Documentation & Preservation

It is true that certain men of genius that human history has ever known were born and die before their time. Their work, their innovations, their ideals are to be fully appreciated much latter than the time they lived. In this line some of the ideals of Gudina that were brought to the attention of his church through his papers in the early 1970s were to be appreciated and taken up on the effective ministry of the Church as late as the close of the 1980s. These have clearly shown that there is much to be explored yet in his various sermons, documents, memorandums, communiqués, and speeches he made at his national as well as international appearances.

In one of the letters the EECMY received in June 1992 from a sister Church abroad on condolences of the assassination of Gudina his prophetic nature is indicated:

It reads,

“His prophetic message to his Church in the time when many had to suffer

because of their faith in Christ is retained as a testimony to Christians of all nations.”

In a similar letter a certain Church leader in Scandinavian has the following to say to the same effect,

“... words of him are still echoing in mission circles in western countries and we are indeed learning from him and his teachings.”

Several other letters that were streamed to the office from various Christian churches around the world at the official announcement of the fate of Gudina have much more to tell about him and his works.

His exemplary life as well as his works have challenged several thinkers and Church leaders in the global Lutheran communities. When seeking to gain a deeper understanding on the works and thinking of this extra-ordinary man one is lead to raise certain questions. GTF, through the Documentation and Preservation Project, has been working to address the following questions.

How did his young Evangelical Church manage to grow popular in a rather hostile environment under his leadership?

How did he manage to bring together the denominational Churches with historical enemity and establish the Council for Cooperation of Churches in Ethiopia?

What were the basis for his argument to seek dialogue with Islam and other religions?

How did he view the danger in one-dimensional development from the perspective of his contextual milieu, which he in one of his writings describes as the cause to ecological or environmental crises in the form of physical and mental pollution?

What documents did he use to provoke the general assemblies of his Church to convince and get their approval as to which line the Church should pursue to remain an effective evangelizing body of the gospel of Christ?

How did he help his Church to linger on when the atheistic communist dictator posed challenges to the honest ministry of his church thereby threatening it on various pseudo pretext which followed sever measures at several times?

What determined measures did he take to assist monotheistic religious communities in the country in their resistance against atheism?

As a genuine Church leader what factors brought him to a target of dictatorial abduction and assassination?

How was he influenced by the time in which he lived and what sort of person was he?

What accomplishment, discourse, thesis and memorandums proved him the backbone of the Ethiopian Lutheran Churches and won him prominence internationally?

The Berlin Mission of Germany has been among the initiators and supporters of the project. In the past few years the project has managed to collect quite a number of significant documents which were classified into four volumes, of which three have already been edited and await the final approval of the Rev. Paul Hoffman who has been serving as the editor in chief of the steering committee of the Documentation Project. Efforts to raise funds to cover the publication cost are underway. The documents to be published are entitled: Vol. I Gudina Tumsa: For the Gospel and the Church; Vol. II Gudina Tumsa: Ministry to the Whole Person; Vol. III Gudina Tumsa: The Initial Response to Revolution; Vol.IV Gudina Tumsa: “The Life of the Christian is a Life of Witness to the Risen Lord.” In the mean time the Documentation Project is working to launch a missiological seminar on the life and ministry of the Reverend Gudina Tumsa. The seminar is planned to take place during the first week of April in year 2001. Seven Speakers from overseas and two local speakers have been invited to the seminar. The aim of the seminar is to kindle some of the theological, political, economical and social issues that Gudina Tumsa introduced to his church which have played an important role in shaping the direction of the church. GTF is convinced that such a seminar will create a forum where national and international scholars, church historians, experts on related fields and interested individuals meet to revive and discuss Gudina Tumsa’s rationales and to publish the proceeds of the seminar in order to make them accessible to a wider public.

The Coming Up V Volumes