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afrol.com, 3 November - His Holiness Abune Paulos, the Orthodox Patriarch of Ethiopia will receive this year’s Nansen Medal, UNHCR’s annual award. Abune Paulos is a renowned scholar and peace advocate and a former exile in the United States who has worked on reconciliation between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Patriarch Paulos was born 1935 and elected to office in 1992. He has made remarkable contributions to the peace and stability of the Horn since taking office. Paulos took the initiative to the series of peace meetings between all Ethiopian and Eritrean religious leaders in 1998, 1999 and 2000. The meetings were successful and all the leaders urged the two Presidents to find a solution to the Ethiopian-Eritrean war. Paulos and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church have also been specially involved in the support of war displaced and drought-hit Ethiopians, making the Church one of the major "relief organisations" in the country, alongside with the Muslim society. His peace efforts and humanitarian work probably were the key reasons for being chosen to receive the the Nansen Medal by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR). Patriarch Paulos indeed himself has been a refugee. He was imprisoned for seven years by the Menghistu dictatorship after the then Patriarch Theophilos (which was deposed in 1976 and murdered in prison in 1979) ordained him a bishop without government approval in 1975. Paulos was released in 1983 and spent the next years in the United States as a political refugee. Disputed Patriarch Ex-Patriarch Merkorios, who took refuge in Kenya, has refused to recognize the election of Paulos. Several congregations abroad have refused to recognize Paulos, leading to the emerge of Ethiopian Orthodox splitter churches, especially in North America. In an apparent attempt on the life of the Patriarch in January 1997, a monk was shot and killed in church and others were arrested. There has also been increasing accusations of misadministration, nepotism, misappropriation of funds and heresy within the church under Paulos' leadership. In general, however, Patriarch Paulos has seen the Ethiopian Orthodox Church through a time of expansion. After the collapse of Menghistu's Government, the Christian and Muslim societies, which had been persecuted and scapegoated, have been enabled to flourish. Patriarch Paulos also has enhanced the ecumenical cooperation of his Church, leading to a positive collaboration with the Muslim Society of Ethiopia. While the Ethiopian Orthodox Church usually sees itself as the bearer of Ethiopian tradition and society, only an estimated 50% of Ethiopian belong to the church. The Muslim Society is almost equal in size. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church The Ethiopian Orthodoxy has its own version of the Christian Holy Book. The Ge'ez version of the Holy Bible is differs from others by embracing books that were lost in the Western (Catholic/Eastern Orthodox/Lutheran) Bible. These include the books of Enoch, Jubilee, the book of Esdra Sutu'el and Ascension of Isaiah, which are peculiar to the Ge'ez version. The Nansen Medal Almost one and a half century before, Fridtjof Nansen was born just some miles outside the Norwegian capital. Nansen became a famous Norwegian polar explorer and humanitarian, the first League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the winner of the 1922 Nobel Prize for Peace. The Nansen Medal Award was launched in 1955 by the UNHCR. The other winners of this years Nansen medal are Dr. Lao Mong Hay, a leading Cambodian intellectual and pro-democracy activist; Jelena Silajdzic, a Bosnian film producer and refugee advocate; and Argentine virtuoso pianist, Miguel Angel Estrella, a former victim of the Argentine junta exiled to Paris.
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