A few hours ago, the bishops of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church expelled Patriarch Antonios. We already know that our Coptic Orthodox Church has always been in support of Abune Antonios. Has there been any statement on why Abune Antonios was deposed in the first place?
PS: please make sure the statements are in English or Arabic.
PS2: I am sorry if this was in the wrong category, however it won’t fit anywhere else.
Thank you all.
Comments
Abune Antonios was deposed by the unanimous decision of the holy synod after successive unsuccessful effort by the Holy synod to get abune antonios work with them to protect the Holy Church from the so many Protestant and renewal charismatic cult groups swamped the country shortly after the government announced freedom of religion and free movement of religious groups. Most of those cult organization were sponsored financial as well as “pastors” from Canada, the USA and Europe with satellite establishments in Sudan, Ethiopia and Kennya. The most dangerous of all was the Orthodox renewal church (ORC in the local language = ኦርቶዶክስ ተሓድሶ ቤት ክርስትያን) because it was more local and embedded inside the Orthodox church and abone antonius was an instrument from way back he was at the monastery and all the way to the end. The recent statement of the Holy Synod was unfortunately the end of the exhaustive road taken by the entire Eritrean Orthodox leadership (from the monastery to the assembly of the erudites (?) - (ጉባኤ ሊቃውንት) to the Holy Synod, to give abune antonios the chance to repent and mend his many fractures. Abune antonios refused to renounce and abandon the renewal and heretic movements. Apparently, he was in-touch with them all along for the past 11 years he was living in solitude. The painful details of the evidence has been and continue to come out even though the Synod has been reluctant to publicize it for the sack of protecting the faithful morale as well as abune antonios of any public outrage due to this sad situation. Hope this sheds a light on the reality. Hope there soon will an English version of the entire communique by the Eritrean Holy Synod on this regard. Here one link you might find informative.
https://english.eritreantewahdo.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/WhyunderminetheHolySynod.pdf
May God of our fathers keep the faith of our fathers safe::
you can not be serious, for real,
First off, the statement you mentioned is by all standard illegal, divisive and ill intentioned orchestrated by the Coptic church. Just on the surface alone, would you not agree whoever the standing committee claims to represent, should have taken the minimal effort in taking a trip to Eritrea and had sisterly face to face engagement to learn better on the situation during the last 12 years ? and yet the content of the letter suits to be catheterized under “political ” than spiritual. Let me say this, the Coptic church failed in shouldering the “First among equals” responsibility by letting down and black mailing a sisterly autocephalous church of Eritrea by siding with the Atlanta based renewal heretic group well connected with the charismatic Pentecostal cults and to make matters worse - designating a Coptic archbishop (Bishop Makarios) to lead the pack of these renewal heretics. As illegal and counter protocol agreement between Eritrean and Coptic churches, the assignment was meant to create division with in the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church since the ultimate goal of the renewal elements exposed and failed. The crucial point here is, thanks to the bad handling of Coptic church to this internal matter of another independent church, it will be very difficult for the Eritrean Orthodox church to take the Coptic church leadership seriously moving forward, I hope and pray that I’m wrong.
Aside from the misrepresenting the facts, the statements link you posted shows clearly the level of condescending attitude towards the Eritrean Orthodox Church causing righteous indignation by the faithful. Imagine that a well respected and spiritually enlightened abbots of the monasteries to the arch bishop members of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Synod - not to mention the standing committee of learned men (liqawnti) of our Church: just don’t have any clue and simply gave the ex-patriarch a pink slip ?? well ….any one chooses to indulge oneself with such nonsense, be my guess and I will sit back and lough.
Back to your reply, the claim that “there was no formal council is enough to discredit the excommunication “ is baseless and meant to discredit the authority of the Eritrean Ortho/ Tew/ Church, conveniently framed by the Atlanta based renewal heretic group under the leadership of Bishop Makarios and deposed ex-priest Gebremichael Yohannes as a second in command. The truth of the matter is contrary to the claim and now we know a lot more than few months ago. Unfortunately, at least for now, all the evidences are documented in the language of the land, Tigrigna. Just to mention few:
The formal charges brought against abune Antonius [ minutes-decision-of-the-holy-synod ] from back in time dated July / 2005 was posted at the home web site no other than the Atlanta based renewal group behind the fallout of the former patriarch.
https://www.tewahdo.org/81-home-/2008-09-25-19-21-46/1651-minutes-decision-of-the-holy-synod
https://www.tewahdo.org/images/stories/news/SynodsAccusationOverPatAntonios-081805.pdf .
So here we go, by it’s own admission, a formal charge has been established and this site claims to have the counter claim to the charge (prepared by the renewal group on behalf of the ex- patriarch with a illegal duplicated seal of the patriarch’s office). The above document stated numerous meetings was held between aba Antonius and the members of the Synod to address the issue of concern. This is from back in 2005.
Again, in his own voice and presence abune Antonius admitted there were up to 18 rounds of meetings held with him on the case, between 3:00 - 4:05 minutes in the video
Furthermore, here is a link just got released last week from The office of the Holy Synodos
enlists all sort of material evidence on this issue, starting 39:12 the delegation of the Eritrean Synodos went to Cairo (july/ 2005) to consult and to keep the Coptic Church on the loop regarding the case of abune Antonius. It also has pastors from Pentecostal narrating their relations with Aba Makarios (Coptic) and aba Antonius in 1994 in Asmara. According to the documents presented, the relations between the renewal heretics and abune Antonius goes back way before ordained as a bishop well connected with a known “Charismatic evangelist” who happened to be an Eritrean.
More links from the scholars of the church and abbots of the monasteries testifies all in all 24 sessions were conducted to give abune Antonius a second chance in hope he repents and cease and desist partnering with renewal heretics (more to come on this) https://www.facebook.com/Deacon.kibrom.Beyene/videos/670199470112369/?t=10
My apologies for such a lengthy comment.
Until next, May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of us.
Thanks ! More to come. I normally don't give reply to defamatory statement. Since you took it as a fact that he is “in a
prison run by a Secular State”,
Have you
been to the prison and paid a visit there ? please share with us relevant factual
evidence in the name of the Blessed ever virgin Mary, mother of God.
These are the types of unfounded, false accusations coined
by the enemy of the church most of them organized charismatic cults who lost
ground in the country in their effort to renew the One and Only One Christian
Church: The antient Orthodox Tewahdo Church ! Jesus found only ONE church Not
Churches. There can not be protestant this.... Pentecostal that … ! I say this as a matter of both, conviction
and faith, while fully aware the prophesy of false teaching.
Dear ioannesAthanasius: If I tell you a year ago I
visited abune Antonius in his villa resident, one of the best area in
the capital city where few of the Orthodox bishop's and Muslim religious leader (the mufti ) lives ?.
It's located across the Office of the
Patriarch and the Synod building. I went
in, greeted him, he was in his bed room siting on a chair. There were few
guests in the guest room and he joined us back at the guest room. I know what a prison looks like and were they
are located as a matter of public knowledge. If we take your claim as fact
then, many of the high government officials including the foreign minister and
the bishops including the mufti are all in prison. As simple as that. Per his aid at his
resident, a monk, and from my direct conversation, he is well and looks very
healthy with all care provided to him by the church.
By the way, do you know an attempt to smuggle aboune
Antonius across the border (human trafficking) out of Eritrea has foiled in the
past ? and who was behind it ? take a wild guess ? It’s included in report of the Holy Synodos. You see one has to have intimate knowledge
and experience of the culture and the custom (which is intertwined with the
Holy Tradition ) to fully understand the way things run in that country.
What I’m getting at is, the Synod believes, my
opinion, abune Antonius can be spiritually rehabilitate and maintain his
fellowship as a monk if not as a patriarch providing that he went through the
church process of cleansing. However
abune Antonius refused to cooperate because he continued his fellowship and
maintained contacts with the very same heretical groups who got him fall in to
Heresy. So much so for the grand “he is
in prison” drama, the Atlanta based renewal heretic group (supported by Coptic
church ) has full access to aba Antonius, preparing statement for him,
conducting voice recording (check the recently circulated by the heretic group
) all that, because abune Antonius is NOT IN PRISON. By the way, there is a book recently published
in Tigrigna language most likely funded by protestant sympathisers dedicated to
abune Antonius. In this book, one can find the linkage between aba Antonius and
the heretical groups from his own words !
The question is, with all mounting evidence, WHY the Synod
stopped short from striping his monkship ?
I see both sympathy and sorrow while a shock of disbelieve to haw far
the enemy of the church encroached the Holy Church who survived the assault of
Ottoman Turks of 1500s century, Roman Catholic and Evangelical protestant
missionaries. If it wasn’t for the wisdom
of our spiritual leaders, the extent of the damage done could have been
imaginable. After 30 years of armed struggle for independence from colonial
Ethiopia, the country, Eritrea, got
freed by the prayers and tears of her
people and blood bath of her sons and daughters.
During those happy monuments
of freedom when people diverted their attention to celebrating and resetting
the moment, western political religiose organizations found perfect opportunity
to intrude and hold a base to bring down the Holy Church to it’s knees. Many of
the Sunday school youth were established by many of this new “Christian” jehad religiose
groups and were instrumental in encroaching the church. While at the same time monks, church scholars,
priests and deacons were targeted for conversion and use them against the
church from with in just as they did in Ethiopia. Everything was done in secrecy for most part. By the time the Eritrean church secured the autocephalous
status and setting up it’s leadership base, the wolfs were on their way busy scavenging.
The rest is the aftermath of that
critical moment in time.
The word and the promise of our Lord of Lords Jesus Christ :
“ I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. “ (Matthew
16:18-19)
abbots of the monasteries, members of the Eritrean Orthodox
Tewahdo Holy Synod, learned men (liqawnti) of the Church, in session on the
case of abune Antonius
https://lisantewahdo.org/index.php/16-2015-07-31-06-18-02/1640-2019-07-06-10-20-16?fbclid=IwAR3zXFD_rP7wBIPOOeT0BteO6db5ICkxrcjsWiCMnAEPT2PncPYF-LDwvpY
Blessed
‹ ቀዳሚሃ ለሰንበት › as we say in our
Orthodox Tewahdo for Sturday, that’s because we celebrate both Saturday as (the
first Sunday = Sabbath) and then the lords day the Sunday.
I
have an update just released yesterday by the Holy Synodos of the Eritrea
Orthodox Tewahdo Church. The released live - on video documentary shows among
other details regarding abune Antonius, https://www.facebook.com/100009935074009/videos/902948146713013/?t=243
1)
the number of encounters between the highest Authority of the Holy Church,
abbots of the monasteries, scholars of the church and abune Antonius ( all in all 24 engagements )
2)
The on-record voice/video testimony, Abune Antonius admitting the wrong doing
and heresy committed by him and declared to abide by the decision of the Church
then signed by him.
3)
He removed anathemas and declared absolution and forgiveness, that too on the
recorded video. This is taken as in his capacity as elder and ordinary monk.
AND
thus how the peace and get-together came about in 2016. But then, per the video
(with evidence and self-admittance from aba Antonius as quote by a member of
the church scholar), abune Antonius received a direct instruction from Atlanta
- Georgia based tehadso menafeqan (renewal heretics group) led by
ex-communicated former priest Gebremichael Yohannes, to change venue and deny
everything done including the peace and forgiven agreement. And so he did as
instructed. Then, THE CHURCH, exhausted every means to get him on track and
apparently the Atlanta based renewal (under Bishop Makarios) instructed and led
aba Antonius to further make a grave error making reconciliation impossible.
Thus, the excommunication came to be. https://www.facebook.com/511227945746925/videos/2405147793144824/?t=0
May
God continue to guard his Church AND May
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with all of us.