The “tabot”, which is sacred to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, has been the subject of repeated calls for repatriation, including by a former Archbishop of Canterbury, but campaigns have made little headway until now.
But David Hoyle, the Dean of Westminster, has now agreed “in principle” that the tabot should be returned after a period of consultation with the Royal household.
The Abbey is a “Royal Peculiar” outside the control of the Church of England and technically under King Charles’s jurisdiction.
The decision follows lengthy talks with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and a 2018 request by the country’s government for the tabot to be returned after being looted by British forces in 1868.
The Abbey has previously taken a hard line on the future of the artefact – at one point even refusing visiting Ethiopian clerics the opportunity to see it – but now says it is in “helpful and positive conversations with the various interested parties”.
