Ambassador Abu Bakr Hefny Mahmoud, Egypt’s ambassador to Ethiopia held, on February 23,2017 a lecture on the historical, ethnic and spiritual relations between Egypt and Ethiopia, delivered by Father Angelios representative of the Orthodox Coptic Church in Ethiopia, in the presence of a number of ambassadors, cultural counselors accredited in Addis Ababa, Ambassador Taye Atske Selassie, Ethiopia’s new ambassador to Egypt, official spokesman of the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry, Prime Minister Advisor, a number of members of the Egyptian community in Addis Ababa and Ethiopian community.
The lecture highlighted the relations between the two countries since Queen Hatshepsut down to church and Muslim relations, and the role of the Egyptian church in spreading Christianity in Ethiopia and succession of 114 Coptic Patriarch on the head of the Ethiopian Church since the fourth century down to the split of the two churches in the fifties of the last century, and the role played by the Coptic monks in translating the Bible and copying martyrs biographies and prayer books, in addition to the inauguration of Ethiopians kings and the reflection of ancient Egyptian tones such as demotic on Ge’ez language, as well as the impact of the Coptic culture on the Ethiopian calendar, which is inverted from the eastern Coptic calendar and embracing the early Muslims that migrated to Abyssinia, and building the first mosque in Africa in Ethiopia AlNagashi mosque in Tigray region, and the presence of a lobby in Al-Azhar mosque named Aljabartia, attributed to Abdul Rahman Jabarti.
The lecture also highlighted the continuation of the Egyptian church to play a social role in Ethiopia by providing medical and social services, as well as the role played by medical missions, both of 57357 Foundation, or Magdi Yacoub heart Foundation and the role played by the Egyptian doctors residing in the United States and Canada Foundation.
