The Ethiopi­an Or­tho­dox Tewa­he­do Church cel­e­brat­ed Palm Sun­day (Hosan­nah) at their Holy Trin­i­ty Parish in Beetham Gar­dens last Sun­day to start Holy Week.

Chris­tian­i­ty reached Ethiopia in 34 AD and be­came the of­fi­cial re­li­gion of the coun­try in 332 AD. The Ethiopi­an Or­tho­dox re­li­gion was first in­tro­duced to T&T in 1952 and there are now nine parish­es in Arou­ca, Beetham, San Fer­nan­do, San­gre Grande, Ma­yaro, Point Fortin, Clax­ton Bay, Siparia and Scar­bor­ough, To­ba­go.

Chris­tian­i­ty had been known to the Ethiopi­ans in much ear­li­er times, as the Acts of the Apos­tles in­clude an ac­count of an Ethiopi­an eu­nuch who was bap­tised by the apos­tle Philip.

Ethiopi­an tra­di­tion as­serts that the eu­nuch re­turned home and evan­ge­lised.

The Ethiopi­an Or­tho­dox Tewa­he­do Church, a mem­ber of the Ori­en­tal Or­tho­dox fam­i­ly of church­es, shares in a faith that is de­rived from the apos­tolic her­itage borne wit­ness to in the New Tes­ta­ment in con­junc­tion with the back­ground of the Old Tes­ta­ment.

This year’s Palm Sun­day cel­e­bra­tions were at­tend­ed by Archi­man­drite Ge­breye­sus Negatu, a vis­it­ing Ethiopi­an monk and high priest.