AFTER nearly two decades of worshipping in various temporary locations, the St Gabriel Tigray Orthodox Tewahedo Church has found a permanent home in a building that once housed Eltham United Reformed Church.

An official opening and dedication service was held on Saturday after the congregation’s ancient Axumite traditions, which can be traced back to the fourth century. It was led by the Tigrayan Orthodox Archbishop of Europe, the Most Revd Abune Ephrem. The Holy Tabot — a replica of the Ark of the Covenant — was moved into the church on the preceding Friday.

Christianity reached Ethiopia in the fourth century, when King Ezana of the Kingdom of Axsum in Tigray was converted to Christianity by a missionary from Tyre, Frumentius.

The UK census of 2021 recorded 22,152 Ethiopian-born people in the country. A press release from St Gabriel’s said that many people from Tigray — the northernmost state in Ethiopia, famed for its rock churches — had taken refuge in the UK in recent decades. Tigrayans are a minority-ethnic group in Ethiopia, making up six per cent of the population.

During the Tigray war (2020-22) government forces fought with forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling group in the region (News, 20 November 2020). It is estimated that up to 600,000 people were killed. Widespread famine took hold. Patriarch Mathias Abune, of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, warned of “genocide”.

The Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church declared its independence from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in 2021, alleging that it was too closely aligned with the Ethiopian government (Comment, 1 September 2023). Earlier that year, it was reported that 750 people had been massacred in the cathedral complex at Axsum by Ethiopian federal troops (News, 15 January 2021). The Inter-Religious Council of Tigray reported that more than 1000 clerics had been killed.

The Eltham church was built in 1932 to house a Congregational church. The closure of the URC church was announced in 2024, on grounds of “the dwindling congregation and difficult finances caused by high energy bills and expensive upkeep of the property”.