Öppet brev till Mekane Yesus kyrkan i Etiopien

Open letter to Rev. Dr. Wakseyoum Idosa,

president of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY)

In response to the letter from EECMY to the Archbishop of the Church of Sweden, of December 24th A.D. 2011

Sweden, February 17th A.D. 2011

Reverend Wakseyoum Idosa,

Thank you for your open letter regarding the dividing effects of the decisions made by the Church of Sweden regarding holy matrimony.

Many christians are deeply moved by your brotherly care and concern for this development.

With this letter, I would like to express our need for the Church of Sweden and the situation we are in, as a representative of the freedom movement within this church.

The thing is that the Church of Sweden can not actually be seen as a free christian church, without difficulty. She is ruled by the State, with laws regulating the teachings of the church, and the government with political parties represented in the Church Board.

The low participation in the church election (ca 11-12% of those entitled to vote) says a lot about what the people think about the system with politicians ruling religious institiutions in Sweden. The worldly powers have had too much influence on the Church for all too long now, and the bishops do not even have the right to vote in the Church Board!

I understand your will to adress the Archbishop Anders Wejryd, but you need to know that he is a part of the regime and is more or less without power to make any changes to what the political parties are deciding for the Church of Sweden. This not being said in Wejryd’s defence in any way.

Adressing the Archbishop is quite in order, but you might want to adress the Swedish government with this critique as well.

In prayer for the freedom of the Church of Christ,

Liten