Meserete Kristos Church

The Church has its origins in an American mission of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference in the 1940s. Girma Bekele, The In-Between People: A Reading of David Bosch through the Lens of Mission History and Contemporary Challenges In Ethiopia, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2011, p. 225 The first church was founded in 1951 in Addis Ababa. Meserete Kristos Church (meaning "Christ is the foundation Church", based on I Cor. 3:11) was officially founded in 1959. Girma Bekele, The In-Between People: A Reading of David Bosch through the Lens of Mission History and Contemporary Challenges In Ethiopia, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2011, p. 225 According to a census published in 2022, it had 1,160 churches and 370,909 baptized members.Mennonite World Conference, [https://mwc-cmm.org/global-map Global map], mwc-cmm.org, Canada, retrieved September 19, 2022

In 2005, Amnesty International reported the church experienced religious persecution in Eritrea, where it had been present for decades.{{cite web|title=Eritrea:Religious Persecution |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr64/013/2005/en/ |website=Amnesty International |date=December 7, 2005 |page=5}}

The college was located in Addis Ababa until January 2007. Since its founding in 1994, the college has produced 262 graduates,Meserete Kristos College Newsletter (May 2007). and had 110 full-time and 42 part-time students enrolled in the fall of 2006."Meserete Kristos College moves in," The Mennonite, 15 May 2007 Construction of a permanent campus in Bishoftu is underway.{{Cite web |url=http://www.mkcollege.org/ |title=Meserete Kristos College |access-date=2006-05-25 |archive-date=2019-08-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830022618/http://mkcollege.org/ |url-status=dead }} In January 2007, all physical assets were moved to the new campus, and classes began there on February 6. The five-story education building, the first of 11 planned buildings, is half-completed, and currently houses all classrooms, academic offices, library, and language and computer labs. A men's residence was completed in 2010. Negash Kebede was installed as College President on 11 March 2007. Kiros Teka Haddis was installed as President on September 12, 2012.Meserete Kristos College Newsletter (September 2012). Fall 2014 enrollment at the college was 214 students (183 male, 31 female).Meserete Kristos College Newsletter (December 2014): 1.

Currently the President of Meserete Kiristos church is Pastor Desalegn Abebe.

• Christianity in Ethiopia

{{Reflist}}

• Mashas, Andrew. 2017. Buried we will grow. Anabaptist Witness. [http://www.anabaptistwitness.org/journal_entry/buried-we-will-grow/ Article about MKC for American audience]
• Hege, Nathan B. 1998. Beyond Our Prayers: Anabaptist Church Growth in Ethiopia, 1948–1998. (Scottdale, PA: Herald).

• Mennonite World Review's articles on the [https://archive.today/20130916210634/http://www.mennoworld.org/subject/meserete-kristos-church/ history and growth of the Meserete Kristos Church]
• [http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Meserete_Kristos_Church Meserete Kristos Church] at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online

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Category:Mennonitism in Ethiopia

Category:Anabaptism

Category:Mennonite denominations

Category:Anabaptist denominations established in the 20th century