Dear Ghosty,
Happy New Year!
Yes, the rationale for this, as told me by one priest, is that Christ brought us from sin (left side) to His Grace (right side).
Copts cross themselves with one finger to underline the One Nature of God the Word Incarnate (as per St Cyril of Alexandria).
Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox will cross themselves by joining the index finger to the thumb to signify that the Son of God bent the heavens and came down to become Man (the same rationale as the Old Believers use for their two-fingered Sign of the Cross, in fact). The remaining three fingers, signifying the Holy Trinity are gently bent downward.
Others will use three fingers just as we "Niconians" do.
And as you Latin Catholics did until the thirteenth century, by the way. Pope Innocent III, who met St Francis of Assisi, actually wrote a letter defending the three-fingered Sign of the Cross and this letter was constantly published in Greek-Catholic prayerbooks in the 18th and 19th centuries as a way to "justify" the use of the three fingers by GC's in largely RC countries.
The Ethiopian Orthodox are a fascinating group, as Father DIAKon will readily testify too.
Theirs is a blend of Judaism, Christianity and some Islamic and even spiritist practices. It truly does represent the cultural achievement of the Ethiopian people and its historic imperial culture.
One takes off one's shoes, as you know, when entering an Ethiopian church, there is a prayer shawl one dons (I've one with Coptic crosses on the edge together with fringes) and many have their "miquamia" or prayer staff on which to lean and it is in the shape of a "T" or a cross. The one I have also has fifty diamond-shaped knotches at the top that one may go over with one's thumb to count prayers - a true "prayer stick!"
The prayer sticks are also used to keep time during the church singing.
Ethiopian hand crosses are in a category of their own and Ethiopia is a land of crosses, each of which is different from the others (they use the lost wax method of making them).
Wooden crosses are expensive and usually only priests and bishops have them. Processional crosses are beautiful and I've one mounted in my dining room. The "Lalibela" cross is actually the cross that the Knights Templar took as the emblem of their order from the time when they were in Ethiopia and were the guardians of the Ark of the Covenant.
Priests must carry a cross in their hand at all times and they often have a holster or a special pocket in which to keep them (as one priest told me, "If I didn't have my cross, my bishop would immediately say, 'Where is it?'").
A great devotional practice for everyone is to hold a cross in one's hand during prayer. I visited a very ecumenical Protestant Christian bookstore in Buffalo once where the lady had small olive wood Crosses from Israel that are meant to be held secretly in the hand throughout the day. She insisted I get one and helped me find one that suited my hand, grip etc. What a wonderfully pious person and pious practice! One may cross oneself with the hand cross and the like. (Try it everyone, you'll like it!).
When an Ethiopian Christian is baptized, he or she has a cord put on them with an Ethiopian Cross, often made of leather. The Cross is the "Al Maskal" and the cord is the "Matab" that Copts also wear. The Matab represents the strings of the prayer shawl of St Peter when he baptized in the Jordan. So as to ensure that no one of the multitudes were baptized twice, he cut off the strings from the edge of his prayer shawl and tied them around the necks of those he baptized. From this it is said comes our tradition of wearing a cord or chain with a cross around the neck . . .
The cord can be blue or white or sometimes it is an intertwined cord of green, yellow and red (pan-African colours but first the colours of the Holy Trinity in Ethiopian tradition). The Templars, it is said, took from this tradition and intertwined black and red cords, the colours of their Order, to wear around their necks.
One Emperor made it a law that all Christians in Ethiopia (once comprised of 99 kingdoms and an emperor) must wear the Matab. To this day, those who do not are considered to be Muslim.
Ethiopians also have prayer beads of various configurations. The usual one is a set of 41 beads on which 41 Kirie Eleison (they will also recite 41 Our Father's) are counted that end each of their services. This represents the 41 lashes Christ received, which consist of two more than the maximum penalty allowed by Roman law - thus they broke their own law out of hatred for Christ. Another tradition says the additional two beads represent other instruments of torture inflicted on our Lord.
They also have rosaries with 64 beads on which are said 64 Hail Mary's in honour of the 64 years they believe the Theotokos lived on earth (the Brigittines have 63 bead rosaries for 63 years and the Franciscans 72).
There are 100 bead rosaries that are divided this way: a large bead after the first seven, another large bead after 12 smaller beads, another after 41 and then another situated in such a way so as to allow one to count 64 beads.
Tammy of
www.chotkis.com [
chotkis.com] has made excellent Ethiopian mequteria according to the strictest possible specifications and I've two Ethiopian rosaries from her.
Ethiopian churches are focused on the Tabot or a representation of the Ark of the Covenant on their altars. Each ark is carved separately and is then named for a saint.
Ethiopian tradition especially venerates Old Testament saints and the feast of Sts. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a national holiday (as is the great feast of the Precious Cross or Al-Maskal).
Their New Testament adds the eight books of the Apostolic Constitutions and so has a total of 35 canonical books. They add the book of Enoch and the book of Jubilees to their "narrow" Old Testament canon but also freely add many other OT deuterocanonicals.
Their worship follows the Coptic Agbeya (they have a service for "cock-crow" as well but I think it is the hour of Prime). And they have many Eucharistic anaphora too.
They solemnize Saturday on an equal footing with Sunday, so the Sabbath for them begins Friday at sundown and ends on Sunday at sundown. They will also engage in reverent, liturgical dancing with musical instruments said to be descended from the time of King David and this dancing is done before the Ark and during processions with the Ark.
They say the original Ark is at Axum, brought there by the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, St Menelik I, Emperor of Ethiopia. To gaze upon it would mean immediate death . . .
The Queen of Sheba, St Makeda, is highly venerated (she is directly mentioned by Christ in the NT).
Their great national saint is St Takla Haymonot, a monastic father who prayed so much while standing that one of his legs fell off . . . He once fell off a cliff but his disciples saw wings come out from his back that allowed him to fly safely down to the ground below and this is why he is depicted with wings.
They venerate even obscure OT figures, i.e. they have a feast day for St Joseph the son of Jacob and his wife, St Aseneth (both of these are mentioned during the BC crowning service). Some have reported icons of Balaam from the OT . . .
And then there is St Pontius Pilate, commemorated with his wife, St Procla, on June 25th in Ethiopia. They have the apocryphal book of the letter of Pilate to Herod where he describes his conversion when he went to see the risen Christ. As he approached our Lord, he felt the ground move under him and he fell on his face. Our Lord came to him and helped him up. Pilate could clearly see the Marks of the Crucifixion on His Hands and He heard him say, "Blessed are you Pontius Pilate for in the time of your government was fulfilled the sayings of the prophets concerning Me."
He was baptized and he was then recalled to Rome by Emperor Tiberius to give an account about the whole situation involving Christ (this recall is mentioned in the writings of Origen of Alexandria).
While at Rome, Pilate described the miracles of Jesus and Tiberius, after hearing his report, chastised him severely for giving Jesus over to death. In the view of the emperor, Jesus could have been most useful in the civil service of the empire!
Pilate was sentenced to die for not standing up to the Jewish leaders. As he knelt in prayer, he said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." As his head was cut off, his wife, Claudia Procla, saw it held by an angel and she then died of joy . . .
I once related this to a Coptic priest who exclaimed, "Wow, and here I've been working with the Ethiopians for 30 years and not once did I know this about Pilate!"
The Portuguese respected not the Ethiopian traditions and were taken to burning the shrines of Ethiopian saints and the like (the Ethiopian Catholic Church was forced to expunge the name of Pilate from their calendars as well).
Some Muslim converts to Ethiopian Orthodoxy have brought with them their veneration of Alexander the Great, who is honoured as a prophet in that faith (Alexander's relation to the God of Israel at Jerusalem is discussed in a most positive manner by Josephus and Jewish children to this day are allowed to be named "Alexander" as a result). After reading the account in Josephus, I've no problem invoking Alexander as a prophet either. The Star of Vergina of Alexander is also popular in Ethiopian folk culture, as it is in that of north Africa and even in India.
Ethiopians, like all Alexandrian Christians (Copts and Eritreans and also Nubians) are expected to pray seven times daily or the Agbeya.
Ethiopian monks will strictly follow the Rule of Pachomius and pray 12 Psalms at the turn of every hour, throughout the night and day or the Psalter twice in every 24 hours.
They have a tradition of writing icons on elephant or goat skin and they will also wrap icons in skin as they bury them underground at shrines as votives.
They will have iconostases, but they emphasize the wide curtain that recalls the veil at the temple of Jerusalem that was torn in two at the time of Christ's crucifixion.
They believe in seven covenants between God and man, beginning with that of Adam and Eve, that of Melchisedek, Noah etc. until the seventh which is the New Testament.
For them, both the Cross and the Ark of the Covenant are bearers of the Presence of God and their hand Crosses often have a square at the base which represents the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
They will hold a private Passover on Holy Thursday in honour of the Mystical Supper and will also make liturgical use of a shofar to announce the major feastdays of the Church.
Alex
