Father Abayneh Gebremichael has happy memories of his ordination to the priesthood 25 years ago.

“It was awesome!” said Father Gebremichael, a priest of the Archdiocese of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, who serves as the pastor of Kidane-Mehret Ge’ez Rite Ethiopian Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.

He was ordained in 1996 at the Nativity of Our Lady Cathedral in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, and his parents and seven of his eight siblings, except for a brother in Atlanta, attended the Mass, along with many nieces and nephews.

That day, he was excited to begin his new life, “to be a priest, to serve our people, to serve the poor,” he said.

The future priest had grown up in a town about 120 miles from Addis Ababa. His late father worked as a school teacher, and attending Mass and praying together were part of the fabric of their family’s life.

Father Gebremichael, who is 49, was an altar server and sang in the choir at his home parish, where women religious taught catechism, and he entered the minor seminary in the ninth grade.

After his ordination, he served for one year as an assistant pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Attat, Ethiopia.

Then he served as pastor of St. Michael Parish in Wolkite, Ethiopia for about four years, and started St. Joseph School there, while also leading two mission churches that are now parishes. “I was really very active between here and there,” he said.

After serving about three years as pastor of St. Michael Parish in Addis Ababa, he was assigned to serve the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities in Boston, celebrating Masses for them at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross there and also serving as a hospital chaplain.

“I was excited to come to America,” said Father Gebremichael, adding that he enjoyed being “a pastor for my immigrant community.”

While there, he earned a master’s degree in pastoral ministry at Boston College and became a board certified hospital chaplain.

About five years ago, he became pastor of Kidane-Mehret, which serves about 500 Ethiopian Catholics living in the Washington area.

In an earlier interview, he noted, “For the Ethiopian people, the church is central to their life. If you go anywhere, the church is their focus, it’s like their second home.”

Since Kidane-Mehret was established in 1984, its members have worshipped in several locations in Washington, D.C., including recently at a chapel at The Catholic University of America. The community has embarked on a capital campaign to pay for a permanent church, and so far, the effort has raised more than $1 million.

Father Gebremichael noted that Christianity in Ethiopia dates to the first century. That faith continues today, he said, noting it is “deep-rooted in the hearts” of the Ethiopian people, who have a strong love for Mary. The Divine Liturgies for Kidane-Mehret, an Eastern Rite of Catholicism, are celebrated in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, and in Ge’ez, a classical Ethiopian language still used by Ethiopian Christians in their liturgies.

During the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, Kidane-Mehret livestreamed its liturgies and members connected with each other online every night to pray the rosary together. Father Gebremichael said their Masses in Amharic continued online, with choir members and readers joining in from different locations, and people viewed the liturgies not only from the Washington area, but also from Ethiopia and Europe.

“We worked together. Teamwork really helped us,” he said.

The priest who said “yes” to God as he began his vocation 25 years ago, expressed gratitude to God for the blessings in his life and the blessings that the Kidane-Mehret community continues to receive.

“God is always good for us,” said Father Gebremichael. “He communicates his love, His ‘yes’ to everything.”