By Kelly Lecker and Meredith Heagney
The Columbus Dispatch

Melake Selam Sisay Ayele faced many challenges when he came to Columbus almost 20 years ago. He had a new home and was learning a new language.

Still, the Ethiopian priest’s concern was for the thousands of other refugees who also call Ohio home.

In 1992, he founded the Ethiopian Medhane-Alem Cathedral of Columbus, an Ethiopian Orthodox church in Victorian Village, and worked to make life easier for refugees.

“It was very difficult for him. He was already an old man and didn’t know English well, and he left some of his family behind,” said Seleshi Asfaw, director of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church Social Services. “But he had spiritual sons and daughters here.”

Ayele, who was 80, died June 29, and people are coming to Columbus from across the United States as well as Canada and Australia this week for funeral services. The final service will be Saturday at the cathedral.

His youngest child, Birhanelem Ayele, 24, of the East Side, said his father’s death is devastating for him and the wider community.

Ayele had seven children, four daughters and three sons, whose ages range from 24 to 50. Two live in Sudan, one in Australia and the youngest four in Columbus.

Ayele’s caring nature went beyond his immediate family, his son said.

Ayele was always a leader. He was a priest in Ethiopia, and ministered to many people through border wars, oppressive governments, famine and clashes between ethnic groups.

He was fearless through all his trials, his son said.

“He was never scared of death,” Birhanelem Ayele said. “I think it has to do with religion.”

Like many Ethiopian refugees, he ended up in Sudan where he started about 20 Christian churches, Asfaw said. Times were hard there, too. Food and water were sometimes scarce, and Ayele was leading a Christian congregation in a largely Islamic country.

“They saw him as Moses,” Asfaw said.

Ayele eventually came to Columbus, where some of his family already was living.

He quickly founded the church, which Asfaw said has about 700 members, and led the congregation until his death.

He was active in the social services organization that Asfaw leads and worked extensively with children at the church.

“It is a great loss for all the Ethiopians here in Columbus,” Asfaw said. “He was really a magnet, a center. He brought us together.”

Ayele hadn’t been back to Ethiopia for more than 30 years. When his son visited in 2005, he came back and showed his father video he took in the country.

All he could do was cry, Birhanelem Ayele said, because he missed his homeland so much.

Now his son is left to cope with his own heartbreak.

“Everything I had was taken away,” he said. “But there’s nothing you can do about it. He’s in the best place you could ask for.”

There were several services this week for Ayele. The final wake will be at 9 a.m. Saturday at the cathedral at 610 Neil Ave., followed by a eulogy. A burial ceremony will follow at St. Joseph Cemetery, 6440 S. High St.

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