The line of contested leadership is long. Patriarch Abune Theophilos was arrested by the Derg in 1976 and secretly executed in 1979; Alexandria refused to recognise his replacement, and formal relations with the Coptic church lapsed until 2007. Patriarch Merkorios was pushed out in 1991 when the EPRDF took Addis Ababa, and for twenty-seven years there were two patriarchs, one in exile in the United States, until a reconciliation brokered under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in July 2018 recognised both. In January 2023 three bishops consecrated twenty-six new bishops for a self-declared synod in Oromia, arguing that the church discriminates against Oromo-speaking clergy; parishioners were shot dead at Shashemene in the disputes that followed, and the schism was formally settled in February 2023 with the grievances intact.