{"id":427482,"date":"2018-08-02T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?guid=07430ade89404a8fe7f2b6e3c1e1289a"},"modified":"2026-09-10T11:36:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T15:36:38","slug":"abune-merkorios-returns-ethiopian-orthodox-patriarch-ends-27-years-of-exile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/427482","title":{"rendered":"Abune Merkorios returns: Ethiopian Orthodox patriarch ends 27 years of exile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In August 2018, <strong>Abune Merkorios<\/strong>, a patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church who had lived in exile for about 27 years after a disputed 1990s patriarchal succession, returned to Ethiopia as church factions moved toward reconciliation.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-230310\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Abune-Merkorios-returns-home.jpg?fit=780%2C437&ssl=1\" alt=\"Abune Merkorios returns: Ethiopian Orthodox patriarch ends 27 years of exile\" \/><\/p>\n\n<p>RFI and other outlets reported the homecoming as a religious and political signal of the 2018 opening: ending a long schism mattered for millions of Orthodox faithful and for the state\u2019s relationship with the church.<\/p>\n<p>The return remains a useful reference for readers tracking faith, national identity, and how Ethiopia\u2019s 2018 political shift reached institutions beyond parliament and the security services.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/fr\/afrique\/20180802-ethiopie-retour-patriarche-orthodoxe-abune-merkorios\">RFI<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-45040224\">BBC Africa<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ethiopie: retour du patriarche orthodoxe Abune Merkorios apr\u00e8s 27 ans d&#8217;exil&nbsp;&nbsp;RFI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":230310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-427482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Abune-Merkorios-returns-home.jpg?fit=1151%2C645&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1NcS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427482"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":599917,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427482\/revisions\/599917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}