Jamaica: Prime Minister's son baptized into Ethiopian Orthodox Church

[biro]

Steven Golding, son of Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding, has received a new name in keeping with his baptism into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Golding took the name Gebre Selassie. He was baptized at a church in Gondar, Ethiopia.  :angel: Many years!

From the article:

The baptism, Golding explained, occurred while on a month-long tour of the African continent which also took him to Kenya and Tanzania.

"I have long been a friend of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Particularly because it's an African church that came to us not through colonisation, not through slavery, not through racial oppression, but an African King sent that church here for us as Jamaicans to have a better understanding of that aspect of his culture because we have been raising his name to such high standards the world over."

 

[Alpo]

Well, many years I guess. It's a little silly to convert to an alien religion from the other side of the Globe just because of alleged cultural ties but then again people tend to be silly beings.

 

[podkarpatska]

^ I don't know...reading the whole article it seems as if the young man laid out valid reasons for his decision. God works in strange ways. Many years!

 

[Michał]

Well, many years I guess. It's a little silly to convert to an alien religion from the other side of the Globe just because of alleged cultural ties but then again people tend to be silly beings.

For contemporary Jamaicans, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is no longer an alien religion from the other side of the Globe, but just one of numerous Christian denominations present on Jamaica (it landed there in the 1970s).

 

[Irish Hermit]

A SKETCH OF RASTAFARI HISTORY

http://www.nomadfx.com/old/rasta1.html


by Norman Hugh Redington, Editor
The St. Pachomius Orthodox Library

INTRODUCTION: The spread of Orthodox Christianity in the New World has occurred mainly as a result of immigration from Eastern Europe. There are two regions, however, where this is not the case: Alaska and the Caribbean. The story of the conversion of the Aleut, Tlingit, and Yupik nations in Alaska has often been told; by contrast, that of the yet more improbable emergence of Ethiopian churches in Jamaica is little known. My hope is that this little tract will inspire someone with greater knowledge to study the subject properly; if it also leads to a deeper respect and understanding between mainstream Christians and the often-maligned brethren in Jamaica, may the Lord be praised. N.Redington, 1995

 

[ialmisry]

Glory to God!

Btw, Orthodoxy in Jamaica dates back over a century
http://orthodoxhistory.org/tag/jamaica/

 

[Alpo]

^ I don't know...reading the whole article it seems as if the young man laid out valid reasons for his decision. God works in strange ways. Many years!

I'm not saying that Gabre shouldn't have converted or that this wasn't a work of God. For me it only seemed that according to that article he converted to the Ethiopian church because she has never oppressed black people and because she is a genuinely African church. I deem those as understandable but still silly reasons to convert to any religion.

Of course I might read that article carelessly or that article might present his reasons for conversion deficiently.

Well, many years I guess. It's a little silly to convert to an alien religion from the other side of the Globe just because of alleged cultural ties but then again people tend to be silly beings.

For contemporary Jamaicans, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is no longer an alien religion from the other side of the Globe, but just one of numerous Christian denominations present on Jamaica (it landed there in the 1970s).

That doesn't proof anything. Orthodoxy has been in Finland even for hundreds of years and it still is rather alien phenomenon to many Finns.

 

[podkarpatska]

^ I don't know...reading the whole article it seems as if the young man laid out valid reasons for his decision. God works in strange ways. Many years!

I'm not saying that Gabre shouldn't have converted or that this wasn't a work of God. For me it only seemed that according to that article he converted to the Ethiopian church because she has never oppressed black people and because she is a genuinely African church. I deem those as understandable but still silly reasons to convert to any religion.

Of course I might read that article carelessly or that article might present his reasons for conversion deficiently.

Well, many years I guess. It's a little silly to convert to an alien religion from the other side of the Globe just because of alleged cultural ties but then again people tend to be silly beings.

For contemporary Jamaicans, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is no longer an alien religion from the other side of the Globe, but just one of numerous Christian denominations present on Jamaica (it landed there in the 1970s).

That doesn't proof anything. Orthodoxy has been in Finland even for hundreds of years and it still is rather alien phenomenon to many Finns.

I thank that to fully understand the article and the young man's comments, you have to layer in the experience of slavery, including the role of African Muslim slavers. They may seem less trite in that view.