The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahido Church is one of the Oriental Orthodox churches. It was formerly a part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church of Ethiopia, its autocephaly being reluctantly recognized by the Ethiopian Patriarchate after Eritrea gained its independence in the 1993. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church had been granted autocephaly by the Coptic pope in 1950, but had no say in the autocephaly of its integral Eritrean diocese due to the appeal of the Eritrean government to the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate for Eritrean Orthodox autocephaly. Tensions were and, in some cases, are high between the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church on the one side and the Coptic Orthodox and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahido Churches on the other. Nonetheless, the three Churches remain in full communion with one another and with the other Churches of the Oriental Orthodox communion.
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