By Mabinty M. Kamara
Reverend Dr. Sahr Yambasu, 63, a native of Sierra Leone recently took over the role of president at one of Ireland’s main churches, the Methodist Church, succeeding Rev Tom McKnight after a ceremony in south Belfast on Wednesday, June 9th, 2021. He is the first Black to have ever held the position.
The Irish Times quoted Dr. Yambasu saying that he believes he was given the opportunity of service in that capacity, not because of his colour, but because his colleagues and the wider community of Methodists have realized his output and capacity in the church.
After beginning his ministry in Sierra Leone in the 1980s he was selected for further training at Edgehill College in Belfast. He was awarded a scholarship to study at Cambridge University in England where he gained a PhD.
The minister according to report became an Irish citizen in 1989, and three years later returned to Sierra Leone with his wife, Clodagh, a daughter of a prominent Methodist family in Longford who is also a minister in the church and three children but they went back to Ireland in 1995 because of the 11 years civil war that wreaked havoc in Sierra Leone.
Currently superintendent of St Patrick’s Waterford Circuit, he said his elevation in the church says a huge amount about its “openness to people”.
“It says to the immigrant community, whatever situation you have been put in, whatever rules, if you commit yourself to them and do them well and faithfully, you will be rewarded,” he said.
He added: “Not just in the church, but in wider society, people will see the quality of your work, and you will be rewarded for that.”
Rev Yambasu noted that the biggest thing he would like to achieve during his tenure is to put people first.
“I want to be with people and above all I want to highlight that human beings are so important, and often we take that too much for granted, we lose sight of that and we concentrate often sadly on other things,” he said.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (16/06/21)
