Amen Ethiopia Pilgrims in Cairo, Egypt.

Meeting with Drs. Cornelis Hulsman Editor-in-Chief Arab-West Report and Director of Center for Intercultural Dialogue and Translations.

The Arab-West Report and The Center for Intercultural Dialogue and Translations works mainly on providing independent, objective and contextualized documentation, reporting, interpretation, analysis, and commentary on cultural, social, and religious issues concerning the Arab world and the West. This Center, like many people living in Egypt, feels that issues affecting Egyptian society are often distorted or misrepresented in Western media. They believe that the distortions are linked to selectivity in taking materials from the Arab media by which there tends to be a focus on angry or radical statements or incidents and also lack of background knowledge of the social and cultural factors that affect Egyptian society. During a short visit to their office they very much encouraged the Amen Ethiopia vision and stressed the importance of dialogue and exchange of accurate information in any society. In addition to that they also expressed their willingness to work together with Amen Ethiopia if the need arises in the future.


A visit to H.E. Sheik Alazar the highest religious leader of Islam in Cairo, Egypt.

It was around 2:00 pm when we arrived at the beautiful building that looked like an open book when you look at it from outside. A lady told us that the shape of the open book is to show openness and tolerance for others. By the time we got there, Sheik Alazar already has received about 6 groups of visitors before us so we were grateful that he was still smiling when we met him. He said he welcomes all those who work for peace and love stating that Muslims and Christians are ‘brothers in humanity’. He also said that he is completely with us in the effort we make to make Ethiopians in peace with their brothers. He stated that nobody should be forced to have one religion, if anybody is forced it will not be sincere and stressed that being from different religion does not mean that you can’t cooperate to bring peace for the country. He expressed his wish for success in the effort the pilgrims of Amen Ethiopia are making saying that He would like to see all Ethiopians Muslims or Christians to be the best brothers and sent his greetings to all.


Amen Ethiopia Pilgrims at WATANI International Cairo, Egypt.

We had a very interesting meeting with the Managing Editor Samia Sidhom and a couple of journalists from WATANI International, Egyptian Sunday newspaper in Cairo. Like typical journalists the WATANI staff was full of questions for us about the nature of the group and objectives of Amen Ethiopia. Among other things they informed us that in the Egyptian Coptic calendar it is now 1723 and asked about the origin of the Ethiopian calendar and it’s relation to the Egyptian one. Speaking from her experience in Egypt, Samia Sidhom expressed her concern about the challenges of promoting continuous constructive communication between people in the Diasporas and the ones living in the motherland. She stressed the importance of dialogue as the first step in doing productive work saying “dialogue continues all the time” and also encouraged us to work hard to see the fruit of the dialogue we are trying to promote. Hand in hand we sang the Amen Ethiopia song and exchanged very practical and useful information. I must say that we really had a good time with this group.


Members of the Amen Ethiopia Pilgrims with Abba Gebre Meskel, an Ethiopian Orthodox priest in Cairo.

Abba Gebre Meskel expressed his sadness to the members of the pilgrims that the world is becoming more destructive in trying to control nature and that it’s forgetting the value of spirituality. He expressed his appreciation of the initiatives Amen Ethiopia is taking and encouraged the Amen Ethiopia pilgrims to focus on God’s way and continuous prayer. He gave his blessings and promised to keep us in his prayer.


Visiting the Monastery of Debre Kuskwam (Deir El Moharic).

This monastery which is also known as the second Jerusalem in Egypt is found 60 km away from the city of Ashud. According to Abuna Fem, the monastery was called the second Jerusalem because it was the only place the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph stayed for 6 months away from home and also in connection to Isaiah 19 from the holy bible. This place is special for Ethiopians to visit said Abuna Fem, because it is believed that back in the old days, the Ethiopian empress Mintewab during her visit to Jerusalem stopped by this place, took some pieces of the earth and built a church in Gondar and named it Debre kuskwam which is still present to this day.

A short visit with Bishop --------in Asyut.
Even though we stayed with this down to earth, very kind Bishop for only a couple of hours, we were very inspired by his hospitality and fatherly attention he gave us. A hot meal, a nice cold shower in this sticky hot summer weather and a clean bed was exactly what we needed after hours and hours of driving through the desert road. On his way to a prior commitment he had, he told us to feel at home and ask for anything we might need and with his hand on his heart wished us all the best and told us that we are welcome to his place anytime.

Amen Ethiopia Pilgrims visiting the United Nations in Geneva. During our short stay in Geneva, we visited the UN in addition to an Ethiopian Orthodox Church, The Red Cross and The World Church Council.