Bridges of Hope is partnering with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to create a Masters level program that will provide a foundation for Holistic Community Development in the country as well as the first-ever Graduate Program for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Our goal is to equip 25 professors in the next 3 years who will go on to train future priests for the next generation. It is the vision of the Theological College to equip all 500,000 of their clergy in Orthodox Community Health Education (OCHE) so that they can bring holistic community development to every corner of Ethiopia!
ETHIOPIAN EDUCATIONAL HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE
Christianity was introduced as the official religion of the state in 330 A.D after St. Frumentius Abba Selama Kessate Berhan was consecrated as the first bishop of Ethiopia from Alexandria. Church education has served as the main source of training for civil servants, judges, governors, scribes, treasures and general administrators ever since. The basic root of the Church education, the so-called Abnet School, has four major structures: 1) Nibab Bet – known as ‘The House of Reading’, 2) Zema Bet – known as ‘The House of Music’, 3) Qine Bet – known as ‘The House of Poetry’, and; 4) Metshaf Bet – known as ‘The House of Books’. Though it is usual to specialize in one of the above mentioned departments, it is also possible to specialize in any two, three or four of them. A person specializing in all four areas is named as the Arate Ayena, meaning “Four Eyed”.
Theological education has forcefully demonstrated its ability to change and induce change and progress in the church in Ethiopia. Around us the scope and speed of social change have produced knowledge-based societies where education and research act as engines to progress and development. Given the dynamic changes taking place in the world today and introductions of new values into these societies, its all the more critical that higher education and theological education anchor us to Biblical truth, stretch us to minister into an ever more complex world, and enable us to disseminate the Word of God to all humankind. With that, those receiving a higher education should in the process benefit from easier access to intensive training, resources, and new skills for the purpose of both ministry and employment.
On a comparative basis, universities in Africa play a more significant role in national development than may be the case with other universities around the world. In developing countries such as Ethiopia, trained personnel are in short supply and funds for training and hiring professionals are insufficient. Add in the rapid changes in global labor markets and the deficiencies become all the more pronounced. As a result, professional skills need to be upgraded to cope with the extra volume of work created by remarkable socio-economic development across Ethiopia. Today, tremendous state efforts are underway to make the higher education institutions responsive to the development needed by the country as a whole and by the church. The extent of the impact of state efforts remains to be seen, but we shouldn’t be surprised when the church plays an even more significant role ahead.
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