Meserete Kristos Church is a
Mennonite
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radi ...
denomination in
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
(
P'ent'ay
P'ent'ay (from Ge'ez: ) is an originally Amharic–Tigrinya language term for Pentecostal and other Eastern-oriented Protestant Christians within Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the Ethiopian and Eritrean diaspora. Today, the term refers to all ...
/
Evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
). It is a member of the
Mennonite World Conference
The Mennonite World Conference (MWC) is a Mennonite Anabaptist Christian denomination. Its headquarters are in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
History
The first ''Mennonite World Conference'' was held in Basel in 1925. Its main purpose was to celebra ...
. His headquarters is in
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
.
History
The Church has its origins in an American mission of the
Lancaster Mennonite Conference
Lancaster Mennonite Conference (LMC) is a historic body of Mennonite churches in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, consisting of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland. There are also a few conference churches in Delaware, Vi ...
in the 1940s. The first church was founded in 1951 in
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
. ''Meserete Kristos Church'' (meaning "Christ is the foundation Church", based on I Cor. 3:11) was officially founded in 1959. According to a census published in 2022, it would have 1160 churches and 370,909 baptized members.
Meserete Kristos College
The college was located in
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
until January 2007. Since its founding in 1994, the college has produced 262 graduates,
[''Meserete Kristos College Newsletter'' (May 2007).] and had 110 full-time and 42 part-time students enrolled in the fall of 2006.
["Meserete Kristos College moves in," ''The Mennonite'', 15 May 2007] Construction of a permanent campus in
Debre Zeyit is underway. In January 2007, all physical assets were moved to the new campus, and classes began there on February 6. The five-story education building, the first of 11 planned buildings, is half-completed, and currently houses all classrooms, academic offices, library, and language and computer labs. A men's residence was completed in 2010. Negash Kebede was installed as College President on 11 March 2007.
[ Kiros Teka Haddis was installed as President on September 12, 2012. Fall 2014 enrollment at the college was 214 students (183 male, 31 female).][''Meserete Kristos College Newsletter'' (December 2014): 1.]
See also
*Christianity in Ethiopia
Christianity in Ethiopia is the largest religion in the country, as 63% of the country, Islam follows behind. Christinaity in Ethiopia dates back to the early medieval Kingdom of Aksum, when the Ezana of Aksum, King Ezana first adopted the faith i ...
Notes
Relevant literature
*Mashas, Andrew. 2017. Buried we will grow. ''Anabaptist Witness.'
Article about MKC for American audience
*Hege, Nathan B. 1998. ''Beyond Our Prayers: Anabaptist Church Growth in Ethiopia, 1948–1998''. (Scottdale, PA: Herald).
External links
*Mennonite World Review's articles on th
history and growth of the Meserete Kristos ChurchMeserete Kristos Church
at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
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Mennonitism in Ethiopia
Anabaptism
Mennonite denominations
Anabaptist denominations established in the 20th century