The Global Sisters Report website http://www.globalsistersreport.org is sharing many interesting stories and giving a voice to women religious around the world. The website was established by the work of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, thanks to the good work of Sister Joyce Meyer, Aberdeen PBVM. On June 13, the Global Sisters Report featured an article written by Sister Joyce Meyer, titled Ethiopia’s Rich Religious Traditions Co-exist.
Even though I had visited Ethiopia a couple of other times before, being there during the Ethiopian Catholic and Orthodox Holy Week brought home very clearly how religious this culture is. I participated in rituals of each of the two rites, Latin and Ethiopian, and was even pleasantly surprised on my last day to attend a Jewish Sabbath ritual in an Addis Ababa synagogue. In my previous visits I had been primarily with sisters who were expatriates, either from the United States, Ireland or Nigeria, and thus we worshipped as Latin Rite Catholics. This visit awakened me to the reality of the Ethiopian Catholic church and how connected it is to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church through its culture, a culture also impacted by the Jewish roots of Christianity, particularly apparent in its food laws.
