Good Service
Spirituality in Christian life is the scarification for God and a good service is vital. A service is said to be good if it merits the reflection of spiritual life filled with perseverance of religion and diligence. It is of the essence for a servile to know the endeavors of good service. Then, whether individually or unison, all who praise His Name and live under His command in a spiritual service, presents good service. Our faith, religion, spiritual knowledge and Christian endeavors are its measurement.
The importance of spiritual Association in history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Incarnation Church’s divine services is enormous. Lord Jesus Christ said, “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.” With the aim of commemorating Saints, they have formed an association in the name of our Lord Savoir, Saint Virgin Mary, Holy Angels, Holy Fathers, Righteous, and Martyrs. (Matthew 10:41)
Since then, many associations have emerged in our country with spiritual services. It is also important to note that cup associations may be organized according to the number of members and their financial capacity to carry out other church services. The most important to be mentioned among these services are the preaching of the gospel, train and increase the capacity of Church ministers (Priests, Deacons and Servile) able to strengthen laities in faith and demeanors (construct template schools, provide leadership development trainings), educate, train and tribute universities students, for them to serve the Church and their country with their educational background, teach and baptize gentiles and new believers. The Apostolic mission of the Church and make it successful and efficient, the multifaceted ministry service of such association is paramount importance. Mahibere Kidusan is amongst those associations established to achieve the above mentioned missions.
More than thirty years has passed since the establishment of the association in 1984, Mahibere Kidusan, triumph thru all the predicaments and yet standing as a spiritual institution. Its diligent servile are to take the credit for they are its base. Jouncing throughout these years, it spiritually expanded its service. In particular, by the utility of modern means of transmission merit the expansion of gospel all over the country as well as worldwide in constructing laities and Higher Institutional Students, to acknowledge the Church’s Liturgy and Tradition.
In Bequest, the servile of Mahibere Kidusan are the base stone for the expansion of the Gospel in councils at Church Congregation specially on feasts and Sabbaths. The associations previous servile and other voluntaries have contributed a great role in the expansion of the gospel and spiritual congregation.
Mahibere Kidusan organizes homilies with the parishes; the voluntaries servile has participated as it is the council held in collaboration of donators and Committees of Gospel. All of these service providers were providing services from southern Ethiopia to the Kenyan coast. Because in terms of making the gospel accessible to places where the gospel has not been reached, the legacy of the association’s teachers has strived much. In this way, from the city to the countryside, in district centers and even in South Africa and in foreign countries such as America and Europe, in the chain of structure, from the main center to the communication station, gospel congregations are organized until one or two members are present. In terms of expanding the congregations and teaching the faithful, the congregations prepared by the teachers have reached wide and many areas, brought people out of ignorance and darkness, made them know their Creator, come closer to their God, and enlightened the minds of young people to perform their marriages with the Holy Communion and ceremony.
The Holy Congregation has many priests, deacons, and evangelists who serve by bequest. In addition to that, every year he graduates many thousands from campus congregations in Zewai, Jimma, and all over the country in priestly training. Some of them are engaged in evangelism. These services are so important to the church that they are not easily seen.
Our association has established congregations at different times in the districts and localities selected by the diocese as well as the subjects, in spreading and strengthening the evangelism, while spreading the gospel, giving various trainings to the believers and ministers to persevere and strengthen them, and to bring those who left the holy church back to the holy church.
It employed ministers in various dioceses and languages with subsidies, in particular with the subsidy from the main center, and by providing services at royal holidays, wedding ceremonies, mourning and house-to-house services and made the faithful to attain the Childhood of Holy Trinity.
In addition, in cooperation with the main center and benefactors, it was possible to expand the reach of evangelism by training preachers, teachers and priests who serve in different languages.
The times when the trainings were given (in Tirzah Zion and Zewai training) and they were done according to the conditions of the training. servants are engaged in service through these trainings.
It was possible to deliver the gospel to the laities by making apostolic pilgrimage in districts where the gospel had not been preached, and to teach the gospel to the believers in cities and rural areas by making a pilgrimage twice a year.
The laities have received evangelism pilgrimage in a wide range of ways through their life journeys. The various questions that arose due to religion at different times were answered by the teachers, especially during the large-scale reformation activities in various dioceses, the large-scale counter-reformation training and assembly organized by the centers were able to completely curb their activities. The laities were also given a wide range of education, and various supports were provided so that they could be strengthened in the services of the churches they visited. For example, sustenance was provided to meet the needs of the pilgrims, to hire a priest and so on.
Moreover, in order to achieve the mission of making students worthy servants, it is achieving its aim in Abune Gregorios schools, which it opened to teach theology, church history, liturgy and tradition among other subjects.
In the structure of Mahibere Kidusan, Campus assembly is one of the coordination services and it is serving in organizing and coordinating campus congregations. In order to be able to teach a consistent and standardized education in all campus assemblies, the system is being implemented by local campus assemblies. The participation of campus congregations was high in order to complete the construction of the office building of the main center of the congregation in Addis Ababa. (Congregation of Kana the Orthodox Tewahedo News Paper; 3rd year; No. 4; May 2010 G.C)
Through education and apostolic service evangelization expansion program, members go to different regions where churches are not found and in places of evangelism accessibility inadequacy and baptized the non-believers in to becoming Christians.
Especially in the years 2010-2019 (G.C.) in Benshangul Gumuz, Metekal, Arba Minch, Jinka, South Omo and other sub-regions, it has provided counseling services to those who have serious problems in traveling, evangelizing and baptizing.
The association has gathered those left behind from the church and who were lost in despair with this apostolic mission, because they did not accessible gospel. It has taught and baptized people who were lost and had been hoping for the Holy Church for centuries through making them members of the Holy Church.
At places where the calling of God’s name was impossible, the association has recognition of God’s presence to be accessible in areas where God’s name is not mentioned and where God’s glory has not reached. Among the new believers, minister, Preachers, deacons and priests have aroused.
In addition to establishing children’s and youth congregations in areas where there are no Sunday schools, it also strengthened the established ones. Since the apostolic ministry was accessible in areas where there were no orthodox people, it spread the orthodox tradition and order.
The association not only makes these spiritual services accessible, but also helps the new believers and the faithful to live steadfastly in their religion by preparing various programs and training and increasing their participation. Because of this, it was able to bring forth many informal members and the service increased from time to time.
Along with this, the Mahibere Kidusan is expanding the Traditional schools in order to spread the Orthodox Tewahedo religion and increase the number of believers, especially to raise the children through religious education and church liturgy. Since the foundation of the association’s ministry of sacred ministry and spiritual schools in the year of establishments, Traditional schools has expanded in areas where model schools have not expanded, and has worked to strengthen the existing ones. In this way, model schools, monasteries and rural churches have been strengthened universally. It has reinforced Monasteries to implemented various projects in enabling of supporting themselves economically and developmentally.
Apostolic Pilgrimages is the identity of the congregation’s great evangelism. It engages 8000-15000 people in one trip and did a great job of evangelism by making many believers satisfied with the gospel and answering the questions of many through the consultation of Patristic Fathers.
The other is the Apostolic Pilgrimages that takes place at the main center. They are attended by not less than thirty people; By including regular teachers and psalmists, it makes a spiritual conference that will take at least fifteen days to visit up to seven cities. During the apostolic Pilgrimage, the teachers preach the gospel accompanied by singing. These ministers paid a high price for the spread of the gospel by using their annual leave.
On the other hand, if we take a closer look at the evangelistic ministry or spiritual congregation outside the country, it is very wide. In Kenya, South Africa, America, Australia, Arab and European countries, it has contributed greatly in spreading the gospel.
It has been preaching Gospel and the church education in different ways in universities and colleges in and outside the country as much as possible. Contextual sermons and lessons, trainings and contexts, and the results of publications are the main means of expanding the gospel.
Just as our Lord Jesus Christ taught us the gospel in His holy words, the apostles transmitted his preaching and all the miracles he did to the next generation by the holy permission and command of our Lord.
They entrusted us with sacred books including the Apocrypha in addition to the Holy Bible. Therefore, in order to fulfill this mandate, one of the spiritual activities that the congregation of the Holy Church will implement is to make the gospel accessible. These is done through the means of publications it started beginning its establishment as an association, which are Hamere Magazine, Sima Tsidik Newspaper, Mestehete Teleko and Holy in scriptures.
The association has established a department of singing and performing arts, since its inception, and has been delivering various songs in different languages to the laities in different ways based on the orthodox Tewahedo Yaredic Hymn. The hymns are becoming accessible to the faithful through YouTube, radio and television with audio and video tapes, various apostolic pilgrimage in the Church Congregation and great religious feasts, with the help of modern technology.
In recent years especially, it has greatly contributed to the expansion of the service by training thousands of trainees in orthodox melodious instruments (harp, harp, flute, drum) and the strengthening of services that had only limited spiritual ministers and were threatened with extinction (such as harp, harp and flute); it is still giving this service.
Electronics media play an important role in the ways in which the association spreads the gospel. It has set up a media department, which is a television service facility, in order to facilitate the delivery of religious teachings through these media to the faithful in an organized manner. Programs in Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromo, and English languages (both regular and online), radio programs, various lectures and sermons presented on VCD, as well as films are broadcasted on the association’s television station to coordinate teachers and other members to spread gospel in Amharic, Geez, Oromo, Tigrigna, and English at the world level and with this, it has played its role as an association.
Outstanding to its determination to spread the Gospel, Mahibere Kidusan, in addition to the local masses of the publication, organized under the archives and information department in 1999 (G.C.), It continued its service by developing an Amharic website. Soon, after it launching the Amharic and English websites, it opened Facebook, Telegram, Twitter and Instagram, making the gospel accessible to readers. Literary texts and works of art are being made accessible to readers through social media. In the era of technology, it realized its appropriateness of the utility of technology to teach believers, strengthen them in Christian life, and to make it accessible to everyone in their place and situation.
May God’ Benevolence be with us!
