"Unity is not being in unison, but, with all the differences we have, it’s to come with one purpose – for the glory of God,” says Dawit Getachew Abraham, a band leader and musician who has played in worship sessions at Mennonite World Conference gatherings.

As the global church walks together in the Holy Spirit, “Harmony is one of the biggest lessons; there are different roles but one purpose,” he says.

Dawit Getachew Abraham coordinated the worship band who lead in song at Mennonite World Conference’s Renewal 2027 event and General Council meetings in Kenya in 2018. He was also a member of the music team at Assembly 16 in Pennsylvania, USA in 2015.

He writes and arranges music to express diversity. In Ethiopia, traditional music is based on rhythm and a pentatonic scale – and every band has a saxophone – so he incorporates these elements even when playing popular worship songs from the West.

“I’m so happy the General Council came to East Africa,” says Dawit Getachew Abraham. “It allowed us to come as a band, and it gives us a comfortable feeling like I know them.”

Music ministry

Besides playing in Meserete Kristos Church (Mennonite church in Ethiopia) congregations nearly every Sunday and participating in gigs for other ministries, Dawit Getachew Abraham also runs Heavens Echo, a music school, and Love and Care for his Little Ones, a ministry.

Through Heavens Echo, Dawit Getachew Abraham aims to support church music. The children have classes in one instrument, Bible, singing, and choreography and art. Teenagers learn an instrument, music theory and Bible. The 20-week program runs a few times a year.

Love and Care coordinates weekly visits to some 500 children in 18 orphan residences. Some 300 volunteers are drawn from church youth groups, many from MKC.

“Sharing love with them, singing and reading the word of God, playing with them, and helping them with their psychological and educational needs – we call it worship in action,” says Dawit Getachew Abraham who founded the ministry with Rahel Ashebir in 2012.

“Worship is indeed a majestic lifestyle that pervades every moment of a believer,” he writes on the “about” page of his website. “Through God's grace we are enabled to even offer our very breath as worship to the One who is the source of our life. In so doing, we are able to know him more and deepen our relationship with him,... Everything we do then; we do to the glory God.”

 —A Mennonite World Conference release by Karla Braun