Abstract:
The churches resolution to protect and conserve their heritage collections depends on the church
administrator’s knowledge and perceived advantage of conservation. This research is carried
out to examine and assess the challenges and prospects of heritage management practices in
some selected churches of Oromia regional state. To address these issues both primary and
secondary data were collected through field observations and photographing of heritage
collections, semi structured interviews and document analysis/archival research. The interviews
were carried out with selected clergies of the church, members of culture and tourism offices and
elders of the surrounding community based on their knowledge of the subject under
investigation. The collected data was analyzed by using qualitative methodology. This method
helps to examine the challenges of heritages of the study area, their prospect and role for
tourism industry. The results indicate that the Clergies and church servers who relatively
conscious of the significance of heritages and the challenges they are facing today. However, the
conservation strategy of the church is mainly focused on protection of the heritages from theft
/robbery. The culture and Tourism offices at Woreda and Zonal levels however are not playing
their part in the process. Various heritage collections were found in the study area and the study
revealed that poor management system of heritages, underdeveloped infrastructure, lack of
awareness, lack of budget and lack of skilled man power in the area of heritage management are
the major challenges. The finding points out these heritages are repository of the country’s
identity, history and wealth, so the researcher recommends that there should be professionals at
least in culture and tourism office that can supervise and guide museums or Eqa Bet at churches
at a regular basis. There should also be continuous trainings, awareness creation seminars and
promotional measures in the area of heritage preservation, conservation, maintenance and
organizing the church museum showrooms among others.
