Figure 1.--The scene took place at the Debre Sina St. Maryam Church, on the Gorgora Peninsula along the shores of Lake Tana in the north-western Amhara Highlands is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Not only is the Blue Nile the major water source for Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt, but it has unique cultural and religious meaning to the Ethiopian people. What we see here seems to be a purification ritual than a baptism using water from the Lake andthat he is pouring it on to a cross. Adults also take part in this ritual.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Union church is an autonomous Christian Church headed by a patriarch and closely related to the Egyptian Coptic Church. It is the largest pre-colonial Christian church of Africa. It is an early Christian church. Christianity became the established religion of the Ethiopian Axumite Kingdom under king Ezana (4th century AD). when priesthood and the sacraments were brought for the first time through a Syrian Greek named Frumentius brought both the piesthood and sacraments to Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Church was cut off from Rome and Western Christianity by the rise of Islam (7th century). With the emergence of Islam , Ethiopia's Christians became isolated from the rest of the Christian world (7th century). The head of the Ethiopian church has been traditionall appointed by the patriarch of the Coptic church in Egypt. Ethiopian monks have played an imortant ole in the Church and have certain rights in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Ethiopia was the only region of Africa where a Chrstian state survived the explosion of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula. A reconnection wth te West did not occur until the Portuguese reached the Indian Ocean (15 century). This led to a period of Jesuite influence. It also introduced a new chllenge to Ehiopian Crisistianity -- European colonialism. There are some 35 million Ethiopian Chtistians. The Ethiopian Church is the largest of all Oriental Orthodox churches. The Ethiopian Orthodox Union church was the state church of Ethiopia until the Revolution (1974). Available numbers are in precise, but some estimates suggest that over 60 percent of Ethiopians identify as Christians. This includes: Orthodox/Coptic about (45 percent), Protestant (nearly 20 percent), and a small number of Roman Catholics. Christianoty is particularly strong in the northern highlands. Most of the Christian, belonging to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, whose 4th Century beginnings came long before most Europeans accepted Christianity. The Abun (Metropolitan Bishop of Ethiopian Church) has a special communion with the Patriarch of Alexandria Head of Egyptian Coptic Church. The term 'Orthodox' is often used for all Eastern Churches that do not have communion with the Roman Pope. This is not correct at all. In the strict sence of the word 'Orthodox' are the Churches that have communion with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople--the Great Schism (1054). The Coptic Churches of Egypt and Ethiopia, like the Armenian Church, do noy have communion with the Orthodox Churches in the strict sense. They had separated from the 'Great Church' after the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD).