This thesis offers a novel interpretation of 1 Cor 11:2–16 in light of the Roman ritual practice of capite velato—a custom of covering the head with a garment during prayer, sacrifice, and divination. It traces linguistic and conceptual links between ancient descriptions and depictions of capite velato and 1 Cor 11:2–16, and demonstrates that this ritual gesture must have been familiar to Paul and his Corinthian interlocutors. With the aid of cognitive science of religion, this thesis explores the possible reasons for and implications of Paul's instructions on this Roman custom in First Corinthians. It argues that 1 Cor 11:2–16 preserves a clash of values between Paul and his addressees in regards to the correct procedure and efficacy of prayer and accessing of divine knowledge: some in Corinth had begun to argue that for the sake of uniformity, all members of the Christ association, including married women of all cultures, should strip their heads of everything when in prayer or when seeking divine knowledge to match the appearance of Roman men whom Paul had asked not to pray with garments over the head. In response to this, Paul found a way to argue that praying with a garment over the head is only shameful for men, but the same does not apply for women, and so women can keep their head-coverings and hair accessories on during prayer and prophecy. While these instructions may have been intelligible to the original readers, later interpreters of Paul, who had no knowledge of the Sitz im Leben that prompted 1 Cor 11:2–16, misunderstood and misappropriated Paul's instructions in this passage, mistakenly believing Paul to have been solely concerned with a faction of rebellious women in the Corinthian congregation. These assumptions have dominated the readings of 1 Cor 11:2–16, but this thesis offers an alternative interpretation that builds on a more accurate understanding of ancient customs and ideals related to ritual head-coverings.

The thesis attends to ecclesial matters of aid by analysing the ecclesiological problem of identity and meaning of ACT Alliance. African churches are participating in aid, and Ethiopia is a good case with its intensity of church-based aid work. ACT Alliance was an ecumenical initiative to act in solidarity with people in need through coordination and collaboration. ACT, i.e. Action by Churches Together, expresses the churches growing together in koinonia. In theory, this ecclesiologically informed idea was conceptualised as ecumenical diakonia. Christian aid agencies may suffer a mission drift and loss of identity causing inner secularisation in the churches thus endangering Christian commitment to the poor.

Tensions in the study signify an ambiguity that this thesis investigates through the case of the ETH141 ACT Appeal to support South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia in 2014 with two churches in Ethiopia shedding light on the issue. The ACT forum failed to attract church funding and mobilised state funding by a consortium with a principled humanitarian approach appropriate for refugee assistance.

The Maedot of 1983 from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and the ECMY letter of 1972 from the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus supported integral human development while criticising a donor-based approach, based on a sense of Ethiopian ownership, Christian anthropology, and the gospel.

The ETH141 resembles an international crisis model, i.e. relief assistance by ecumenical specialised agencies coordinating with other stakeholders without being: integrated with the churches, intended as intra-church aid, or set up for Christian mission. Tensions indicate superficial conflict but deep concord between aid and church, and deep conflict between exclusive humanism and the churches’ mission to reach every person with the gospel and life of the church.