Ethiopian Church Finds Home of Its Own

For more than 10 years, the congregation of St. Mary’s Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church lived week by week, renting space from other churches, holding rushed, stressed-out Sunday services, and never having a place to call its own.

Last year, the dream of finding a spiritual home was fulfilled when members bought an 18,000-square-foot church in the Ladera Heights neighborhood of West Los Angeles.

Walking into St. Mary’s on Sunday morning, visitors seeing candles planted in sand at the entrance felt transported instantly to the African land. Women attend services in white gauze gowns with scarves swirled around their faces, only their dark eyes left visible. Abba Mengistu Negussie, the Orthodox priest in charge, preaches in Geez, the melodic liturgical language used by Ethiopian Christians. They respond mightily, praising God.

Like hundreds of immigrant groups settling in Southern California, establishing a house of worship marks an important rite of passage for Ethiopians as they struggle to preserve their language and religious identity and pass those traditions on to their children.

“The Ethiopian exodus has only happened in the past 20 to 25 years,” said Habtewold Kassa, a longtime church member who lives in Los Feliz. “Compared to some other groups we haven’t been here very long. But we are religious and need this church to hold us together. People finally feel like they belong here. We feel proud to have a church.”

For this Ethiopian Christian congregation, the path to finding their own church was a difficult one filled with tension and complication. Their services normally begin at 6 a.m. and run about four or five hours. While they were sharing space in another church on Robertson Boulevard, they were only allotted three hours. Often, they were forced to shorten services to comply with rental agreements and make room for the next congregation.

“We had to sacrifice a lot in those three hours,” said Abba Tsegie Dengel Degefaw, one of the priests at St. Mary’s. “Now, we don’t have to rush, and people can stay and socialize.”

In 1990, some members of the Ethiopian Orthodox community became embroiled in a bitter dispute that resulted in the formation of two churches. Tesfaye Knife, head of the board of directors at St. Mary’s Church, said a lawsuit resulted in only one of the congregations being able to use the name St. Mary’s Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. As a result, the other Ethiopian Orthodox church, which is in South-Central Los Angeles and has about 300 members, has begun using the name Virgin Mary Apostolic Church.

Since the congregation at St. Mary’s has found a permanent home, Knife said, the two churches have begun working to heal their differences.

“We’re trying to establish a relationship as sister churches,” he said.

Scores of Ethiopians began immigrating to this country in the mid-1970s, driven by war, drought and famine. The principal religions of the country are Islam and Orthodox Christian. The community settled across Los Angeles County, transforming Sunday services into common meeting places.

At St. Mary’s, about 500 Ethiopians gather at the church every Sunday. Last month, more than 1,000 community members packed the church to celebrate the holy day Lideta, the birthday of Mary. Though a majority of the congregation speaks Amharic, the services are held in Geez, a liturgical language that uses the same intricate squiggles of the Amharic alphabet.

As the church gets settled in Ladera Heights, several members are planning an array of programs that they would like to start, including Amharic language classes, a basketball league and a senior citizen center.

Mariam-Sina Seyoum, a USC student who works at the church in her free time, would like to set up a regular drop-off of food and clothing to be sent to Ethiopia occasionally. Like other church members, she still has many family members in Africa, and the escalating violence between Ethiopia and Eritrea is a major concern.

“We cannot forget what is happening in Ethiopia. We can never forget. But, when we are here, we are Christians and we love and respect each other. No matter where you are from,” she said.

Many parents also expressed concern about preserving their language and culture and passing traditions on to their children. But young people like Habtamu Malede said the parents don’t need to worry. Though he was sporting blue jeans and a button-down Fubu shirt, the 19-year-old said as Ethiopian children get older, they begin to understand the importance of their heritage.

“The older you get, the more it hits you,” Malede said. “When I see kids who don’t know the [Amharic] language, I tell them they’re going to feel left out. They’re going to regret it.”