Building of St John the Baptist Ethiopian Church

My name is "The Preacher of Nineveh of Ethiopians", born as Youhannes Rutty. I became a Deacon in the Ethiopian church in 1994, ordained by the late Archbishop Yesehaq, at 9 years old. Archbishop Yesehaq established many of the Ethiopian churches in the USA during his 26 years as on the Episcopal throne.



In 1996, the Faithful of the USA and Canada were visited by a well known preacher, Bahitawi Gebre Mesqel, who was invited by Archbishop Yesehaq, to come and do a preaching tour of the churches in the continent of North America.

In 1996 Bahitawi Gebre Mesqel instructed the faithful of the USA to gather and pray in the tabot of St John the Baptist, for salvation, and for protection from natural disasters. In the Ethiopian Christian order, to pray with or in the spiritual use/protection of a tabot, means to establish a branch of that church, and keep that saint's holy day with great procession of the tabot, liturgy and chanting of hymns. The desire of the Holy Spirit is that a land should be purchased containing a house on its west side, within one hour of the city, on the borders of NY and NJ, or outside Boston Metro, where we would use the house as a meeting/multipurpose hall, build a freestanding temple starting from the meqdes(altar) in the center of the land, and also a freestanding Bethlehem kitchen in the east of the property where the Holy Communion would be made. It would be the first church of it's kind in the Western Hemisphere.  May the prayers of St. John be with us and enable us to build his church. Amen!