Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

===Similarities to Judaism and Islam===
[[File:The Ethiopian Church.jpg|thumb| [[Kidane Mehret Church, Jerusalem|The Ethiopian Church, Jerusalem]]]]
The Ethiopian Church places a heavier emphasis on Old Testament teachings than one might find in [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]], Roman Catholic or [[Protestantism|Protestant]] churches, and its followers adhere to certain practices that one finds in [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] or [[Conservative Judaism]]. Ethiopian Christians, like some other [[Eastern Christianity|Eastern Christians]], traditionally follow dietary rules that are similar to Jewish [[Kashrut]], specifically with regard to the slaughter of animals. Similarly, pork is prohibited, though unlike [[Rabbinical Judaism|Rabbinical]] Kashrut, [[Ethiopian cuisine]] does mix [[Milk and meat in Jewish law|dairy products with meat]], which in turn makes it even closer to [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite]] and [[Islamic dietary laws]] (see [[Halal]]). Women are prohibited from entering the church temple during [[menses]];<ref>{{cite web |last1=Daoud |first1=Marcos |last2=Hazen |first2=Blatta Marsie |title=The Liturgy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church |url=http://www.eotc.faithweb.com/liturgy.htm |publisher=[[Ethiopian Orthodox Church]] |access-date=24 August 2020 |language=en |date=1991}}</ref> they are also expected to [[Christian headcovering|cover their hair]] with a large scarf (or ''shash'') while in church, as described in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. As with Orthodox [[synagogue]]s, men and women sit separately in the Ethiopian church, with men on the left and women on the right (when facing the altar).<ref name="Hable1997">{{cite book|last= Hable Selassie|first= Sergew|title= The Church of Ethiopia – A panorama of History and Spiritual Life|year= 1997|publisher= Berhanena Selam|location= Addis Abeba, Ethiopia|page= 66}}</ref> (Women covering their heads and separation of the sexes in churches officially is common to few other Christian traditions; it is also the rule in some non-Christian religions, [[Islam]] and [[Orthodox Judaism]] among them).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Duffner |first1=Jordan Denari |title=Wait, I thought that was a Muslim thing?!|url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/wait-i-thought-was-muslim-thing |publisher=[[Commonweal (magazine)|Commonweal]] |access-date=26 July 2020 |language=en |date=13 February 2014}}</ref>

Before praying, the Ethiopian Orthodox wash their hands and face, in order to be clean before and present their best to God; [[Tradition of removing shoes in the home and houses of worship|shoes are removed]] in order to acknowledge that one is offering prayer before a holy God.<ref name="Amherst1906">{{cite book |author1=Mary Cecil, 2nd Baroness Amherst of Hackney |author-link=Mary Cecil, 2nd Baroness Amherst of Hackney |title=A Sketch of Egyptian History from the Earliest Times to the Present Day |date=1906 |publisher=Methuen |page=399 |language=en |quote=Prayers 7 times a day are enjoined, and the most strict among the Copts recite one of more of the Psalms of David each time they pray. They always wash their hands and faces before devotions, and turn to the East.}}</ref><ref name="Kosloski2017">{{cite web |last1=Kosloski |first1=Philip |title=Did you know Muslims pray in a similar way to some Christians? |url=https://aleteia.org/2017/10/16/did-you-know-muslims-pray-in-a-similar-way-to-some-christians/ |publisher=[[Aleteia]] |access-date=25 July 2020 |language=en |date=16 October 2017}}</ref> Ethiopian Orthodox worshippers remove their shoes when entering a church temple,<ref name="Hable1997" /> in accordance with [[Book of Exodus|Exodus]] 3:5 (in which [[Moses]], while viewing the [[burning bush]], was commanded to remove his shoes while standing on holy ground). Furthermore, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church upholds a form of [[Sabbatarianism]], observing the [[Sabbath in Christianity|seventh-day Sabbath]] (Saturday), in addition to the [[Lord's Day]] (Sunday),<ref name="Binns2016">{{cite book|last= Binns|first= John|title= The Orthodox Church of Ethiopia: A History|date= 28 November 2016|publisher= I.B.Tauris|language= en|isbn= 9781786720375|page= 58|quote= The king presided, overruled the bishops who were committed to the more usual position that Sunday only was a holy day, and decreed that the Sabbatarian teaching of the northern monks became the position of the church.}}</ref> although more emphasis, because of the [[Resurrection]] of Christ, is laid upon Sunday.

The Ethiopian Church does not call for circumcision, yet it is a cultural practice.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://britishorthodox.org/glastonburyreview/issue-122-circumcision-and-the-copts/ | title=Issue 122 – Circumcision and the Copts &#124; the British Orthodox Church }}</ref> It is not regarded as being necessary to salvation.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.keraneyo-medhanealem.com/post/gizret-%E1%8C%8D%E1%8B%9D%E1%88%A8%E1%89%B5-circumcision | title=Gizret - ግዝረት &#91;Circumcision&#93; | date=9 January 2022 }}</ref> The liturgy explicitly mentions, "let us not be circumcised like the Jews."

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church prescribes several kinds of [[hand washing]] and traditionally follow rituals that are similar to Jewish [[Handwashing in Judaism|netilat yadayim]], for example after leaving the latrine, lavatory or bathhouse, or before prayer, or after eating a meal.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pwtw.pl/wp-content/uploads/wst/12-2/Pedersen.pdf |title=IS THE CHURCH OF ETHIOPIA A JUDAIC CHURCH ? |access-date=2022-10-08 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304115645/http://pwtw.pl/wp-content/uploads/wst/12-2/Pedersen.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Ethiopian Orthodox Church observes days of [[ritual purification]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=[[Ian Bradley]] |title=Water: A Spiritual History |date=2 November 2012 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-4411-6767-5 |language=English|quote=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last= H. Bulzacchelli|first=Richard|title=Judged by the Law of Freedom: A History of the Faith-works Controversy, and a Resolution in the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas|publisher=[[University Press of America]]|year=2006|isbn=9780761835011|pages=19|quote=The Ethiopian and Coptic Churches distinguishes between clean and unclean meats, observes days of ritual purification, and keeps a kind of dual Sabbath on both Saturday and Sunday.}}</ref> People who are ritually unclean may approach the church but are not permitted to enter it; they instead stand near the church door and [[Christian prayer|pray]] during the liturgy.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pedersen |first1=Kristen Stoffregen |title=Is the Church of Ethiopia a Judaic Church? |journal=Warszawskie Studia Teologiczne |date=1999 |volume=XII |issue=2 |pages=205–206 |language=en}}</ref>

Rugare Rukuni and Erna Oliver identify the Nine Saints as [[Jewish Christians]], and attribute the Judaic character of Ethiopian Christianity, in part, to their influence.<ref name="RukuniOliver">{{Cite journal | first1=Rugare | last1=Rukuni | first2=Erna | last2=Oliver | title=Ethiopian Christianity: A continuum of African Early Christian polities | url=https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v75i1.5335 | journal=Hervormde Teologiese Studies | volume=75 | issue=1 | date=January 2019 | pages=1–9 | doi=10.4102/hts.v75i1.5335}}</ref>{{Rp|6, 8}}