Concerning
Church Education
They
adopted a child from another country and become amazed when they found
out that
the child looks different. Though
the parents were Ethiopian the child has no resemblance to the parents.
Did the
Ethiopian church education contribute to the western education that was
adopted
by Ethiopia in the 20th century?
Some
tell us that the Ethiopian church education has no practical
applicability. Is
there any truth to what they say?
They forget the contributions of church education in the
construction of
wonderful works of art, including the magnificent Maryam Tseyon
Cathedral that
was built in AD 5th century at Aksum and that was adorned with murals
of Atse
Gebre Meskel and Saint Yared (Kidus Yared -acclaimed Ethiopia's poet,
song
writer, and priest) and which was described by Alvarez before Ahmad
Grange
destroyed the church in the 16th century. They
forget that significance of the 13th century Bete
Giorgis rock-hewn church at Lalibela.
The cruciform Bete Giorgis stands to this day, an is all the
more
remarkable because it is a monolith though it is constructed to imitate
the
Aksumite architecture that is typically made of stone interleaved with
logs.
What do they mean when they say that church education has no practical
applicability? The trenches around the Bete Giogris Cruciform at
Lalibela, and
the ancient wells in the city at Aksum served to drain away water in
Lalibela
and to contain water at Aksum. What do they mean when they say that
church education
has no practical applicability? Emperor Lalibela is the father of
Ethiopian
architecture. He was a priest as
well as an emperor, and was later made a saint. Lalibela raised in his
imagination the Holy City of Jerusalem, renamed a river at Adafa as
Yordanos,
before he implemented the construction of several rock-hewn churches
there. He
wanted to preserve for eternity the replica of the Holy City as
Jerusalem was
run over by Moslems in his time. What do they mean when they say that
the
church education has no practical applicability? The Knights Templar
are
believed to have visited Ethiopia, more so during the reign of the
Zagwe
Dynasty, not only because they were seeking the Arc of the Covenant but
also
because they were likely interested in taking
with them church documents that may unlock the secretes of architecture.
Known
for hiding an art, an object, or a meaning of a word or phrase by
replication,
the Ethiopian church with its replica of tabotat (as a way of hiding
Moses' Arc
of the Covenant), and its qine that provide several meanings for the
same word
or phrase (** see example below) has preserved ancient wisdom in it.
Some may
carry the replica of the Arc of the Covenant and utter phrases though
they may not be versed in the
meanings hidden in them. The scholar has a lot more to learn from the
Ethiopian
church, its literature, its practices, and so on. The Ethiopian church
merges
Jewry and Christian religion seamlessly and is a repository of both
traditions. It is from these traditions
that
Western education sprang.
The
Ethiopian church education has altogether its own ways of providing
education
at different levels and specializations, and of assessing the materials
learned. Different schools have their own methodologies and students
seeking
higher qualifications transferred from school to school (gad'em). Some
schools
have a higher esteem than others, and the qualities are estimated on
the basis
of the educational content of the gad'em and students that attended it.
Church education is
offered to a student at his own ability. Church schooling could take as
long as
20 years depending on the level of sophistication sought by the
student. At
monastic schools different vestments are offered to signify the levels
of achievement
arrived at by the student. The flexibility of the church education and
the
differences of the methods employed by different schools have provided
remarkable strength to the schooling and have even appeared to the
novice that
the church education is rigid and inflexible. The
parchment on which the feedel is written might be ridged
but the use of the feedel is quite fluid. The fluidity is derived by
combining
the different Feedelat that are placed in an otherwise ordered
arrangement of 7
columns by 26 or so rows. The
novice may not even know the significance of the 7 by 26 arrangement of
the
original feedel. Bereft of curiosity, many novices might provide
attributes to
church education that have no resemblance to the truth of the education.
Let me
conclude by reminding us of issues on which those
who have
read any part of the bible several times may agree with.
Each time one reads a part of the bible
one derives a different meaning or nuance. Whole new inspirations about
what to
do in our daily lives exude from the reading. So,
what do they mean when they say that church education has
no practical application? I say
that they do know what they mean by what they say.
They just say it. They should be pitied.
You are
not educated
You are
ignorant
You were
blameless
You have
done no wrong
You are
not pardoned
He is
not forgiving
He
cannot forgive
He is
innately incapable of providing forgiveness
He is
not Mary
He is
lame
He is
frightened
References.
HG in
http://www.aboutethiopia.com/snap3.htm
HG in
http://www.aboutethiopia.com/snap2.htm
Teklehaimanot Haileselassie in
http://chora.virtualave.net/culturalfoundation.htm
HG. 12/15/2005