March 11, 2011

CHICAGO – Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) offered expressions of concern and prayers for a partner Lutheran church in Africa, the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, following a series of attacks and church burnings by Muslim extremists against Christians. The attacks in western Ethiopia resulted in the death of a Mekane Yesus member, and at least 12 of the church's buildings in the region were damaged or destroyed by fire.

The attacks reportedly began after Muslims accused a Christian of desecrating the Quran by tearing up a copy.

Thousands of Muslim extremists reportedly set fire to 59 churches and at least 28 homes in Jimma (zone), in western Ethiopia in the past week. More than 4,000 Christians in the area have been displaced as a result of the attacks, according to the Jimma Times. Police have arrested 130 people in connection with the church burnings, the newspaper reported.

"The ELCA has a strong historic partnership in the gospel with the Evangelical Ethiopian Church Mekane Yesus," said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop." As we have accompanied the Mekane Yesus church during times of struggle in the past, so we will stand with our brothers and sisters in Christ as they witness to the Prince of Peace in the face of recent violence."

"We in the ELCA are strengthened in faith and mission by the Christ-centered, Spirit-filled witness of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus," Hanson said. He added that the ELCA pledges "our prayers and support" as members of the church grieve the loss of life and rebuild churches that were burned.

"For generations, Christians and Muslims in Ethiopia lived side by side as good neighbors without any major conflict such as the ones you have experienced over the past few years," wrote the Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla, executive director, ELCA Global Mission, in a March 9 letter to the Rev. Wakseyoum Idosa, president of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, Addis Ababa.

"It is my prayer that leaders from both communities will reach out to their communities with messages of coexistence, peace and reconciliation. My dear brother, please know that you and the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus are in our daily prayer(s) during this difficult time. May the God of peace and mercy be with you!" Malpica Padilla wrote. He added in a personal note that the ELCA "stands ready to support" the Mekane Yesus Church in looking for ways to rebuild some of the destroyed church buildings.

The ELCA provides more than $300,000 in grants to the Mekane Yesus church for seminary education, leadership and training programs for women, and for scholarships. ELCA World Hunger funds help support a health clinic, programs for AIDS orphans, HIV and AIDS prevention and control, and a community development project. The Rev. Loren Bliese, a retired ELCA pastor, is a volunteer in Ethiopia. For more than 50 years, he taught at the Mekane Yesus seminary and translated the Bible into several languages. The church and the Ethiopian government have formally recognized his longtime work there.

The ELCA and the 5.3-million member Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus are members of The Lutheran World Federation. The Federation is a global communion of Lutheran churches representing more than 70 million members.

Information about the ELCA's ministry in Ethiopia is at http://www.ELCA.org/ethiopia/, on the ELCA website.

ELCA News Service