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Life and ministry
David Stokes worked for the Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society (B.C.M.S., now Crosslinks) in Ethiopia since 1934. In Ethiopia, the Society was also known as Serawita Kristos Maheber.
Stokes was active in various fields of work, including distributing Bibles, writing study materials on New Testament scriptures and teaching at a Bible school.
He was a key person in the spiritual journeys of Meseret Sebhat Leab and Memre Sileshi Wolde Mikael. Launhardt writes (2004, p. 272):
“During his time in Fiche he met Mr. Stokes from the BCMS, and decided in 1953 to attend the BCMS Bible School. Sileshi joined that group which called itself ‘Serawite Kristos’.”
Resource person: Mesfin Lissanu (cf. Tibebe Eshete 2009, p. 350:
“He was a close personal friend of David Stokes, the missionary from the BCMS who has left a major impact on the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia. Mesfin later joined the ECMY and became one of its key leaders.”
Hymn book
“According to Wubshet [Desalegn], in the 1950s David Stokes tried to develop an indigenous hymnal known as Shumiye based on the lyrical tradition of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, but it did not attract wide attention.” (Tibebe Eshete, Evangelical Movement, p. 433, n. 14 [Profile of Wubshet on p. 363])
See (also?) the hymn book Mäzmurä bǝrhan [መዝሙረ ብርሃን, Songs of Light].Addis Ababa: Sarawita Kristos Maheber, 1955/56 (1948 AM).
View book
Pictures
See Horton and Wright 1947 (before p. 209) for a photograph of the B.C.M.S. Bible school in Addis Ababa.
Further reading
Horton, W.S., and J. Stafford Wright (1947). The First Twenty-Five Years of the Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society (1922-47). London: The Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society. [p. 109, 111-12, 145, 171, 177, 210 on Stokes]
» Read book online
Launhardt, Johannes (2004). Evangelicals in Addis Ababa (1919-1991): With special reference to the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus and the Addis Ababa Synod. (Studien zur Orientalischen Kirchengeschichte, 31). Münster: Lit Verlag.
Saeverås, Olav (1974). On Church-mission relations in Ethiopia 1944-1969: With special reference to the Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus and the Lutheran missions (Studia missionalia Upsaliensia, 27). [Oslo:] Lunde.
Stokes, David E. (1947). The powers that be: missions and national governments (Silver jubilee booklet, 9). London: Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society.
Stokes, David E. (1948). Ethiopia – Land of the Outstretched Hand (Field survey, 3). London: Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society.
Bible study material written by David Stokes
(supplied by SIMBookEthiopia and other bookshops
[see their catologue, p. 70-72]):
- የሮሜ ትርጓሜ (Romans)
- የ1ኛ ቆሮንቶስ – ትርጓሜ (1Corinthians)
- የኤፌሶን – ትርጓሜ (Ephesians)
- የዕብራውያን ትርጓሜ (Hebrews)
- የ1ኛ ጴጥሮስ ትርጓሜ (1Peter)