The Rastafarian Movement

[GammaRay]

Rasta hair, smoking marijuana, listening to reggae, calling God Jah and believing that Haile Selassie I was an second incarnation of Christ.
Apart from all those weird stuff, do you think that Rastafarians have been influenced by Oriental Orthodoxy?

Maybe someone from Ethiopia could help.

[John of the North]

Well, I wouldn't necessarily call that stuff weird, I would say at least some of them have been influenced by Orthodoxy.

[Irish Hermit]

Have you seen the article by Norman Reddington?  It is from an Orthodox perspective.  There are many copies of it on the Web but this is the original.  Others tend to be altered and shortened.


A SKETCH OF RASTAFARI HISTORY
by Norman Hugh Redington (1995)

http://www.voskrese.info/spl/rasta-hist.html

[Salpy]

The founders of the movement were actually Protestant.

That being said, I think many Rastas are drawn to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church because His Imperial Majesty was a devout member of that Church.

You have to be careful about making generalizations about them.  Not all Rastas smoke marijuana.  Not all of them worship His Imperial Majesty, or consider him divine.  Many are Orthodox Christians who just hold him in high esteem.

I know very little about this movement, but my understanding is that there are different Rastafarian "houses."  One house is called "Fulfilled Rastafari," and I think they reject the belief that His Imperial Majesty was divine, and instead worship only the Holy Trinity.  I think Bob Marley was a Fulfilled Rastafari at the end of his life.

I am sure Gebre Menfes Kidus can tell us more, as well as correct any mistakes I may have made above. 

[Michael L]

The Road to Emmaus Journal had an article about a Rastas conversion to Oriental Orthodoxy.

http://www.roadtoemmaus.net/back_issue_articles/RTE_27/Songs_of_Freedom.pdf

[Alveus Lacuna]

The Road to Emmaus Journal had an article about a Rastas conversion to Oriental Orthodoxy. http://www.roadtoemmaus.net/back_issue_articles/RTE_27/Songs_of_Freedom.pdf

Actually, he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, specifically the same Serbian parish that I attend.  He is a wonderful man!

[Salpy]

The Road to Emmaus Journal had an article about a Rastas conversion to Oriental Orthodoxy. http://www.roadtoemmaus.net/back_issue_articles/RTE_27/Songs_of_Freedom.pdf

Actually, he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, specifically the same Serbian parish that I attend.  He is a wonderful man!

He sounds like a wonderful guy.  So tell him about OC.net and invite him to post here!   

[Michał]

. . .do you think that Rastafarians have been influenced by Oriental Orthodoxy?

Definitely. Here you can download a short video of a Liturgy held in an Ethiopian Orthodox church in Kingston, Jamaica, on Bob Marley's birthday: http://rapidshare.com/files/156625448/EOTC.AVI.html - a lot of Rasta people present.

The Road to Emmaus Journal had an article about a Rastas conversion to Oriental Orthodoxy.

http://www.roadtoemmaus.net/back_issue_articles/RTE_27/Songs_of_Freedom.pdf

Here is another interview with Michael Wilson: http://audio.ancientfaith.com/illuminedheart/ih_michaelwilson_pc.mp3

Have you seen the article by Norman Reddington?  It is from an Orthodox perspective.  There are many copies of it on the Web but this is the original.  Others tend to be altered and shortened.



A SKETCH OF RASTAFARI HISTORY
by Norman Hugh Redington (1995)

http://www.voskrese.info/spl/rasta-hist.html

Other essays and articles by Norman Redington:
1. http://i41.tinypic.com/23uvc0.jpg
2. http://nomadfx.com/old/rasta2.html
3. http://groups.google.pl/group/rec.music.reggae/browse_thread/thread/8e85d9479904fe45/?pli=1
4. http://hem.passagen.se/ielbo/wail/wailerhu.htm

In the text number 1, the author calls HIM Haile Selassie I (who was a pious Orthodox Christian monarch and holy passion-bearer) an icon of Christ. This title is hard to deny, especially when we have a chance to see a 6th century Christ Pantocrator icon from the St. Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, on which our Lord looks exactly like Emperor Haile Selassie:


Other icons connected with the Rastafari movement:
1. An Ethiopian icon of Christ wearing dreadlocks:

2. A "digital" icon of Christ and Haile Selassie:

3. The Icon of the Black Madonna of Poland (the late Mikey Dread, a reggae musician, wrote a song dedicated - or, rather, livicated - to it); below some examples of using this icon in a Rastafarin context:

[GammaRay]

Gee, I didn't expect to learn so much in one day.
Hehe, thanks a lot!

By the way, Christian reggae is very nice. I also like dreadlocks a little bit.

[simplygermain]

All good stuff... although I have heard from a very studied and scholarly priest that the "Black Madonna" icon darkened with age as with many other icons from that day and age-painted in the same region. 

[LBK]

All good stuff... although I have heard from a very studied and scholarly priest that the "Black Madonna" icon darkened with age as with many other icons from that day and age-painted in the same region. 

The "Black Madonna" is so because of the type of varnish used as a top coat. Olifa varnish darkens slowly over a few decades, and particularly so in the presence of oil lamps and candles. Also, many ancient icons (both Byzantine and Slavic) used pigments which may not have been entirely realistic in rendering skin tones. Skin tones in Byzantine icons in particular often were in shades of bronze, because of the prevailing availability of pigments, and an attempt to show the subject as "not of this world". To argue that the Black Madonna is supposed to represent someone of African or other dark-skinned racial type is simply wrong.

[simplygermain]

Olifa varish huh - Sounds like SPF-5. I need a tan. 

[AmdeBirhan]

MICHAL- THats a great painting by Rani Carson, I met her thru Fulfilled Rastafari in NewYork, we did a color study together! 

My Jamaican-born EOTC Priest says the same, that HIM Haile Sellassie I is an ICON of Christ.
That 6th Century Icon is truly amazing resemblance of Haile Sellassie I!

Our Meriegieta tells of parish in Jamaica where some rasta proclaimed they were baptised in His Majesty's name, and how a fight broke out when the priests told them it was not so!

I am an Orthodox Christian, and yet I still consider myself a Rastaman.  I sought after His Majesty and He led me to the EOTC where I was baptised AmdeBirhan over 3 yrs ago.  I know Christ is God, and that His Majesty served Him in the FULLness.  Many Rasta have come past the fleshly thinking of God being the Emperor (or vice versa) and have come to 'overstand' the Holy Trinity due to following the teachings of His Majesty and recieving this great Faith through the late great Abuna Yesehaq, whom he sent for us in the west.

We will commemorate Haile Sellassie's (July 23) and Abuna Yesehaq's (7/27) birthdays in our congregation - in the park, not in church- on the 25th of July, here in New Jersey.

God Bless them both, with all the Faithful servants of our Lord.
AMDE

[AmdeBirhan]

I heard from my neighbor, who is Polish, and gave me the icon, that the Black Maddonna, 'Our Lady of Chestychowa (spelling???)' beacame darkened due to a fire in the church.  I told her 'I dont believe that, they were African!"  she agreed.

[LBK]

I told her 'I dont believe that, they were African!"  she agreed.

I'm sorry, but this is simply wrong, Amde.

[AmdeBirhan]

I should be the one who is sorry if I misrepresent our Lord's natural identity, but that is what I said then, probably around three years ago.  I have seen Eyesus Kristos represented as many nationalities, and also retain some influence regarding the original man, that Adam was Dark-skinned, BLACK being the fullness of color, and that all races ie color, come out of one man.
   The point I was making, is there are different explainations as to WHY the ICON is of a Dark-Skinned CHrist and Mary.  Is it so hard for ones to believe they WERE Dark-Skinned? 
           -by the way, I am not so dark myself, rather LIGHT.

[simplygermain]

AmdeBirhan - Greetings to you in the Name of the Lord,
May His Majesty Haile Selassie I the 111 bless and pray for you to our Heavenly Father, the unimaginable Holy Trinity, that your path is made straight all the days of your life and that your children's children will be blessed by your shining example of Humility and Respect for our Lord. Amen +++
I pray that others will see the light within the Rasta-Culture and find our True Savior whom His Majesty has professed as Christ Jesus our Lord.

[Michał Kalina]

I heard from my neighbor, who is Polish, and gave me the icon, that the Black Maddonna, 'Our Lady of Chestychowa (spelling???)' beacame darkened due to a fire in the church.  I told her 'I dont believe that, they were African!"  she agreed.

Częstochowa (Tchen-sto-kho-va)

I read somewhera that it darkened due to candle smoke.

[simplygermain]

Please read LBK's reply on #10

[Michał Kalina]

Please read LBK's reply on #10

I'm sorry. I forgot about it.

[Andrew21091]

Post removed

[AmdeBirhan]

AmdeBirhan - Greetings to you in the Name of the Lord,
May His Majesty Haile Selassie I the 111 bless and pray for you to our Heavenly Father, the unimaginable Holy Trinity, that your path is made straight all the days of your life and that your children's children will be blessed by your shining example of Humility and Respect for our Lord. Amen +++
I pray that others will see the light within the Rasta-Culture and find our True Savior whom His Majesty has professed as Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks!
  May Our Beloved Last EMperor plead Our Lord to raise up true examples for us to join us in our struggles for Truth and Light to dispell the cloud of ignorance and indifference that casts its ugly shadow on the majority of mankind, and to bring the True KNowledge of Our Lord and God to our brothers and sisters in the Rastafari movement and establish them in the RIghteousness of God, and not their own 'form of righteousness' (ROm 10).
    One adversary to the truth and a decietful worker of dillusion I knew of, who actually said that Bob Marley was CHristos Himself!!!  upon reaching Ethiopia was hit by the Light of Truth and his delusion was corrected, he at once called a common relation of ours apologizing in admission!  Quite an example of the converting power of Our Lord in His Great Orthodox Church, wonderfully preserved in Ethiopian Tradition. 
Hold Fast that which thou hast!

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