In the first week of May all our community participated in the new comers’ course. It was organized by Comboni Family but participants were from different congregations. All together we were over 30 people.
First day we had lecture about Christianity in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the first Christian countries in the world, starting from IV century. Also in the Acts of Apostles we can read about converting the Ethiopian.
Second day we focused on the Catholic Church history, which was also very interesting, as e.g. how it happened that Ethiopia has two different rites – Ethiopian Ge’ez one (based very much on the orthodox tradition) and Latin.
Then the next day was about the liturgy, mostly about the one of the orthodox church, which also has a lot in common with the catholic one.
And then following day was about culture and some every-day life issues. These four days were common for all of us. But the last day was only for the Comboni family, we got a lot of information about history of the MCCJ’s missions in Ethiopia (starting from the time of Comboni himself) and CMS, and also some present issues of the Comboni Family’s presence.
It was very enriching time. We got many information, but also many new questions appeared, so we are motivate to continue discovering Ethiopia with its history & culture, to serve better here. Also it was beautiful time to be together and getting to know each other.
CLM Ethiopia
