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On the other hand, a large number of other Rastas were likewise disappointed because he would not [[Baptism|baptise]] them in the name of the Emperor, but only in the name of [[Jesus Christ]].
This however did not disturb those Rastas who viewed Christ and Haile Selassie as one and the same, and readily underwent baptism at the hands of this man who had been sent from Ethiopia by their living God. Only after the Marxist [[w:Derg|Derg]] Revolution that toppled Haile Selassie (on September 12, 1974) 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.
Abba Mandefro also founded many Oriental Orthodox Churches throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere, and in 1979 he received the title ''"Archbishop Yesehaq of the Western Hemisphere and South Africa"''.<ref name="NY TIMES"/> He was credited with forming more than 70 congregations, with more than 300,000 members, many of them in the Caribbean.
===Holy Synod in Exile of 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]].
Abuna Yesehaq refused to recognise this political change, pointing out that according to the ancient Church canons[[canon]]s, the Church leaders are to remain in office until they pass away, and cannot be dismissed or reappointed by any secular government; also that Ethiopian Orthodox [[canon]] law does not allow for the dethronement of a patriarch except on the grounds of [[heresy]]. Thus he declared the Western Hemisphere branch independent of Addis Ababa rather than accept the pre-eminence of the new patriarch, Abuna Paulos.<ref name="NY TIMES"/> In the ensuing dispute over the authority of the two prelates, adherents of Archbishop Abuna Yesehaq clung to their own interpretation of canon law and continued to follow him, instead of the patriarch in Addis Ababa.<ref name="NY TIMES"/>
However, the New York City authorities took the side of the newly-appointed Patriarch, and police interrupted a Church service on August 9, 1998 with guns drawn, using profanity, handcuffing children, and taking possession of the Church in the name of Abuna Paulos.
==See also==
* [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church]]
* [[Zena Marqos]]
'''Wikipedia'''<br>
* [[w:Abuna Yesehaq|Abuna Yesehaq]]
