Archbishop Isaac Mandefro
Ge'ez YESEHAQ
XX/XXI Centuries
Abba Laike Mandefro, later called Abuna Yesehaq, was
head of the
Ethiopian Orthodox missionary outreach
in
Jamaica established by
Emperor Haile Selassie I
in response to the
Ras Tafari movement. A monk of
Debra Libanos,
he arrived in the West Indies from Africa in 1970 and initiated
an extraordinary period of evangelisation and
conversion. (Among those whom he baptised
was the reggae star Bob Marley).
He also undertook missionary journeys
throughout the Western world and in 1979 was made
Primate of the Church of Ethiopia in the Western Hemisphere.
After the fall of the Communist regime he found himself
at odds with the Patriarch of Addis Ababa, with whom
I understand he eventually broke communion.
Norman Hugh Redington
Under construction --- far from complete! Read with caution.
- ABOUT:
- WORKS:
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The Ethiopian Tewahedo Church.
Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Bronx, no date.
In the late XX Century this was probably
the single most useful and informative reference
book about the Church of Ethiopia available in English,
despite being privately published, hard to find,
eccentrically organised, and illustrated in part with
unbearably
gruesome photographs of Italian wartime atrocities.
Excerpts from the book.
--- EOTC
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