Haile Limore (Pastor) - Ethiopian Gospel Music

Life and ministry

Haile Limore [ሃይሌ ሊሞሬ; Hadiyyisa: Hayle Limmoore] was born in Ajaraana in the Duna district of Hadiyya Zone in 1951. Haile became an orphan at an early age and initially grew up with an uncle. He was later taken in by the family’s Ethiopian Orthodox priest. Haile completed his first years of school and the Orthodox catechumenate in Gimbichcho, where he also served as a deacon. He then returned to Ajaraana and completed his secondary education at the Catholic school in Waagabata.

Haile moved to the city of Hosanna for the next stage of his education, attending high and preparatory school. There he joined the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). In 1974, he became the leader of the youth work in the EECMY Sooro and Xambaaro Parish. He then attended the Synod’s Bible school in Hosanna and subsequently became Head of the Synod’s Youth Ministry. (The synod was founded in 1969 as the Kambata Synod and renamed the South Central Synod in 1977/78.)

In 1977, Haile Limore tried to contain the Apostolic Church of Ethiopia that was emerging in the southern part of the Hadiyya Zone, among others through Fiqre Fuso. However, some miraculous events during his stay there (such as exorcism, speaking in tongues and an angelic apparition) led Haile to join the new movement. In February 1978, he was baptised “in the name of Jesus [only]”.

Soon afterwards, a congregation of the Apostolic Church of Ethiopia was established in his home village of Ajaraana. Until 1990, Haile was a pastor in Ajaraana, but also undertook many missionary outreaches in the surrounding area. During this time, Haile wrote hundreds of gospel songs in Amharic and Hadiyya.

Haile Limore moved to Hossana in 1990, where he became pastor of the main congregation and regional director of ACE. In 1998, he received a call to the Bible school of the Apostolic Church of Ethiopia in Hawassa. Before his departure, he visited many congregations in his region. Haile Limore fell ill and died in Hosanna in 1998.