The Ethiopian Orthodox Tehwahedo Faith and Order
That’s a new one. So much for unity in the Catholic church.
Working on that 30,000 rites, eh?
“This is utterly wrong, because of the following reasons: (1) Christ set apart special persons as Apostles, and spent a whole night before choosing them. “And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all nigh in prayer to God. And when it was day He called unto Him His disciples: and of them He chose twelve whom also He named Apostles.” (Luke 6:12, 13)”
The absurdity of this statement is evidenced by the facts; Judas Iscariot was one of the original 12; Thomas was not present when Jesus breathed on those present and gave them the Holy Spirit; Matthias was chosen by a roll of the dice; after Stephen’s martyrdom the scattered church “went every where preaching the word”; “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also [is] Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether [we be] Jews or Gentiles, whether [we be] bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.”
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church isn’t part of the Catholic Church.
But it is one of the oldest Churches in all of Christendom, and unlike other Christian Churches it converted from Judaism to Christianity.
It split with the Catholic world in 451 A.D. after rejecting the Council of Chalcedon’s decree that Jesus had two natures.
Plus, Ethiopia was independent of Rome and converted to Christianity at a time when the Roman state was persecuting Catholics.
It’s teachings on 95 percent all matters of faith are identical to that of the Roman Catholics save for the papacy.
“That’s a new one. So much for unity in the Catholic church.
Working on that 30,000 rites, eh?”
Nope. There are 22 rites within the Catholic Church, in 2,00 years of history, thus far. And they are united. There are ~30,000 more or less distinct groups within the non-Catholic Christian groups commonly referred to as protestants, in less than 500 years. And they are not, in most senses, united. As used to be said on Sesame Street: One of these things is not like the other.