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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
the next night I have a dream where I am talking with the Archbishop of the Ethiopian Church, Abune Melketsedek, who was in fact Emperor Haile Selassie I's personal priest in the 1970s, and whom I met in January and received a wonderful hug, blessing and conversation with [he is apparantly a bishop of specializes in dealing with Rastafari people]. In my dream he tells me very clearly, it is time to get baptised. The next night I also dream that I am having a similar conversation with my Abba at my local parish, who tells me the same thing. so, next month when the schedule is open, I will be getting baptised into the Tewahedo Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and a council of no less then three priest will chant around, say a dozen prayers and then bestow me with a new name, different from the one I have had these past twenty four years. It feels good to embrace this new identity and become fully invested in this community which I have been working for years towards helping. I also graduate from university in Dec with a degree in Ethiopian History.
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finally ran into all the abbas together this past sunday, the Kesis looks over to the abbot sitting next to him, points to me and says three words, the abbot looks me up once, leans back over and says three words of his own, the kesis says, "how about next week?" I say "perfect"
the abbot looks at me intently, leans over and says three more words, the Kesis says, "Mem'her says how about June 15?" I say "God be praised that is even better."
June 15 is the Orthodox celebration of Pentecost, the descending of the holy spirit 50 days after the Resurrection, 10 days after the Ascension at Bethany, and is a special day to be baptized by the Church calendar.