The first African-born leader of one of Ireland's main churches has been elected president-designate of the Methodist Church.
Rev Dr Sahr John Yambasu (63), a native of Sierra Leone, is currently superintendent of St Patrick's Waterford Circuit, having previously served on Methodist Circuits in Wicklow, Arklow and Avoca, Galway and Ballinasloe (United Methodist and Presbyterian), as well as Kilkenny and Carlow.
His wife, Clodagh, is also a Methodist minister and they have three adult children. Dr Yambasu,who became an Irish citizen in 1989, will lead the church from next June for a year.
Cambridge scholarship
After beginning his ministry in the Methodist Church 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.
In 1992, he returned to Sierra Leone with his wife and three children and became principal of the theological college where he had been trained and superintendent of a large Methodist Circuit in the capital, Freetown.
Civil war
Life in his home country was difficult due to the civil war, which had begun in 1991. He and his family were there when rebels were within 20 miles of Freetown. A few months later, the family left for Ireland – Longford initially.
He worked as a hotel porter and in a meat-processing plant. A few months later, he and his wife were invited to serve the Methodist Church in Ireland at congregations in Co Wicklow. In 2001, they were transferred to Galway.
In 2007, Dr Yambasu took on extra work as a taxi driver to help fund his daughter's education in Trinity College Dublin and to continue supporting family in Sierra Leone.
The only other African-born major church figure in Ireland is the Nigerian-born papal nuncio Archbishop Jude Okolo, dean of the Diplomatic Corps.
