Abune Merkorios

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Abune Merkorios was the fourth Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, succeeding Abune Tekle Haimanot in 1988.

1 Accession and Removal
2 Synod in Exile
3 Notes
4 See also

[edit] Accession and Removal

After four years as the Patriarch, Abune Merkorios was dethroned in 1992 under intense pressure by the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) guerilla fighters upon their assumption of power in Ethiopia. It is unclear whether or not the Patriarch willingly abdicated at first or acted under duress, but when he made an effort to reverse this action, the Synod (church council) stepped in and announced it had removed him. It stated that his election had been under the duress and direction of the Communist government, and so his continued occupation of the Patriarchate was not legitimate. The TPLF made it clear to the synod that they would not accept Merkorios as the leader of the church. A new election was held, and Abune Paulos, once a prisoner of the Derg, and a long time exile in the United States, became Patriarch of Ethiopia. Abune Merkorios fled the country into exile, fearful that his fate would be like that of the late 2nd patriarch Abune Tewophilos who was murdered in 1977 by the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army (Derg) after the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1975.^[1]

[edit] Synod in Exile

After leaving Ethiopia, Abune Merkorios announced from abroad that his removal was illegitimate, and carried out under duress from the new transitional government of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). He claimed that he was still the legal Patriarch of Ethiopia, as canon law did not support the enthronement of a Patriarch while another lived. The Synod however replied that it was entitled under canon law to remove the patriarch which it had done prior to the election of the new Patriarch. Several bishops left Ethiopia to join him in exile and now live mostly in the United States where they proclaimed a parallel synod. These moves to split the synod, who the legitimate occupant of the Patriarchate should be, and other issues have aroused much argument among the clergy and faithful. Abune Paulos however is the patriarch recognized by the Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church inside Ethiopia. The body claiming to be The Holy Synod in Exile continues to uphold Abune Merkorios as Patriarch of Ethiopia. However, Abune Merkorios does face the barrier that the other Oriental Orthodox Churches, most significantly the Coptic Orthodox Church, have refused to acknowledge his legitimacy from the very time of his election during the Derg era. The Coptic Church maintians that the two Patriarchs installed during the Derg era were illegitimate due to the uncanonical and illegal removal of Patriarch Abune Tewophilos from the Patriarchal throne, and his unannounced execution. With no official aknowledgement of Abune Tewophilos' death, the Copts argue that no Patriarch could legally be installed in Ethiopia. Therefore although Abune Tewophilos had been dead for over a decade at the time of his installation, without public aknowldgement by the Derg of the death and the carrying out of the funeral of Abune Tewophilos, Abune Merkorios would not be recognized. Pope Shenuda III of the Coptic Church publicly stated this policy during meetings with the Ethiopian exile community in the United States during visits there in the late 1980's. After Abune Merkorios was deposed, the remains of Abune Tewophilos were ceremonially reburied with full Patriarchal honors, followed days later by the enthronement of Abune Paulos. The Coptic Church thus recognized the Patrarchate of Abune Paulos as legitimate. Efforts continue to avert a permanent schism of the Ethiopian church. However, the so called "Synod in Exile" has recently also suffered further splits, and the Synod inside Ethiopia is faced with challenges to its authority inside Ethiopia as those disgruntled by even minor disputes have taken to questioning Abune Paulos's authority and legitimacy. The Church in exile is being buffeted by accusations from certain quarters that it has split the church, and that the exiled bishops would have done better to remain in Ethiopia, and in the legitimate Synod fighting for their cause. There have also been accusations that some of the exiled bishops intend to make the split permanent by proclaiming an independent Ethiopian Patriarchate Outside Ethiopia with its own line of Patriarchal succession.^[2] Both synods and both Patriarchs have been buffeted by questions of illegitimacy, accusations of ethnic and regional predudice, and hunger for power. Abune Merkorios has had a low public profile in the west, but his claims are forcefully advocated by his adherents.

On January 21, 2007, Abune Merkorios and those Archbishops who make up the exiled synod presided over the annointing of thirteen new bishops of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in exile at a ceremony at the Church of St. Gabriel in Washington D.C., and at the Church of Medhane Alem (Savior of the World) in Toronto Canada. This took place only a week after the exile synod refused to meet a delegation from the Addis Ababa synod which had come in order to try to explore possible reconciliation between the two groups. The act of annointing the new bishops was widely regarded as formalizing a permanent split between the two synods, and instituted the first scism of it's kind in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's ancient history. After the Holy Synod met in special session in Addis Ababa in response to this act, it was announced on February 3rd, 2007 that Patriarch Abune Merkorios, Archbishop Abune Melke Tsedek, Archbishop Abune Zena Markos and Archbishop Abune Elias had all been stripped of all Episcopal and ecclisiastic authority, and were formally excommunicated from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The Synod also pronounced an anathema, forbiding all members of the church from associating with them. The thirteen bishops elevated by the exiled patriarch and his synod in exile were not subject to the excommunication, but their titles of bishop were not recognized. The church in exile retaliated by excommunicating Abune Paulos, all the bishops who had elected him, and all the bishops he has annointed during his reign.