On Au­gust 22, the Med­hane Alem Parish in Arou­ca was filled with joy and solem­ni­ty as His Em­i­nence Abuna Thad­daeus, Arch­bish­op of the Arch­dio­cese of the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­ca, con­duct­ed sa­cred or­di­na­tions.

Ke­sis Tewelde Med­hin Matas was or­dained to the Holy Priest­hood, hav­ing re­cent­ly com­plet­ed his stud­ies at the Es­deros The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary and re­ceived his de­gree in St Louis, Mis­souri. He has de­vot­ed 25 years of ser­vice to the church as a dea­con across T&T and through­out the Caribbean, in­clud­ing Mar­tinique, Guade­loupe, An­tigua, and Puer­to Ri­co.

Join­ing him in or­di­na­tion was Ke­sis An­ton Haile Mari­am Julien. To­geth­er, they em­bark on a new chap­ter of ser­vice, min­is­ter­ing at the holy al­tar and pro­vid­ing pas­toral care to the faith­ful. Their or­di­na­tion marks a mile­stone in the life of the Church, re­flect­ing ded­i­ca­tion, prepa­ra­tion, and spir­i­tu­al de­vo­tion.

The or­di­na­tion of Max Haile Gabriel Rivera and Guiller­mo Wolde Sen­bet Román as dea­cons high­lights the on­go­ing growth of the Ethiopi­an Or­tho­dox Tewa­he­do Church in Puer­to Ri­co. This com­mu­ni­ty, born from the prayers and vi­sion of de­vot­ed fam­i­lies, se­cured land in 2021 and has steadi­ly grown un­der the guid­ance of His Em­i­nence Abuna Thad­daeus.

A his­toric pas­toral vis­it in 2023 brought con­se­cra­tion, the first litur­gi­cal ser­vices, bap­tisms, and out­reach to the wider com­mu­ni­ty. The church was com­plet­ed and joy­ful­ly in­au­gu­rat­ed on Jan­u­ary 25, mark­ing a new be­gin­ning. To­day, it con­tin­ues to thrive, of­fer­ing spir­i­tu­al care to both lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al faith­ful.

Al­so or­dained as a dea­con was Oliv­er Ge­bre Eye­sus Cromwell Pin­nock, who pre­vi­ous­ly served as an Anag­nost in Ja­maica. The Ethiopi­an Or­tho­dox Tewa­he­do Church in Ja­maica was for­mal­ly es­tab­lished in 1970 un­der the lead­er­ship of Archi­man­drite Ab­ba Laike Mari­am Man­de­fro (lat­er Arch­bish­op Yese­haq). Since its found­ing, the Church has been a liv­ing wit­ness to faith, pro­vid­ing wor­ship, ed­u­ca­tion, and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice to gen­er­a­tions of be­liev­ers.

These broth­ers, found wor­thy through rig­or­ous spir­i­tu­al prepa­ra­tion and doc­tri­nal train­ing, were or­dained to as­sist in the litur­gi­cal, pas­toral, and teach­ing min­istries of the Church. Their or­di­na­tions sym­bol­ise con­ti­nu­ity, ded­i­ca­tion, and the deep­en­ing of spir­i­tu­al life across the Caribbean.