205:. In the market, he would pray for the sick and preach to anyone who would listen. After a while, he gained some converts, whom he encouraged to meet regularly to listen to him preach. Eventually, he helped these converts to select a pastor from among themselves, and Mahay Choramo then moved on to the next locality. Mahay Choramo believed that this method was faithful to the methods employed by the
245:, which overthrew Haile Selassie in 1974, was hostile to Christianity. Between 1985 and 1990, all of the churches founded by Mahay in Welayta were forced to close, with even preaching at funerals banned. Mahay Choramo encouraged his followers to band together in small groups and to take risks in order to continue their worship and resist the Derg repression.
185:
was the lot of a
Christian, a message he took to heart since at this time non-Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia were subject to persecution. On one famous occasion in the early 1940s, when a judge sentenced Mahay Choramo to time in prison, Choramo thanked the judge. When the judge asked why he was
197:, however, since he believed that churches must be organized spontaneously from the ground up. Rather, he would move into a new area, initiate contact with locals, and live with them and preach to them until a church was formed. For example, in
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164:
was a literal person who was plotting against them and "Get away Satan" was a common expression, Mahay
Choramo's conversion convinced him that he didn't need to be afraid of Satan, and he made it his personal goal to preach the
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Mahay
Choramo's theology was unique to himself, constructed on the basis of his initial contact with SIM converts, his personal reading of the Bible, and, to a degree, his exposure to Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.
186:
thanking him, Mahay
Choramo replied "I will be able to pray and meditate better on my own." Mahay Choramo's opposition to the Ethiopian authorities brought him into contact with other Ethiopian Christian dissidents.
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so that others needn't be afraid of Satan any more either. Desiring to read the Bible for himself, Mahay
Choramo taught himself Amharic and obtained a copy of the Bible. He came to admire the
513:
32:
101:
allowed non-Orthodox missionaries into
Ethiopia, on the condition that they would not translate their works into Amharic and would focus only on the non-Amharic-speaking population.
249:
394:
Brian L. Fargher, "The
Origins of the New Churches Movement in the Hammer Bako Area 1954- 1961", unpublished MS by Brian Fargher with Donald and Christine Gray (March 1996).
97:; to become a Christian a person had to abandon his or her local ethnic identity and embrace the dominant Tigray-Tigrinya-Amhara culture. Beginning in the 1920s, however,
324:, "A Leopard among the Bannas: Mahay Choramo Faced down Hardship and Violent Opposition to Minister to the Murderous Nomads of Ethiopia's Southern Frontier",
260:
Since 1998, Mahay
Choramo had been working with local and expatriate missionaries, and foreigners (notably Malcolm Hunter) in conducting missions in the
62:." Mahay Choramo had three siblings: a sister, Tera, who died when she was two years old, and two brothers, Meskele (d. 1976) and Feteshey (d. 1979).
160:. (He had no contact with the SIM missionaries, only with their followers.) At a time when many people in Mahay Choramo's region believed that
124:. They left behind them a small group of local Christian converts. The missionaries had translated a small amount of material into the local
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took over in 1991, Mahay
Choramo was able to move about more freely, but he still faced periodic persecution, and was arrested at one point.
58:
in
Ethiopia, Mahay Choramo often Amharized his name (e.g. in his autobiography), and went by the Amharan name of "Mahari", which means "
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70:
93:
in its administrative and social life.) Subjects of the Ethiopian Empire who were not Amharas or Tigray-Tigrinya followed various
108:(SIM) launched its "New Churches Movement" in the late 1920s. In April 1928, expatriate missionaries from the SIM. arrived at
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94:
98:
31:
The exact date (or even the exact year) and place of Mahay Choramo's birth is not known, beyond that he was born in the
314:
E. Paul Balisky, "Wolaitta Evangelists: A Study of Religious Innovation in Southern Ethiopia, 1936-1975", (PhD thesis,
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523:
166:
54:
Choramo named his son "Mahay Choramo." "Mahay" means "leopard" in the local language. However, like many non-
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129:
105:
503:
508:
157:
209:
in the Book of Acts. However, Mahay Choramo did maintain a lifelong relationship with the Wolaytta
193:, planting dozens of new congregations throughout southern Ethiopia. He did not consider himself a
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in the surrounding rural areas. These missionaries left Sodo on April 17, 1937, in the wake of the
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309:
Christian Ministry Patterns and Functions within the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus
125:
86:
148:, a language which they associated with absentee landlords and greedy government officials.
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302:
Awakening at Midnight: the story of the Kale Heywet Church in Ethiopia Vol. 2, 1942-1973
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who planted dozens of churches in remote areas in Ethiopia in the twentieth century.
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81:. (The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church conducted its liturgy in the otherwise
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321:
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20:
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349:, annotated by Brian L. Fargher, (Edmonton: Enterprise Publications, 1997).
304:(Amharic), published by the KHC Literature Department, Addis Ababa, 2000.
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36:
384:(Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing Co., 1980).
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Mahay Choramo heard itinerant evangelists preaching and underwent a
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40:
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People from Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region
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Ethiopian Evangelist: Autobiography of Evangelist Mahari Choramo
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Church, to which he would periodically return between missions.
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109:
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The major themes of Mahay Choramo's preaching were the love of
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Over the next fifty years, Mahay Choramo dedicated his life to
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47:. Choramo, her second husband and Mahay's father, was from
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in the mid-1920s. His mother, Paltore Posha, was from
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Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region
514:Converts to Protestantism from Oriental Orthodoxy
250:Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
408:(London & Redhill: Lutterworth Press, 1942).
73:, which was the religion of the Amharas and the
450:(Auckland, N.Z.: Sudan Interior Mission, 1938).
389:The New Churches Movement in Ethiopia 1928-1944
377:(Canada: SIM International Publications, 1984).
116:there, establishing a hospital and conducting
455:The Christian Church and Missions in Ethiopia
441:Letters from the Uttermost Parts of the Earth
436:(London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1949).
422:(London: Fleming & Revell Company, 1939).
280:The Dictionary of African Christian Biography
177:and determined to follow their example. The
140:. Unfortunately for the converts, the whole
8:
382:Cords of Love. A Pioneer Mission in Ethiopia
478:. Dictionary of African Christian Biography
429:(Toronto, Canada: SIM, undated, ca. 1943).
335:(Langley, B.C.: Omega Publications, 1992).
201:, he set himself up as a merchant selling
19:(1920s – April 13, 2014) was an Ethiopian
342:y (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1968).
467:
406:Alfred Buxton of Abyssinia & Congo
311:(New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1987).
7:
152:Conversion and life as an evangelist
268:until his death on April 13, 2014.
65:Up to this point in time, the only
71:Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
14:
69:in Ethiopia were members of the
427:Trials and Triumphs in Ethiopia
448:An Indigenous Church in Action
370:(New York/Toronto: SIM, 1966).
1:
457:(World Dominion Press, 1950).
356:(Chicago: Moody Press, 1973).
95:African traditional religions
443:(Privately published, 1987).
122:Italian invasion of Ethiopia
413:Hearth and Home in Ethiopia
550:
420:A Doctor without a Country
363:(Eastbourne: MARCO, 1988).
229:and the empowering of the
529:Ethiopian anti-communists
128:, consisting mainly of a
89:, though the church used
439:Ed & Edna Ratzliff,
434:Ethiopia and the Evangel
399:Run While the Sun is Hot
181:also convinced him that
453:J. Spencer Trimingham,
401:(Chicago: Moody, 1967).
519:Ethiopian evangelicals
333:In the Wake of Martyrs
316:University of Aberdeen
144:was available only in
130:Scripture Gift Mission
106:Sudan Interior Mission
99:Emperor Haile Selassie
476:"Choramo, Mahay (A)"
415:(London: SIM, 1960).
411:Lucy Winifred Horn,
368:Fire on the Mountain
359:F. Peter Cotterell,
352:F. Peter Cotterell,
158:religious conversion
391:(E.J. Brill, 1998).
340:Reluctant Missionar
432:A. G. H. Quinton,
418:Thomas A. Lambie,
397:W. Harold Fuller,
387:Brian L. Fargher,
380:Clarence W. Duff,
132:pamphlet entitled
425:Guy W. Playfair,
331:Albert E. Brant,
326:Christian History
288:Christian History
256:Recent activities
126:Wolaytta language
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524:Ethiopian clergy
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446:Alfred G. Roke,
354:Born at Midnight
345:Mahari Choramo,
83:extinct language
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278:Biography from
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191:church planting
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134:God Hath Spoken
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509:2014 deaths
262:Borena Zone
231:Holy Spirit
211:Kale Heywet
183:persecution
171:evangelists
498:Categories
322:Aaron Belz
295:References
248:After the
237:Dark years
118:evangelism
67:Christians
27:Background
21:evangelist
482:18 August
199:Gamu-Gofa
167:Good News
462:Specific
318:, 1997).
217:Theology
207:apostles
136:and the
79:Tigrinya
60:merciful
37:Ethiopia
264:to the
173:of the
146:Amharic
114:mission
91:Amharic
56:Amharas
45:Welayta
75:Tigray
162:Satan
142:Bible
87:Ge'ez
49:Kucha
41:Humbo
484:2019
243:Derg
241:The
203:salt
110:Sodo
227:God
85:of
43:in
35:of
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