Ethiopian Lutheran Leader Visits LCMS in St. Louis, Missouri, to Strengthen Relationship

The Rev. Berhanu Ofgaa, general secretary of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), visited LCMS leaders at the Synod’s International Center in St. Louis on March 27. His visit was documented in a question-and-answer interview with Reporter, conducted by Deaconess Pamela J. Nielsen. Ofgaa said the purpose of the visit was to strengthen the relationship the two churches have had and to share the EECMY’s views and challenges with LCMS leadership.

Ofgaa described the history of the Lutheran church in Ethiopia, which he said has been present in the country for more than a century. He said the first arrivals were the Swedish Evangelical Mission, the mission arm of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, and that American Lutheran missionaries began planting churches there in the 1950s and 1960s. According to Ofgaa, the EECMY was founded in 1959 as an indigenous church with 50,000 baptized members. He said it had grown to 6.1 million members, organized into 8,000 congregations and 25 synods.

Ofgaa explained that the EECMY recently broke fellowship with the Lutheran Church of Sweden and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). He said the decision was not new but had been developed over about four years by the church’s council, which studied questions of human sexuality, particularly because those partner churches had legalized same-sex marriage and ordination. He said the EECMY first advised those churches in a pastoral letter to return to the Bible and restore their relationship with the church. He said that after a one-year notice period, the churches had not changed course, and the council then terminated the relationship. The church’s general assembly reaffirmed the council’s decision in February, according to Ofgaa.

Asked about the future, Ofgaa said the decision has real costs. He said the church had long been tied to those partners through missionary work, and that many resources, personnel and services were connected to those relationships and would be affected. He said he had raised these challenges with LCMS leaders during his visit and had been received warmly, including by the LCMS president, who he said showed understanding and willingness to help address the difficulties. He especially thanked the Rev. Dr. Albert Collver III, director of LCMS Church Relations, whom Ofgaa said had visited Ethiopia twice.

Ofgaa said the discussions included the church’s seminary system, which he called the backbone of the church’s ministry. He said the EECMY has one central seminary, five regional seminaries and about 40 Bible schools that train its ministers, and that these institutions had depended in part on the partner churches. According to Ofgaa, the two churches reached consensus to exchange personnel, including missionaries who could teach in the seminaries, and to exchange resources to replace support the EECMY lost. The LCMS also expressed interest in supporting the EECMY’s strategic plan to reach 30 million people over the next five years, he said.

Ofgaa also described an earlier LCMS visit to the EECMY in February, which he said came at a time of urgent need during a joint meeting of partner and local church leaders known as the Committee of Mutual Christian Responsibility. He said the EECMY experienced moral and other support from the LCMS during that meeting, which he called very encouraging. He described the EECMY as a fast-growing church in an economically poor country, and said it hopes to share its spiritual experience and culture while still seeking support for economic needs and help in training pastors. He said, “We share with the church in the west, but still, we expect the support in our needs.”

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