KUWAIT: On the occasion of the golden jubilee of the Mar Baselios Movement, a spiritual and charitable organization of St Gregorios Indian ‘Orthodox Maha Edavaka’, the ‘Baselio Suvarna Puraskaram’ (Baselio Golden Award) was presented to Pastor Emmanuel Benjamin Ghareeb in recognition of his comprehensive contributions to the Christian community in Kuwait. Pastor Emmanuel Ghareeb is the only native Christian priest in Kuwait. Ghareeb was ordained to the priesthood in January 1999. He left the position as the Undersecretary in Kuwait’s ministry of Oil and chose to become a Christian minister.

There are almost 100 different Christian denominations in Kuwait who are worshipping on the premises of the National Evangelical Church which is chaired by Pastor Ghareeb. Mar Baselios Movement is a spiritual movement that has been working in Kuwait for the past 50 years under the patronage of Moran Mar Baselios Ghevarghese II Bava of blessed memory, who was the Third Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox Church.