigerian Priest: Another Victim of Violence • At Least 15 Die in Nigeria Cartoon Protest • Military Jails 75 Protestant Conscripts • Sectarian tensions felt in the south • Egyptian church clash injures 12 • Government Rounds Up Leaders From Five Churches • Shock as Eritrea expels successful Anglican priest • Pastor Fatally Crushed By Taxi For more articles in this section, see archives. Presbyterian Church/State Falun Gong Gov. Reports Hari Krishna Hinduism Internet Related Islam Judaism Legislation Miscellaneous Mungiki Native Religions Occult Other NRMs Raelians Rastafarians Scientology Sectarian Violence Unification Church

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