Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus

Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus
Logo of the EECMY
Classification	Protestant
Orientation	Lutheran
Leader	Wakseyoum Idossa
Associations	LWF, WCRC, AACC, WCC, FECCLAHA, ECFE
Region	Ethiopia
Origin	1959 Addis Ababa
Congregations	8,500 + 4000 preaching stations
Members	8.3 million (2016)
Ministers	3,000
Official website	www.eecmy.org

The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY; also called Mekane Yesus Church) is a Lutheran denomination in Ethiopia and the largest part of the Lutheran World Federation.

With the encouragement of the Lutheran and Presbyterian Missionary Societies in Ethiopia and the Lutheran World Federation, the Evangelical congregations in several parts of the country met on April 23 and 25, 1958 to deliberate on the draft constitution and establish the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). From these joint efforts the church was instituted as a national Church on January 21, 1959, taking its name from the first congregation in Addis Ababa, Mekane Yesus ("Place of Jesus"). EECMY has a motto of "Serving the Whole Person" which was developed in the 1970s. This 'holistic ministry' theme of the Church has helped her to carry out her ministry in evangelism and development work. One of the important voices of the EECMY and leading theologian of the church was Gudina Tumsa (1929–1979) who was general secretary for several years up until his arrest and murder at the hands of the communist government of Ethiopia in 1979.

The EECMY was founded by Northern European missionaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These missionaries concentrated their work in southern Ethiopia, where the Orthodox Christian influence was less profound. The strategy of the missionaries and evangelists to implant a Protestant church in Ethiopia was one of development. At a time when Emperor Haile Selassie was looking to modernize and promote progress in the state, foreign and domestic missions were some of the most productive agents. In fact, Selassie wrote in his autobiography that he only “permitted missions because of their efforts in the field of education and health care”. It was through development that the evangelical church was able to first establish a presence in the 19th and 20th centuries. In fact, as more people in power in the Orthodox Church began to question the validity of foreign missions in Ethiopian society, and as the identification of the Orthodox Church and the Amharic language as unifying forces within Ethiopia began to grow, many of the people who held high administrative positions owed their education to the mission schools, and were thus reluctant to pass any legislation against them. Thus, while many sociological and religious forces weighed against the Evangelical church and its missions in Ethiopia, the fact that it was effective as an agent of development aided its survival through its burgeoning years.