TARIKU ABERA
ታሪኩ አብራ
By Wondimu Mekonnen: London 09 April 2013
INTRODUCTION
The London Debre Tsion, Ethiopian
Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) remains completely shut leaving the flocks of
Christ in the cold. And yet, God is great! He did not abandon his sheep without
a shepherd. He provided them with a shepherd mysteriously using the hands of
those very people who locked out the sheep in the open.
Ethiopians say, a
name is given by an angel (ስምን መልአክ ያወጣዋል). The meaning of Tariku Abera, loosely translated
is, “His life history shines”. Indeed, he is the shining star of Ethiopian
Orthodox church. Tariku’s teachings seem to electrify the audience as he
delivers. Tariku preaches Christ with passion and convictions. His words are
trustworthy because he speaks them out with faith in the Lord. The words just
flow like the current of a river by themselves, constructing convincing
statements. He doesn’t claim to speak from his own faculty of thinking
whatsoever The Holly Spirit simply puts the words in his mouth. For any Bible
preacher, such as Tariku, faith is the crucial element. He has that vital
ingredient in abundance. He is also brave. He would never shy away from
speaking up the truth. You like him or hate him, but he wouldn’t hesitate to
tell you what is right and what is wrong. If he has to say something, he would
speak it out without any fear of its repercussion on him. Guess what! Tariku
was brought to London by those who left us out in the cold. You know why
towards the end of this article.
The story I am going to write
today is heart rendering story of this amazing unsuspecting young Bible
preacher from Ethiopia. It is a very sad story that brought tears on everyone’s eyes when he
told un us one Sunday, as a result of mischief perpetrated by some religious
leaders of London Debere Tsion, the reincarnation of those responsible for
Jesus’ death (Matthew 26:3-4) or those who attempted on the life of Emperor
Thewdros by poisoning him through “The Holy Communion” - the Caiaphas and the
scribes of our time. However, it is probably God’s plan this to happen.
CURRENT SITUATION IN ETHIOPIA
The TPLF lead regime in Ethiopia
commits one crime after another for ulterior motives. It commits bigger crime
overshadow or eclipse the former. The chain continues. Our people at home are
undergoing unheard tribulation in their history. Hence they are running away
into exile in millions. The Christians were the first victims. They were killed in cold blood. Their monasteries and churches were ransacked. Their lands were appropriated by the TPLF disguised as EPRDF, for sugar plantation or for sale to outsiders. It is now the Muslims turn to cry. Exactly what had happened to Christians is now happening to the Muslims. We have heard news of farmers being evicted by the TPLF led regime of Ethiopia from their land in Gambella and elsewhere to sell their property to foreign agro-conglomerate. Land, according to the regime’s constitution, is not a private property, therefore, is never to be bought or sold by the citizens. However, that seems not to apply to the authors of the law. Although they have not been seen buying, they have been busy evicting farmers, grabbing their lands and selling to foreigners as they wish. This had never happened before in our history and our people did not know how to tackle such a criminal act committed by the TPLF regime. Before overcoming the shock of such atrocious act of gross violation of human rights yet again we are hit by even more shocking news of forceful eviction of the “Amhara ethnic group” from places like Gura Farda, Gumuz, Beni Shangul and elsewhere. Compare this to our fate in a foreign land. Uprooted from Ethiopia, many of us are living in democratic countries, such as the UK. In our host countries, we have never been threatened to be evicted from our homes, simply because we are not pure natives. On the other hand, Ethiopians in Ethiopia are evicted from their homes without destination! Not only the Amaras, are the Afars facing the same indignation. Hundreds of thousands of homeless in Addis Ababa are going to be counted in millions very soon. Catalogue of crime committed by the TPLF is climbing up. We don’t know how much more crime it may commit tomorrow that would dwarf the current one. We are registering. Nothing will be forgotten.
That is Ethiopia for you! As long as this monstrous regime stays in power, anything can happen to our people in that unfortunate land. But that is there. However, who would believe us if we tell you that the TPLF pursued us into exile to evict us from our churches in the Diaspora? Believe it or not, it had happened in London.
OUR LIVES IN BRITAIN
I have said this before (http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Get-involved/Collaborative-projects/Belonging/PStories/World/Impermanence/WondimuMekonnen.htm)
and I will not hesitate to say it again. Thanks to the British Government, many
of us in Britain are granted asylum from persecution in our native land. This
gave us the leash of life, not scared of being shot at on the street or
arrested for no apparent reason. We are even allowed to practice our unique
faith of Ethiopian Tewhido Orthodox Christianity, which is different from The
Anglican, freely. And yet we ask, does the UK government know the regime in
power in Ethiopia continues to abuse the aid money donated out of generosity of
kind hearted members of the world? In 1984-85[1], they
used the money to buy weapons. The UK turned blind eyes on that although they
knew it well. The UK probably allowed the TPLF to do that in order for the TPLF
to oust the communist regime with the weapon purchased with the aid money. The
TPLF thinks the West is fool. As result, this time, it is using the money to
oust the people themselves from land. Mugabe was condemned for taking away the
land from foreign settlers and giving it natives, but the Woyyane regime takes
away land from the natives to give to foreign agro-conglomerates. Nobody says
anything. Thanks to the aid money and of course unlimited right to collect
taxes from its citizens, the Woyyane have the resources enough to suppress our
people at home and now can export suppression abroad. It has brought over
trained spies from Ethiopia and has been busy buying the loyalty of traitors
among the refugees abroad. Of course there are many ready to sell their souls
for money. Using these traitors the Woyyane has been bent on a mission of
destabilising the Diaspora community. They are out here to hunt us down, weaken
us and finally silence us. This is the continuation of a long drawn plan[2]. They
have been well trained on how to infiltrate the communities, churches,
cooperatives and other refugee establishments, such as football clubs, cultural
shows etc.[3]. London
Debre Tsion St Mary’s church had been the target for a long time, now its turn
has come to be the next casualty.SPY HERMITS
There is one serious problem that must be tackled in The Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church everywhere. The acceptance of anyone in a clergy’s attire is putting the church at risk. When the greedy power monger fake hermit allowed into our church, has anyone checked his identity or proof of his rank in the church hierarchy? It was such tradition of trust at face value that allowed Rasputin, disguised as a hermit, to destroy the Romanov family – the Russian Tsar. Our liaises-faire attitude in our own churches, St Mary of Debre Tsion, allowed the fake hermit – Rasputin II (ዳግማዊ ራስፑቲን) to overtake our church and to hang us dry. No questions asked. That is why we are victims of regime’s spies, who pass as clergies.
Berhe (2008, p 302) writes about the issue in question as follows:
To weaken church authority, an intelligence group was formed under Sibhat Nega to infiltrate the well-established monasteries in Tigrai, such as Debre Damo, by planting TPLF members camouflaged as monks and influencing church activities in the interests of the TPLF[4]
You can see they are not men of God! Berhe’s account is first-hand information. He was one of the architects and co-founders of the TPLF. He knows how the organisation works. He was disgusted with it and left the criminal organisation ran by criminal thugs such as Meles Zenawi and Sebhat Nega in time. We are grateful to him for telling us the truth. What distinguishes Aregawi Berhe and Gebremedhin Araya from the rest of TPLF’s fallen angels is the fact that the formers do not hesitate to disclose the truth they know. Others later victims of Meles Zenawi’s tricks still have a soft heart for the corrupt organisation and wouldn’t utter a word about the TPLF as an organisation itself but personalities. We see that the regime is holding to the grip of the church at any cost. It knows well controlling the church means controlling the majority of the population. That is why it is determined to control London Debre Tsion.
In light of all of
these, who is then the mini dictator (ግልገሉ አመባ ገነን), the fake hermit in The London Debre Tsion EOTC?
No one in our church seems to know about his background or have checked his
credentials. Other than the time he sneaked into Jerusalem to cleverly obtain
the title of “Qomus” (Archimandrite), I
am not convinced if had ever gone through the proper ordination of priesthood.
Otherwise, how on earth had he had to learn the rituals of liturgy here in
London? Could he be one of those “camouflaged monks” dressed in clergy’s
attire? God knows. However, we at least know that he is far from being a
believer. He hasn’t got any faith in Christ. At least he has broken 9/10 of the
commandments. The one that is not yet broken, I think, is “Don’t Kill!” True hermits
don’t shut down churches on the flocks of the Lord! No! Never! They rather lay
their heads for their flocks. They don’t fight for money or power. They would
love their brothers as themselves. They respect the people. They wouldn’t
encourage unsuspecting and adoring innocent women and youngster to fight and
die for them. Somebody informed me that the fake hermit is building his mansion
in Addis Ababa. When you have a “Major” ranking brother in the TPLF army,
everything is possible. Surprise, surprise!
The Mergigeta whose
picture you see on right had hurt us so many times in the past. He preaches
that whoever crosses the clergies is destined to hell. He sounds as if he had
the key to heaven and earth. He collaborated with Mulugeta Asrate Kassa in
April 1998 to lock us out of our church. He is an adviser to the same fake hermit
yet again to shut our church down in 2013. Wherever there is a mischief against
the believers, his hands are always dipped deep in it. After 1998, he did leave
us, but who the hell brought him back, any way to do us more harm? We never
learn
አምና ሰው አምኜ፣ ስባክን ከርሜ
ዘንድሮም ሰው አመንኩ፣ እርም የለኝም እኔኤዲያ!
When he and clergies of his kind think of
doing some mischief on the people, they blurt two tiny words any time anywhere:
“Qalie Awadi! Qale Awadi” (ቃለ አዋዲ!). They keep on lamenting “Qale Awadi doesn’t allow this or that”!
Watch them on ESAT or listen to them on VAO! They cry and accuse the people
breaching Qale Awadi: “Qale Awadi has been breached by those attempting to
draft new bylaw”, they mourn. Lamentation about the breach of “Qale Awadi” has
become such a joke that in London even children have started exchanging
chuckles asking each other whether “Qale Awadi” allows to play this or that
game. I swear to you, that is the truth.
MEMHIR TARIKU ABERA’S ORDEAL!
Allow me
to quote some verses from the bible:
And he (Balak) sent messengers to
Balaam, . . . saying, “Look, a nation has come out of Egypt. They cover the
face of the earth, and they are settling next to me. So now, please come and
curse this nation for me, for they are too powerful for me. Perhaps I will prevail
so that we may conquer them, and drive them out of the land. For I know that
whomever you bless is blessed, and whomever you curse is cursed.”
(Number
22 verse 5-6)
The notorious fake hermit of London and his few followers
must have watched Memhr Tariku Abera, shaming anti-Orthodox Christian belief
bashers on YouTube[5]. They decided to import Memhir Tariku Abera,
as if he was merchandise, and use him as their silencing weapon to ditch the
draft bylaw supporters. Therefore, in July 2012, they organised a Conference in
London and invited as a star guest speaker. Memhir Tariku Abera was great. He
breathed spiritual life into the dying church.
The hermit and his followers had a different plan for the
new young preacher. Therefore, they wanted to remain in London for a while to
use him as loose cannon. However, Memhir Tariku Abera was not dam and daft as
they expected or easily corruptible like them. He kept on preaching the bible
earnestly. They carefully approached him, and falsely informed him that there
were ungodly politicians in the church that should be ex-communicated for
attempting to change the dogma and doctrine of EOTC. They asked him to quote from
the bible and “warn them” so that the new draft by law is ditched. He needed
time to see clearly. The idiots brought their own death upon themselves.
Tariku being an excellent preacher, the congregation
begged him to stay longer and feed the flock of the Lord from the sweet water
of life. His visa had to be extended provided that those who run the church
supplied evidence of employment. So, the request for visa extension was filed
but church leaders withheld the employment documents until he would start
bashing the people they wanted him to bash. They encouraged him to start
attacking the “politicians who were poised to change the dogma and doctrine of
the religion”. He decided to wait to catch them red handed. Nothing happened.
Why are the fake hermit and few clergies against the
draft bylaw in the first place? The answer is simple. The fake hermit and some
other clerics are both employees and at the same time members of the management
committee (ሰበካ ጉባዔ)
– actually trustee holders. As if that was not enough, the fake hermit was also
the Chairman of the Management Committee, violating the requirements of the UK
Charity Commission, where the Church was registered as a charitable trust.
Failure of segregations of duties led the fake hermit and his messenger boys to
fleece the church of its money as they wished. For example, have a look at the
filed accounts to the Charity Commission at “http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Accounts/Ends94/0001060394_ac_20101231_e_c.pdf
“ page 11, item 11 “Lost Church Funds”, page 14, item 24 “Related Party
Transactions”, where it says: “During the year the charity paid £5,500 in
salary to Komos Aba G K, loan of £5,000 to Komos Aba G Kedebe of which £3,000
was outstanding at the year end.” You see! The bylaw would deter them
from doing that.
Allow me to get back to the bible and quote some more to
draw the similarity between Balaam and Balack story.
Then
Balaam spoke his message:
“Balak
brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.
‘Come,’
he said, ‘curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.’ How can I curse those
whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not
denounced? From the rocky peaks I see them; from the heights I view them.
I see
a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die
the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!”
Balak
said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies,
but you have done nothing but bless them!”
He
answered, “Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”
(Numbers Chapter 22, verses 7 to 12)
This story repeated itself again
in London. Memhir Tariku Abera was supposed to destroy “ungodly men leading the
church into an alien method of worshipping”, but he could not see any of that.
Instead, what he saw was true believers trying to do their best to safeguard
the church’s property and streamline the management of their church in line
with modern method of administration. The gifted Gospel Preacher from Ethiopia
did not really waste time to understand what was going on. The fake hermit was
a contract employee to head the church for three years, but 6 years have come
and gone, but he wanted to remain there for ever. It was very clear even to a
child that has been always the reason why he put up such a fight tooth and
nail. He had too much power now, but the draft bylaw was going to chip off that
power. The fake hermit decided to overrule everything everybody and stay in
power unchallenged until his death. Tariku realised the accused were actually
innocent. Finally the fake hermit summarily banned 15 permanent members of the
congregation and attempted prevent them from entering the premises with hired
security guards. That action was met by furious resistance of the members of
the church, who pushed aside his security men and entered their own church,
which they bought with their own money. The bully fake hermit was denied to get
his way; therefore he closed the church on the first day of the Great Lent and
remained at home, with the keys in his pocket.
Memhir Tariku, thanks to God
Almighty, remained clean. Vindictive fake hermit and his supporting clergy
members were so furious at Memhir Tariku, refusing to back them and condemn the
innocent Christians. Tariku chose to stick to the words of the Lord and
continued teaching properly as he should; ignoring the power mongering hermit
and his three accomplices. Seeing that Memhir Tariku was not going out of his
way to twist the words of the Lord to the anti-Christ, anti-democracy,
anti-rule of law, the so called self-appointed leaders of our church dared to
breach his human rights to confidentiality under data Protection Act of 1998 by
opening his private and confidential Home Office letter, which was sent to the
church as a custodian, withholding the majority of documents.
I would like to invite everyone
to watch and listen to the harrowing and heart-breaking video recording of Memhir
Tariku’s account of why he decided to accept the invitation leaving behind his
loved to do gods job, and how his rights were violated by these thugs, camouflaged
as God’s men.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZVkHxl-Muo
We might have been outraged by
the tragedy hitting our sisters in some Arab countries. What will we say now
when such criminal act is carried out against our brother, by nobody else but
by those people whom we trusted to be God’s servants, right here under our
noses, in this democratic country, where human rights are respected at the
highest standard? What is the difference between this and some clergies of the
Catholic Church who have recently been accused of abusing children under their
custody?
Regardless this most horrifying
act of violation of his rights, Memhir Tariku Abera did not abandon us, the
flocks of Jesus Christ scattered without the shepherd. He gathered the
abandoned sheep of the Lord and his carried out his pastoral obligations,
freely. Listen to these teachings, after we have been locked out of our church.
During this Great Lent of
Orthodox Christians, your brothers and sisters in London ask you wherever you
may be to support Memhir Tariku Abera and the scattered sheep.
There is this priest who stood for
the people every time the people difficult situation. He was the victim of the
same fake hermit in the past[6]. This brave priest,
followed by his daughter, again stood up for the truth. While he was blessing
the people on the Day of “Debre Zait” (Mount of Olives) – the shameless fake hermit
and the advisor came straight to the church and stood with 10 or so of his
followers, defiantly. Many people were elsewhere in rented hall at the time
listening to the teachings of Memhir Tariku. Few of our members, and yet a
great number compared to the fake hermit’s servants. Qesis (Reverend) Berhanu,
the Lord’s priest and the brave shepherd courageously confronted the worldly hermit
and his false teachers (2 Peter 2; 1-3). This servant of the Lord went mad to
see this imposter creeping into church yard showing up his devilish face and
stood outside, while keeping still the church keys in his pocket. Look how
Qesis Berhanu confronted the devil himself.The fake hermit dared to show up his face, after approaching solicitors and legally attempting to ban 21 people yet again, violating the teaching of St Paul which says:.
When one of you has a dispute with another
believer, how dare you file a lawsuit and ask a secular court to decide the
matter instead of taking it to other believers! Don’t you realize that someday
we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world,
can’t you decide even these little things among yourselves? Don’t you realize
that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary
disputes in this life. If you have legal disputes about such matters, why go to
outside judges who are not respected by the church? I am saying this to shame
you. Isn't there anyone in all the church who is wise enough to decide these
issues? But instead, one believer sues another—right in front of unbelievers!
1 Corinthians 6:1-7
No, it is not the ordinary
believers that went first to the unbelievers for help, but the priests who
trade in the name of Jesus Christ. There are wise enough people among us, but
the faithless clergies of Debre Tsion are calling the Police Force every week,
complaining to the Charity Commission and now heading to the Court of
unbelievers. The flock of the Lord are left with no option but to fight back.
We know with the help of our God Almighty, El
Shaddai, we shall prevail! Evil will be defeated!
May the Blessings of the Lord be
upon all of us!
[2]
HYPERLINK
"%20http:/www.ethiomedia.com/carepress/attack_on_diaspora.html" http://www.ethiomedia.com/carepress/attack_on_diaspora.html
[4]
Berhe, Aregawi (2008) A Political History of the Tigray People’s Liberation
Front (1975-1991): Revolt, Ideology and Mobilisation in Ethiopia, Amsterdam, PhD Thesis.
[6]
HYPERLINK "%20http:/www.ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/6756" http://www.ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/6756
