Priest Urges Return of Sacred Ethiopian Objects
LONDON--The Scottish priest who last year found a tabot--an Ethiopian sacred wooden tablet--in his church and returned it to representatives of the Ethiopian Church has become the chairman of a new group formed to press for the return to Ethiopian sacred objects.
The loot, among many objects taken from the country as war booty, was taken after the defeat by British troops in 1868 of Emperor Theodore at his mountain stronghold of Magdala. Fifteen elephants and 200 mules were needed to carry it away, according to scholars.
It was apparently auctioned off, with the proceeds used to pay the troops.
That was how a Scottish officer who had served at Magdala was able to give the tabot he had acquired to Edinburgh’s Episcopal Church of St. John, where the present rector, the Rev. John McLuckie, discovered it. In January it was given to a delegation led by Archbishop Isaias and including the Ethiopian ambassador to the United Kingdom.
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