The largest Oriental Orthodox church is the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which claims between 36 million and 51 million members in Ethiopia, is one of the few Christian denominations in sub-Saharan Africa that was founded before to European colonization of the region. Its history extends back to the Christianization of the Kingdom of Aksum in 330[6]. It is one of the World Council of Churches’ founding members. The other Oriental Orthodox churches are in communion with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. From the first part of the fourth century until 1959, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was administratively a part of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Tewahedo is a Ge’ez word that means “unified” or “being made one”. This term describes the Oriental Orthodox view that there is only one composite, unified nature of Christ; that is, that it is self-evident that the divine salvation of humanity can only be achieved by the full and natural merger of the divine and human natures into one. This is in opposition to the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches’ “two natures of Christ” doctrine. The terms “non-Chalcedonian” and, occasionally, “monophysite” (referring to “One Single Nature,” a reference to Jesus Christ) are used to characterize the Oriental Orthodox Churches. But these churches label themselves miaphysite, which means “one united nature” concerning Jesus, in their Christology.
