- as an Orthodox Christian. Not as rastaman sight the bible. He is a defender of the orthodox Faith. I stress this point because many brothers including Bob Marley have left the trod of rastafari and joined the Orthodox Church. It is not possible to blend the two.
- My problem is in the knowledge that Christianity in Ethiopia comes from the Greeks and the Syrians. And I don't trust them and their intentions. History teaches i not to. Our search is for indigenous spirituality which His Majesty said we must look for.
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"......Ethiopia has been from ancient times well known for her hospitality, and this is not the first time she has welcomed holy fathers like yourselves. From the 4th century AD onward monks and saints have come from Egypt, Syria and other Christian countries to Ethiopia and have been received with high honor and great respect. To mention only a few among those who are canonized in the Ethiopian church the Nine Saints who came from different countries of the Middle East and Abuna Gebre-Menfus-Kidus are examples. These holy fathers, preaching and establishing monasteries in various parts of Our country have greatly contributed to Ethiopian Christianity. Therefore, many churches and monasteries are dedicated to them in undying memory of the spiritual services which they rendered to our country.
"In ancient times, when the Faith of the whole Church was one, Our country had the closest relations with the Emperors of Christian Byzantium. At the time when several Christian Peoples in the North became subservient to non-Christian powers, our country gladly provided asylum to thousands of Christian refugees. It had equally given asylum from religious persecution at an earlier date to the followers of the founder of Islam. Only when our own immediate neighbors ceased to be Christians did our contacts with our fellow-Christians in the North and East become difficult to maintain. Ethiopia, an island of Christianity, has make her own distinctive contribution to the Christian faith; for, ever since her conversion to Christianity she has remained faithful, her age-old ties with the Apostolic church uninterrupted. For this reason she is universally renowned as the faithful daughter of St Mark of Alexandria.
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- There are many rasta who cannot and will not subscribe to a daughter faith of Mark of Alexandra. None at all.....
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"We seek, at this meeting, to determine whither we are going and to chart the course of our destiny. It is no less important that we know whence we came. An awareness of our past is essential to the establishment of our personality and our identity as Africans.
"This world was not created piecemeal. Africa was born no later and no earlier than any other geographical area on this globe. Africans, no more and no less than other men, possess all human attributes, talents and deficiencies, virtues and faults. Thousands of years ago, civilisations flourished in Africa which suffer not at all by comparison with those of other continents. In those centuries, Africans were politically free and economically independent. Their social patterns were their own and their cultures truly indigenous.
"Today, we look to the future calmly, confidently and courageously. We look to the vision of an Africa not merely free but united. In facing this new challenge, we can take comfort and encouragement form the lessons of the past. We know that there are differences among us. Africans enjoy different cultures, distinctive values, special attributes. But we also know that unity can be and has been attained among men of the most disparate origins, that differences of race, of religion, of culture, of tradition, are no insuperable obstacles to the coming together of peoples. History teaches us that unity is strength and cautions us to submerge and overcome our differences in the quest for common goals, to strive with all our combined strength, for the path to true African brotherhood and unity.
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As pointed out in my other thread with the fire. I have no issue with a man extracting and building from the bible should he choose. But where in the bible there is anti-African theme or skewed and erroneous accounts of Afrixan history. It is here and then when there is a conflict.
When this conflict occurs, some will stick with the proAfrican reality and some will stick to the Bible reality. This is where Garveys Africa comes in.
I want ones to remember Haile Selassie was a defender of the orthodox faith. If you are orthodox Christian then I salute you. But if you are claiming rasta, and then claiming HIMs interpretation and view of the bible - but not the part where we define who god is - but the other parts - but maybe not 'this' part.... And so on..... Then bring on the confusion.
The goal is African supremacy / united negro improvement. One is to use whatever tools he can to achieve this. If this includes the bible then so be it, if not then move on.
His Majesty constantly reminded us that we must be in unity. And there are many paths to the same destination. He said this numerous times. Now he has explained how Christianity and the Bible came to Ethiopia - from Byzantine Europe and Mark of Alexandria. It is up to I to choose I best path. I search to move past any "temporary expedients designed to serve only until we have established the conditions which will bring total African unity within our reach."
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"But through all that has been said and written and done in these years, there runs a common theme. Unity is the accepted goal. We argue about means; We discuss alternative paths to the same objectives; We engage in debates about techniques and tactics. But when semantics are stripped away, there is little argument among us. We are determined to create a union of Africans. In a very real sense, our continent is unmade; it still awaits its creation and its creators. It is our duty and privilege to rouse the slumbering giant of Africa, not to the nationalism of Europe in the Nineteenth Century, not to regional consciousness, but to the vision of a single African brotherhood bending its united efforts toward the achievement of a greater and nobler goal.
"Thus, a period of transition is inevitable. Old relations and arrangements may, for a time linger. Regional organizations may fulfill legitimate functions and needs which cannot yet be otherwise satisfied. But the difference is in this: that we recognise these circumstances for what they are -- temporary expedients designed to serve only until we have established the conditions which will bring total African unity within our reach."
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