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His Eminence Archbishop '''Yesehaq (Mandefro) of the Western Hemisphere''', also '''Abuna Yesehaq''' or '''Father Isaac''' (born '''Laike Maryam Mandefro''' in 1933 in [[w:Adwa|Adwa]], Ethiopia - died December 29, 2005 in Newark, New Jersey), was a leader of the [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church]] in the Western Hemisphere, who split his congregations in the Americas from the mother church in Addis Ababa during the political upheaval in Ethiopia in the early 1990's. He was credited with forming more than 70 congregations, with more than 300,000 members throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere.<ref name="NY TIMES">Wolfgang Saxon. ''[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/nyregion/08yesehaq.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Abuna Yesehaq Mandefro, Ethiopian Archbishop, 72, Dies].'' NY Times (Obituary). January 8, 2006.</ref>
Archbishop Yesehaq was also the [[hierarch]] who [[Baptism|baptized]] Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician [[w:Bob Marley|Bob Marley]] (†1981) into the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Kingston, Jamaica, on [[November 4]], 1980.<refname=AYBBM>''"[http://www.jamaicans.com/culture/rasta/interview_AbundaYesehaq.shtml Interviews with Abunda Yesehaq who Baptised Bob Marley]".'' Jamaicans.com. May 21, 2003.</ref><refname=BMBC>''"[http://www.jamaicans.com/culture/rasta/ethiopian_church.shtml The Ethiopian Orthodox Church & Bob Marley's Baptism And The Church]".'' Jamaicans.com. May 21, 2003.</ref>
==Biography==
:* ''[http://kidanemeheretchurch.org/history.html Ethiopian Tewahedo Kidane Meheret Church].'' Denver, Colorado. Retrieved: 2012-04-14.</ref> and appointed their own Patriarch over the Church, did the requirement become enforced for prospective baptisees in Jamaica to renounce his divinity and cut their dreadlocks.
In 1979 he received the title ''"Archbishop Yesehaq of the Western Hemisphere and South Africa"''.<ref name="NY TIMES"/> Abba Mandefro founded many Oriental Orthodox Churches throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere, being credited with forming more than 70 congregations, with more than 300,000 members, many of them in the Caribbean. ===Bob Marley's Baptism in Ethiopian Orthodox Church===In a November 25, 1984 newspaper interview with Archbishop Abuna Yesehaq done by Barbara Blake Hannah in the [[w:Gleaner Company|Jamaica Gleaner's]] Sunday Magazine (''The Sunday Gleaner''), titled ''"Abuna Yesehaq Looks Back on 14 Years of Ministry in Jamaica"'', the Archbishop said the following about Bob Marley's [[baptism]]: <blockquote>"Bob was really a good brother, a child of God, regardless of how people looked at him. He had a desire to be [[Baptism|baptised]] long ago, but there were people close to him who controlled him and who were aligned to a different aspect of Rastafari. But he came to Church regularly. I remember once while I was conducting the [[Divine Liturgy|Mass]], I looked at Bob and tears were streaming down his face...When he toured Los Angeles and New York and England, he preached the Orthodox faith, and many members in those cities came to the Church because of Bob. Many people think he was baptised because he knew he was dying, but that is not so...he did it when there was no longer any pressure on him, and when he was baptised, he hugged his family and wept, they all wept together for about half an hour."<ref name="AYBBM"/><ref>''[http://beginningandend.com/bob-marley-rasta-believer-jesus-christ/ Redemption Song: Bob Marley’s Journey From Rasta to Believer in Jesus Christ].'' Beginning and End (Blog). February 22, 2012.</ref></blockquote> Bob Marley's close friend, [[w:Tommy Cowan|Tommy Cowan]] also has stated that Bob converted to Christianity before he died.<ref name="BMBC"/> ===Holy Synod in Exile of the the Ethiopian Orthodox Church===
When Patriarch [[w:Abune Paulos|Abune Paulos]] was elected in 1992 under the new government of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front ([[w:EPRDF|EPRDF]]), the incumbent Patriarch Catholicos of All Ethiopia [[w:Abuna Merkorios|Abune Merkorios]] and his supporters went into exile, establishing a rival synod in the United States, thus creating a [[schism]] in the [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church]].<ref group="note">"Following the fall of the Derg regime in 1991, and the coming to power of the EPRDF government, Patriarch [[w:Abuna Merkorios|Abune Merkorios]] abdicated under public and governmental pressure. The church then elected a new Patriarch, [[w:Abune Paulos|Abune Paulos]], who was recognized by the [[List of Coptic Popes|Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria]]. The former Patriarch Abune Merkorios then fled abroad, and announced from exile that his abdication had been made under duress and thus he was still the legitimate Patriarch of Ethiopia. Several bishops also went into exile and formed a break-away alternate synod. This exiled synod is recognized by some Ethiopian Churches in North America and Europe who recognize Patriarch Abune Merkorios, while the synod inside Ethiopia continues to uphold the legitimacy of Patriarch Abune Paulos."<br>
:* ''[http://kidanemeheretchurch.org/history.html Ethiopian Tewahedo Kidane Meheret Church].'' Denver, Colorado. Retrieved: 2012-04-14.</ref>
