Rev. Ebenezer Joseph wins World Methodist Peace Prize 2022
The World Methodist Peace Prize 2022 awarded by the World Methodist Council to people who have worked with fearless consistency and creativity for the building of peace, justice and harmony in the world has been awarded to the Grand Leader of the Sri Lanka Methodist Council, Ebenezer Joseph.
This award, started in 1977, has earned the respect of nearly 800,000 Methodist devotees around the world. Since then, this peace prize has been awarded 38 times to people dedicated to peace and harmony in the world. For the sake of national, religious and ethnic harmony and mutual peace in America, Egypt, England, Zimbabwe, Korea, Ireland, Germany, Israel, South Africa, Ghana, Argentina, Sierra Leone, Brazil, Australia, Nigeria, Kenya, Bolivia, etc.
The Methodist Peace Prize has been awarded to outstanding individuals as well as great men such as Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev and Kofi Annan.
Reverend Ebenezer Joseph is the first recipient of the award in the Asian region.
Born in Kandapola, Nuwara Eliya, Ebenezer Joseph received his basic education at Wesley College, Colombo. He then started his higher education at the Theological Institute in Tamil Nadu and graduated from several universities.
He started his priestly career as a Methodist pastor in 1980 and started his work at the City Mission Church located in Wella Street, Colombo. He worked very closely with the people of the urban slums of Colombo and the Nattami community of the city of Colombo and played a major role in protecting the Tamil people of the city during the July 1983 riots.
From 1999 to 2020, he held the position of Secretary General of the National Christian Board twice.
He worked closely with the people of the North and the South of Sri Lanka to build national unity. He worked together with Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic and Muslim religious leaders to provide the necessary facilities for the education and nutrition of the children in the refugee camps.
Together with Buddhist and other religious leaders, he worked to take a deep message about the religious harmony of this country to the world by participating in various conferences in the country.
He has received many national and international honors and awards for his work for the peace of this country.
The ceremony of presenting the Methodist Peace Prize to Ebenezer Joseph will be held on Saturday, February 18, at 5 pm at Wesley College, Colombo, by the President of the World Methodist Church (Korea), Bishop K.J. Park and its Secretary General, Bishop Ivan Abraham (Africa) and will be held with the participation of nearly 50 international representatives of the Methodist Church, said Reverend Leslie Dariju, Secretary of the General Assembly of the Sri Lanka Methodist Church.
