Relevance of EOTC Institutional Set-up for Rural Development

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is one of the ancient and numerically the largest of the five Oriental Orthodox Churches: the Coptic, the Ethiopian, the Syrian, the Indian, and the Armenian. It is one of the oldest Christian Churches in Africa and is a founder member of the World Council of Churches. Besides its religious activities the Church has registered several development initiatives for the well-being of mankind and the glory of God. The human and financial resources and institutional structure and working procedures the EOTC has together with strong influence on the perception of the people in relation to the religion is important to implement the whole planned development activities in a coordinate way and utilize the human and financial resources properly. Therefore, the hard fact that initiated this assessment and studying the relevance of the institutional set up of the EOTC is purposive and awfully ignorance of this potential from both the formal and informal institutions (actors of rural development) existing in Ethiopia.