On Gebre Menfes Kidus

Ioannes

Not sure how many of you have conversed with this man who goes by Gebre Menfes Kidus (Not the saint) who has written a book entitled "Mystery and Meaning" but I strongly urge that anyone who has come in contact with him use the utmost caution. He is NOT affiliated with the EOTC as he claims, but rather a schismatic group of quasi-rastas who call themselves the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and highly venerate Haile Selassie, going so far as to deny that he ever did anything wrong. I cannot elaborate here as there is not enough room, but would be willing to share my refutation of his teachings via email. 

minasoliman

I think it's unfair to spread libel over Gebre here, but more important to raise libel against the Church he is part of.  For one thing, the Ethiopian Synod in Resistance is not quasi-rasta.  There have been serious discussions in trying to reunite with that faction after the departure of HH Abune Petros.  They are Orthodox in faith, but have schismed over how they felt was an uncanonical election of the patriarch.  With that said, I find no side really in my opinion to be wholly innocent in the manner, and I pray both factions of the Ethiopian Church to be reunited.

Ioannes

Mina, I agree and perhaps I should have been a bit more clear. The church in exile is different than what Gebre is a part of. While he attends a Greek Orthodox church AND an EOTC in exile, he follows a Gebre Tsadik, who is a man who mixes rastafarianism with Orthodoxy. In fact I discussed this issue with an EOTC priest. Gebre himself is a confusing person, for instance he says that he is a pacifist but when faced with serious questions on the matter his only response is that he is a pacifist not a passive-ist, which is not clear at all. His bashing of the military is a bit odd, especially since there are so many saints that are soldiers AND his hero, Haile Selassie I had many killed, which is not exactly a state secret. Forgive me Mina for not being more clear but there are even websites that confirm what I am saying, look up Dingel Mariam in Jackson Mississipi and you will see a Gebre Tsadik as the priest and Gebre Menfes Kidus as the "religious leader." Jackson is where he, Gebre Menfes Kidus, lives. This sect advocates the smoking of marijuana AND puts Haile Selassie as one of its major and central figures, close to that of our virgin saint Mary the mother of God.

Purity2

I agree that one should be wary of Abba Gebre Tsadik and his followers. I agree, having  much sadness that our men are so confused.
I have been in correspondence with Abba Gebre Tsadik; I was so happy to find someone who I thought was a true EOTC Abba here in the west. I was hoping he would be able to come to my country and form a Church. But when I told him to contact our COC Priest who has the authority to form new Church's he replied that the COC was a different Church. So sad how we keep our own selves in slavery.
I used to be a rasta. I am glad for the rasta teachings of holistic living that prepared me for my wonderful Orthodox Christian life. I'm glad for my early protestant upbringing; which gave me the good foundation so now I can worship God in completeness!
As a rasta I could never believe that Haile Selassie I was the God, but definitely a god as all men of God are born to be. I'm sure Emperor Haile Selassie I made mistakes because he was human, but his good deeds far out measure the bad. I don't think a man of God like Pope Kyrillos the VI would have spent so much time in the company of the Emperor if he was a bad person. And I think the late great Emperor deserves his place with the Saints.

God bless you all 

Ioannes

Purity2, thank you for sharing your story, and if you have any contact information on this Tsadik please PM it to me, the EOTC priest I correspond with is interested in investigating him.

Yes, Gebre Menfes Kidus or Reynold Wood, said many questionable things but then became very shady with me when I questioned him about his religious affiliation. He even referred to HH Pope Shenouda in a very negaive light, calling him "shrewd." 

Having lived in Ethiopia I have a bit of knowledge about her beautiful history and about Haile Selassie. I had the pleasure of speaking with many of the people surrounding him and many who were within the military. I can assure you that while Haile Selassie was not evil, he does not deserve a place amongst saints. It is confirmed that he had quite a few people killed for opposing him. He also chose to ignore many of the countrys poorest in favor of wealthy land owners, again this being confirmed. The other accusation from some in the church and many of the military that spent time with him is apostasy. Now, I do not take this lightly and dont often wish to discuss this but the fact is he did consult the equivalent of a shaman on multiple occasions. From eyewitness accounts I have heard that there were occasions in which he even sacrificed animals ritualistically. The true reason why these witnesses are unawares as they are not versed in this sort of thing. So no, he does not deserve his place among the saints as he has done nothing to deserve such an honor, especially not emphatically stating "Guys, I am not God nor a god, STOP IT already, come and see Orthodoxy!" He was weak and fled his country, even Marcus Garvey criticized him for that. 

Ioannes

read Ethiopia the Classic Case by Nibur-Id Ermais http://ethkogserv.org/books_.htm# it is a book that details many of the things I just said. When I recommended this to Gebre Menfes Kidus, Reynold Wood, he became extremely irate. He even said "I will not tolerate blasphemy against Haile Selassie" lol Blasphemy?

Theophilus 1

I am of the opinion that Emperor Haile Selasse was a virtuous king, who had moments of weakness. I don't think allegations that he consulted shamans and offered animal sacrifices are well founded. And I do believe that his fleeing Ethiopia to plea the case of his nation and his people after bravely fighting the Italians was tactical move that put the country back in track within five years. Yes, he did act unwisely when he annexed Eritrea or minimize the extent of the famine among other things. But he tried his best to modernize the country. He was not fully democratic but then again he was a king and that is what kings do.  

Little know fact about his life is that he was a deacon. He sent Bishop Yishaque to evangelize in the Caribbean's and we now see how fruitful this mission has been. He also patronage the construction of many churches in Ethiopia. 

May be a parallel can be drawn between him and King Nicholas II of Russia who was murdered during the Bolshevik revolution. Of course canonization is a case-by-case process but at least if Emperor Haile Silase is no saint he is no devil either. 

Btw, this is coming from an Eritrean who is not a fun of the annexation and not a nationalistic Ethiopian. So, I hope you won't assume I am just biased. 

In Christ 

Theophilus     

minasoliman

If we look at the life of St. Constantine in detail, one would be initially perplexed at his canonization in the Coptic Church. For example, he also had quite a few people (his own family members) killed. He spent time trying to hunt down and kill St. Athanasius (compared to calling HH Pope Shenouda "shrewd", which I don't think is a bad word, and if anything I would agree HH was very shrewd and smart). He was also an Arian most of his time and was baptized by an Arian bishop. The Coptic Church still thought of him worthy of veneration as a saint. I used to be judgmental about it, but now I personally find that promising for my soul and I don't hesitate to ask his prayers.

Theophilus 1

I agree with you Mina and St. Constantine is a great example. 

This is my first time hearing the Emperor Haile Selasse called HH Pope Shenouda "shrewd". I am not convinced that this is true. 

Going back to the original topic there are a lot of rastafarians see Emperor Haile Selasse as Christ. In my experience the longing that rastafarians and African Americans have towards Ethiopia is more of an opportunity than a hinderance for them to accept Orthodoxy. But then again there are a few who are unwilling to recant their rastafarian views. 

I haven't heard of Gebre Menfes Kidus and Gebre Tsadik before but I would like to get their contact information. 

In Christ 

Theophilus      

Stavro

Does anybody know when the Arian Emperor Constantine was admitted into the congregation of saints?

Maybe we should consider admitting General El-Sisi into the congregation of saints as well. Definitely a man of honor as opposed to Constantine's bloody policies, has no blood on his hands unlike Constantine, and has "saved" the Copts from great persecution under the MB, as opposed to persecuting the Church and her great saints.

Being muslim should not stop the great man from sainthood. It cannot get worse than an Arian.

St. Sisi, pray for us !

One has to be skeptical about the canonization of individuals in power. Usually it takes place in the time of his son or grandchild, and it suggests that the Church was not in liberty to reject this veneration.

For Emperor Haile Selasse, neither he or any of his descendents are in power to force anything on us or on the Ethiopian, so at least his life will be evaluated fairly.     

ReturnOrthodoxy

Stavro for the win!

Long live the Holy St. Sisi

minasoliman

Was the Coptic Church really forced to accept the veneration of someone?  If that was the case, we would have been forced to accept Chalcedon.  But we have no other emperor in our calendar of saints.  Surely, we could have had Theodosius the emperor for destroying many pagan temples and help quell any pagan suit against Christian aggression.

Seeing that St. Constantine is not merely in our Synexarium, but also in our hymnography, I find it of no use to question a deep-rooted veneration of the man.  He was within the context of his time.  Who knows if we were in his position would we have done any differently.  I'm not saying this to justify his many evil sins, but I'm saying this to instill a bit of humility.  Would anyone of us say we are better than a fellow man?  Or don't we pray every night that we are the chief of sinners?  And if we are the chief of sinners, how much more do we seek a place in the Kingdom as the Church judges St. Constantine to be!  Rather than mock his memory and mock his placement in sainthood, perhaps we should spend more time lamenting how much we are unable to attain a tenth of his virtues, if anyone of us truly do believe that we are "the chief of sinners".

Stavro

No need for your usual condescending tone that is unwarranted and that you cannot back up with any personal or spiritual merits.

No one is mocking any saints here, simply because the very sainthood of Constantine is in question and no one is able to provide a logical answer to serious events in the life of Constantine that suggest Constantine is a heretic and a thug rather than a saint in the Orthodox Church.

The first question is simple: Under what circumstances was Constantine admitted to the congregation of saints? There is no need to evade the question by moral lectures.

The next question is simple: What are the merits of Constantine to be a saint? The edict of Milan does not qualify him for sainthood, simply because many rulers in the Roman era and in the Arab era were friendly to Christians and did not persecute them. Should we admit Muhamed Pasha Ali, Khedewi Ismail, Sultan Kamaraweh and Sultan EL-Aziz Beallah to the congregation fo saints? Christianity flourished in their era, Churches were erected and they even supported building of churches. President Nasser should be even among the heavenly, seeking his intercession and not only his prayers.

What we know about Constantine is the following:

1) Baptized an Arian. This means he was not baptized in the name of the Trinity. He is not Christian / Orthodox. He is a heretic.

2) He was baptized by a arch heretic who happened to be also his life long personal aid and advisor, therefore present at his death bed. It is not a coincidence that an Arian was his advisor if he was not himself an Arian by conviction.

3) Persecutor of the Church and persecutor of the greatest of the bishops, Athanasius, with no indication that he repented like other persecutors of the Church, say Governor Arianos or Saul Of Tarsus.

4) Like other Emperors, his reign was one bloody crime after another, killing his own family members for political struggle.

If you want to challenge the above points, go ahead and I will be most obliged to follow your opinion if you prove the above to be wrong.

Was he baptized by an orthodox priest or even an orthodox person in the name of the Trinity?

Are there any signs of his repentence?

If not, then definitely Field Marshal El-Sisis or Nasser are even more honorable than Constantine and deserve veneration as well.

If you participated in the mystery of the Body of Christ and were of sound faith, you would have understood the gravity of admitting a heretic, unrepented persecutor of the Church and a bloody Emperor into the Church body.

minasoliman

Stavro,

If you felt I insulted you in any way, I apologize.  I am the chief of sinners and I ask you to forgive me and pray for me.  I only wish to say I am no better than Constantine himself, even though many of the things you say have no falsity.  I hope I can personally consider myself worthy to be in the presence of the emperor himself as the Church seems to judge, as well as the persecuted St. Athanasius and Abouna Matta al Maskeen, and you know better than me the worth of my miserable soul.  I have a long way to go to even have any worth to be even better than heretics.

ReturnOrthodoxy

Well that escalated quickly LOL

minasoliman

I just saw this post that pertains to the subject matter of the thread:

http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php/topic,7227.msg1098137.html#msg1098137

minasoliman

And here's HG Bishop Antonios Marcos talking about Haile Selassie:



Perhaps one should consult with him concerning some of the Ethiopian missions and the personality of Haile Selassie, as he probably knows better than most of us here.

Ioannes

Theophilus, I am sorry I was unclear, Gebre or Reynold Wood called HH shrewd, not Haile Selassie. You and others may see virtue in him in some aspects of his life and that is fine, I guess, but having several people murdered to remain emperor is unacceptable, and the opposite of virtuous. I am not saying that he was evil, but as Nibur-Id Ermais details in his book, he did not do according to the will of God. In fact the very ideology that he allowed into the country overthrew him. Not much of this matters because the thread is supposed to be about Gebre Menfes Kidus and his teachings.

He teaches absolute pacifism and condemns anyone in the military. Going so far as to take others words out of context to "prove" his stance.

Also, I am not a fan of Constantine.

minasoliman

Thank you for the book recommendation.  After some google searching, I feel that this thread can shed some light into Nibur-Id Ermais as also controversial in and of himself:

http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php?topic=42954.0

Again, I'd like to highlight that no matter the imperfections, I think I don't amount to anyone in any better way.  I find that to attack someone for pacifism seems quite minor to me.  His pacifism to me is a theologomenoun.  It would be nice if everyone developed a sense of pacifism like him, even though it is not realistic.  I got into a public honest online discussion with him about this and shared my disagreements, but I find that to actually have a personal vendetta against him seems extreme.  One can put the subject of extreme pacifism to discussion and even quote him without mentioning him by name while refuting his ideas.  But to mention his name (and his birth name too, which I thought he explicitly wished not to be revealed publicly, and can be held against you in a court of law if he decides to sue) is a tactic used very similarly for character assassination.

There are some theological issues a few of our bishops and priests have believed, and I have not named them, but I have held public disagreement with their beliefs.  One such issue I feel is a serious one is the idea that we do not bear the Holy Spirit, but only His gifts which He creates in us, leaving us with no real unity with God.

With that said, yes, it's interesting that one's pacifism contradicts one's veneration of Haile Selassie.  But it need not contradict.  One can still admit a saint is imperfect, venerate him as if his virtues exceed one's own wretched and most sinful soul, and still embody and profess what he believes to be a high standard of pacifist ideals to the point of (most probably erroneously) condemn those who don't.  No theologian ever claimed to be morally superior, but only to teach what is ideal and the standards that one should live by.

I have in times past have shared publicly how much I have not been a fan of St. Constantine and I questioned the canonization due to him given by the Church.  We even canonized the most infamous of the Popes who engaged in clear simony, Pope St. Cyril III ibn-Louqlouq, and yet the Church found it in her wisdom to canonize him nonetheless, with no clear pressure it seems (for one thing, I think we should also give pressure to the Synod today to canonize Abba Bulus al Bushi during that critical period of the Church and for his theological and edifying writings).  But then in the spirit of St. Grigor Naraketsi, the famous Armenian father who wrote a compelling prayer book, considered the "second David" in the Armenian Church:

(part 2 next post)

minasoliman

(From Prayer 6, Speaking with God from the depths of the Heart)

And since I was not found worthy of sharing 
in the glory of the saints with their blissful 
laughter and smiles, as described by the proverb teller
and psalmist, I shall be granted the second rank, 
the rank where people like me are assigned. 
But in view of the error of my ways, 
even they are superior to me just as the penitent is 
superior to the impenitent. 
Manasseh should be celebrated, 
when compared with the excess of my transgressions.
The Pharisee should be honored when compared with my foul baseness.
The Prodigal Son should be praised 
when compared to the betrayal of my vows.
The deceit of the Amasseh’s son should be commended, 
when compared with my thankless ingratitude.
More blessed is the thief who was prosecutor 
of the faithless.
More honorable is the prostitute, the example and the mother of all repentant.

(part 3 next post)

minasoliman

C

No less than Pharaoh have I hardened my heart. 
No less blameworthy than the frenzied Israelite mob, 
have I rebelled against my creator. 
No less than the enemies of God have I 
taken the battlefield, 
and I did not refrain from denying the creator of 
all from nothing. 
I make waves like the turbulent sea during a storm, 
but I do not tremble, humbled by your 
severe commandment, 
like the waves of the sea against the shore.
My countless misdeeds are measured like 
mounds of sand. 
The boundless accumulation is less than the 
mass of my lawlessness. 

We all know the crimes and sins of the Old Testament prophets.  If we look for kings, King David himself had blood in his hands, and caused an egregious crime to Uriah for lust of his wife, and he knew the heart of God.

It's why I don't see the Church in history was pressured to add St. Constantine or St. Cyril III or King David in the group of saints.  For when one examines his/her own soul in comparison to all other sinners, one hopes that God forgives their wretched souls in comparison to some of the virtues one has done in his life, as in the case of the saints disputed.  I hope time will tell whether the memory of Haile Selassie helps or hurts the mission of Orthodoxy in the Caribbean, and that will affect whether he should be canonized or not, no matter his past.

My point is there is a better way to have this discussion.  If many of us have a heart of contrition, our discussions here would be with so much more respect (and believe me, I have very strong disagreements with Gebre, but I don't like doing it like this).

Forgive me if I offended.

Ioannes

Mina, first off, his real name was on his facebook page in one of his many posts, in fact in several of them he used his real name, so in terms of being sued in court, that is somewhat laughable, where else do you think I got his name?

Second, it is not a personal vendetta. The fact is Gebre has misquoted and taken many out of context to "prove" that pacifism is the teaching of the church, and it is not. I tried posting each and everything he said here and its correction but it was too much. But, let us assume that Gebre is right, then his poem bashing soldiers must also be true thereby challenging the churches canonization of many saints who were soldiers. I have no personal issue with Gebre, I take issue with his incorrect teaching which could push people away from the church, his maligning the characters of others while then accusing me of maligning him. Before I ever publicly pointed out his errors, I gave him ample time to respond to the letter, he chose not to. Our own HH Pope Shenouda said that an error taught in public must be corrected in public. And I believe that.

Ioannes

For the record I have contacted Gebre privately seeking to mend this divide. I purposely waited until things cooled down till I contacted him. I desire for his salvation as I do all others, I desire for him to understand why I criticized his point of view and his teachings. The problem with Gebre, aside from his teaching, is that he is not always clear. For instance he told me once that he believes in pacifism not passive-ism. But he fails to elaborate on it leaving me just as confused as before. I told him numerous times that if he chooses to practice pacifism then thats his choice, but to misquote St Basil, St John Chrysostom, and some modern clergy to prove your point of view, thats wrong. He even once said "If the church did not teach pacifism, I would leave it." I am paraphrasing a bit but thats pretty much what he said. 

I truly hope that Gebre realizes I am not attacking him but his teachings

minasoliman

And yet HH when correcting errors corrected errors and tried his best to avoid naming names.  Surely you could have done that.  Gebre has no influence over us in any way whatsoever.  You can quote him without naming him.  I think that's a better approach.

minasoliman

And to be honest, Gebre at the time shared with our moderating team that he felt threatened by you.  I don't know what exactly goes on in private messages between you and him, but could you in any way consider that your approach could be a bit more belligerent without realizing.  We being zealous for the Church sometimes can be a bit aggressive without noticing.  I am the first to admit this in myself.  (And I'm "friends" with Gebre on Facebook...I did not see his birth name shared publicly).

Ioannes

If you look in his notes, which he may have deleted by now, his name was in there. I cannot change in any way how Gebre perceives what I say towards him. I am not going to say that he should feel this way or that, perhaps I was a bit overbearing but I did try to keep everything out of private chats so as to protect myself in that sense. In my opinion he needs to be accountable to what he teaches, there are many who do look up to him as a teacher or spiritual leader, such as seen here http://dingelmariam.01.free.bm/ and I wanted to make sure that people could see another side to his teaching. I posted on OC.net, as a review on his book on amazon.com, and here. In my personal opinion he is threatened because someone is holding him accountable and isnt just writing him off and letting him continue. 

In hindsight I certainly could have done or said things differently, but I would have done it publicly and still used his name. I am not sure why that is such a big deal, if its you, own it. I prefer my baptismal name too, but if you must know my name then I would give it to you and own what I say as I always do. But again, thats Gebre, we conversed privately a few days ago and I gave him my phone number and offered to talk to him in order to explain myself, again, in hopes that he might listen. I will not push the issue but will make sure that people know the church does NOT teach absolute pacifism, can a person choose that? Yes, of course.

minasoliman

I haven't read his book.  Whatever he writes in it concerning pacifism can be and should be quoted and refuted when need be, and I encourage you to do so.  I have my reservations with him on his views of science, but I still am sensitive in helping protect the identity of the person, even if he gave his name publicly.  You cited HH Pope Shenouda as an example.  We all know his disagreements with Abouna Matta al Maskeen, and he quoted his books without mentioning him by name (not that I agree with HH Pope Shenouda's theology on some of these issues, but at least I respect him for his mannerism on this issue).

I have personal ideas on pacifism that goes towards a bit idealistic and I sympathize with his views, even when he takes quotes out of context or is too extreme in his condemnation.

And when a man who told us he felt threatened, honestly, is giving him your number really wise?  I think the best approach is an honest asking for his forgiveness, even when you disagree with him and find his views dangerous.  That's catching flies with honey.

Ioannes

HH Pope Shenouda did such a thing likely because it would look bad as a patriarch to directly point at someone, especially since it was a grey area, some on one side, some on another. The issue with Gebre is quite different in fact. Remember I am not against him being a pacifist or teaching pacifism, I am against him teaching that the church teaches pacifism, it quite emphatically does not. I am not happy with him misquoting others to meet this goal. He accused me of maligning his character, but is he not maligning the character of the church by denouncing soldiers? 

Mina, Gebre likely still has my number as we used to converse via telephone quite often. Out of respect to him I deleted his number, and even told him that I would do this long ago. Now, I had no idea he "felt threatened" until you just told me that. I conversed with him privately asking for forgiveness and wishing to explain myself. He replied and I said that if he wishes to contact me he can, and in case he ditched my number I supplied him with it. In hindsight, had I known this information before, I would not have bothered sending him a pm at all.

I find his views on pacifism in opposition to the church, I do not find him to be a bad or horrible person, I just think his teaching is incorrect and I supplied him with the letter that was signed off on by a few clergy members and told him that I would give him ample time to reply to it, if he did not, then I would post it where I posted it. I told him my intentions and I made myself very clear what I was going to do before it was done. Had he simply responded to it then it would probably have gone down differently.

Thankfully you have pointed out to me that I am threatening to him in asking for forgiveness and I will leave it at that and never contact him again. I am not sure why he contacted you here when I PM'd him on OC.net but either way, point taken.

minasoliman

I agree with you on the issues of pacifism.  Forgive me for being picky.  When you say:

"Remember I am not against him being a pacifist or teaching pacifism, I am against him teaching that the church teaches pacifism, it quite emphatically does not."

I have some reservations.  I think the Church does teach pacifism but it also teaches and exonerates self-defense and blesses those in wars as well.  I always think that there are some things that can be considered "necessary evils" that ideally should not be taking place, but unfortunately twists the arms of those in grace to protect innocent people.

Ioannes

Exactly Mina, we should turn the cheek when possible, but even St Basil who wrote several canons understood that war is evil, but at times a necessary evil. Even defending your own family, yes it might be evil to use violence or force, even deadly force, but it is necessary. Gebre consistently misunderstood that I was attacking his teaching, not him. Either way, what is done is done.

Gebre Menfes Kidus

I just saw this thread and wanted to clarify a few things. First of all, Ioannes is my brother and I'm sure he means well; but he is very mistaken in what he has said about me here. I'm sure he did not intend to deliberately misrepresent me. So let me set the record straight:

1. I am not a part of any quasi-Rastafarian schismatic group. My family and I were baptized into the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in 2008. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church affirms all the doctrines and theology of the first three ecumenical councils, and we stand in communion with all other Non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches.

2. I do not worship Haile Selassie, and I have never said that Haile Selassie did no wrong. In my opinion, His Majesty was a great Christian King who defended the Orthodox Faith. But he was a man, not God, and I have never in my life believed him to be otherwise.

3. Abba Gebre Tsadik is a mentor and a great encouragement to me. But he is not the Priest who baptized me. Abba Gebre Tsadik has a wonderful ministry to Rastafarians, but he has never compromised the Orthodox Faith or attempted to synthesize Orthodoxy and Rastafarianism. He upholds the Orthodox Tewahedo Faith as far as I can tell. In fact, he discourages Rastafarians who have been baptized from referring to themselves as "Ras." As for the website he set up in my name many years ago, I have never used it, nor have I ever referred anyone else to it. His intention was simply to help spread the Orthodox Tewahedo Faith here in my state. But I never felt comfortable with the website, precisely because I am not any sort of clerical authority and I did not want anyone to confuse me for such.

4. Yes, I am a pacifist, and I do argue that peace and nonviolence are the teachings of Christ. And no, I do not believe in the theory of evolution. I believe that Orthodox Christians can have sincere disagreements about these and other issues. I understand that Ioannes disagrees with me about pacifism, and that's fine. I love him just the same.

So I hope that clarifies things a bit. I have explained all this to Ioannes many times before, but I must have failed to communicate clearly. So if he misunderstood, then I accept the responsibility for not being clear enough when I tried to explain myself. I respect Ioannes for his firm commitment to Orthodox theology. I also highly recommend his numerous books that he has written about the Faith. They are a valuable resource in defending and promoting the Orthodox Church.

Peace to all in our Lord Jesus Christ. +++

Selam,

Gebre Menfes Kidus