Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Church of North and South America

In a climate of confusion, a number of branches of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church now exist in the West, reflecting the divisions in Africa.

The last Emperor of Ethiopia, official head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Emperor Haile Selassie I, commissioned Abuna Mikael Gabre Kristos to establish a diocese of the Ethiopian Church in the Americas. In the capital city of Addis Ababa, Abuna Mikael was ordained the Episcopacy by His Holiness Abuna Basilios, Abuna Markos Patriarch of Gojjam, and His Grace Petros, Metropolitan of Gondar, on July 12, 1959. Two days later, in the royal hall, he was invested in office by Emperor Haile Selassie I, and sent with Ukase to establish the church in the west, especially ministering toward Africans of the Diaspora. He was bestowed and installed in the order of Nebur-id. Knowing that an unfavorable political change that would affect the church was soon forthcoming, and that there might come a necessity to create a legally separate organization in the west, His Majesty gave Abuna Mikael the freedom to do so.

In 1959, Abuna Mikael served as sponsor for a group of five priests and five deacons sent by Abuna Basilios for advanced study. However, some of the priests, including Fr. Laike Mandefro broke relations with Abuna Mikael. Mandefro sought authority from Abuna Theophilos (after the death of Abuna Basilios) to begin to gather Ethiopian-Americans into a congregation in Brooklyn, which was later relocated to the Bronx. As the work of Mandefro grew, he was raised to the rank of Archimandrite and placed in charge of the Ethiopian Church in the West; Archimandrite Mandefro was consecrated a bishop. Mandefro was invested in 1979 as Abuna Yeshaq, Archbishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the Western Hemisphere.

Abuna Mikael recognized a similar need, and established the Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Church of North and South America, reinserting the name “Coptic” into the name of the church in 1962, because he wanted strongly to identify with and maintain connection to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria as well as the royal and ecclesiastical line of Ethiopia. His Beatitude imparted to each of his sons the coveted Apostolic Succession of the Oriental Stream.

Pope Cyril VI approved the initiation of the Patriarchate of Ethiopia, long hoped for by the Ethiopian church, by ordaining the first Ethiopian patriarch, His Holiness Abuna Basilios. This established for the first time a separate Ethiopian Orthodox Church (1959), which until then had existed as a branch under the mother Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Egypt.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Church of NSA, being an autocephalous body, recognize H.H Pope Shenouda III, Abuna Merkorios, in exile, as the lawful Patriarch, and Abuna Apollo as Metropolitan Primate. Being an autocephalous body, this group is not under the control or directly governed by the See of Alexandria. The Holy See of the Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Archdiocese of North and South America is located in Manhattan, New York.