Meserete Kristos Church, Ethiopia

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Group's Name
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Location	Group's Location(City, State, Country if an individual congregation/Country if a conference)
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Date Established	Date Established
Presiding Officer	Group's presiding officer
MWC Affiliated?	Is the group associated with Mennonite World Conference?
Number of Congregations	Number of Congregations
Membership	Group's membership

The Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) is the primary Anabaptist-related group in Ethiopia. In 2009 the MKC had 484 congregations and 172,299 members.

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Origins

The Meserete Kristos Church grew out of work in 1948 by Mennonite Central Committee and Eastern Mennonite Mission. In 1982, the Marxist government confiscated all of Meserete Kristos' offices, worship buildings, bank accounts and physical property. The Meserete Kristos Church officially ceased to exist; however, the democratization process in 1992 initiated by the new government allowed the church to reemerge and obtain some of their lost property. This ten year period of underground activity didn't serve its intended purpose of decreasing church attendance, but rather signified a boom in church membership as numbers rose from 5,000 to 34,000 people.

Annotated Bibliography

• Muktar, Bedru H. "Non-formal Theological Education: The Meserete Kristos Church Experience." Mission Focus 5 (1997): 23-46.

This article seeks to illustrate the incredible growth rates Meserete Kristos Church has experienced throughout the last few decades and how they have implemented a non-formal theological education program in order to accommodate this growth and expansion. Not only are their education programs constantly reevaluated, but administrative structures are also reorganized to meet the growing needs of the church.