Lutherans in Ethiopia Put Their Neck on the Line for MKC Members
by Alemu Checole and Ferne Burkhardt
During a recent conversation at the SIM (Sudan Interior Mission) guesthouse, Calvin E. Shenk, a professor at Eastern Mennonite University (USA), related the following anecdote.
"On behalf of the Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) members in particular and Mennonites in general, I want to thank you Lutherans for putting your neck on the line for us during the Marxist repression," exclaimed Shenk to a Lutheran professor at Mekane Yesus Seminary. The Lutheran professor responded, "We owed it to you because we put your neck on the line during the Reformation."
Anabaptists in the 16th century suffered at the hands of other Christians whereas MKC members suffered principally from people outside the Christian faith during the Marxist-military rule.
During the "Derg years" in Ethiopia, from 1982 to 1991 when a Marxist military government caused the MKC to go underground, the Lutherans provided an umbrella for repressed evangelical churches for weddings and funerals. They did this to show solidarity with their suffering Christian brothers and sisters. On many occasions different Mekane Yesus churches in Addis Ababa opened their doors for a good number of MKC members for weddings and funerals.
Pastor Getaneh Ayele of the MKC Addis Regional Church office, for example, said that he got married on January 15, 1984 at Lideta Mekane Yesus. Ejigu Wolde-Gabriel, pastor of Kebenna MKC, was married on October 24, 1987 at Bethel Mekane Yesus where Esther Becker and Arlene Kreider were witnesses.
After teaching her Sunday school class in a home in Addis Ababa, Tenfyelesh Yigezu, a Bible Academy alumnus and wife of Pastor Mesfin Tesfaye, died as a result of a car accident on January 9, 1988. The following day, her funeral service was conducted at the Urael Mekane Yesus Church.
Not only did the Lutherans open their church doors to MKC members, but they also opened their homes and arms in an expression of Christian love and compassion.
Reverend Asfax Kalborie, a retired clergyman of Lideta Mekane Yesus, remembers with joy the excellent relations they had with MKC members and how the Council of clergymen of the Addis Ababa Lutheran churches agreed to commit themselves to serve the body of believers suffering repression under the Marxist regime, even risking the closure of their own churches.
The Lutheran pastor acknowledged the gratitude of Beyene Mulatu, an MKC church leader, who said that if the Lutheran churches had been closed and MKC had remained open, Mekane Yesus members might not have enjoyed such privileges.
These actions by the Lutherans were a significant expression of solidarity and demonstrate how each church is dependent on other Christian groups.
