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Good morning. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee is in an awkward position as Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, has made it clear that he will not take any questions when he receives his prize. Today he will arrive in Norway before the ceremony tomorrow. One of the committee speculates that his refusal to do the usual press conferences ‘may have partly to do with the challenges he faces at home and with his religious beliefs and personal humility.’

The prize was awarded for the work he did early in his premiership of initiating a peace pact with neighbour Eritrea after decades of political stalemate and violence, as well as reforms in his own country on censorship, corruption and the role of women.

Since the announcement of the award, some commentators and opponents do point to the slowing down of the peace process with Eritrea and growing unrest and violence within Ethiopia itself. Certainly, the path to peace is never easy, rarely complete and often controversial.

These challenges may mean a reluctance to answer questions and a desire not to spend long in Oslo. But there may be more. Abiy Ahmed Ali’s Pentecostal Christian faith underlies his sense of hope and his personal humility. After taking office he commented, ‘We have a country that is endowed with great bounty… but is starving for love.’

Those qualities of hope, humility and love are highlighted in my own Christian faith in the preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Yet, the child who will be called the Prince of Peace does not promise an easy path to peace. Rather it is a path of controversy, pain and difficult questions.

The Nobel Peace Prize at its heart is not a gold medal for achievement. As my colleague Jed Stevenson recently pointed out in a newspaper article, when Dr Martin Luther King accepted his prize in 1964 he spoke of leaving Oslo ‘inspired with renewed dedication to humanity’. For the recipient and for the world, it is a celebration which should give encouragement to those facing the constant challenges of peace and reconciliation. Whether in Ethiopia, whether in the weekend’s peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan or whether in our own fractured and fractious political culture, hope, humility and love do make a difference. And it seems to me that an openness to difficult questions, for both religious leaders and politicians, does not subvert but enhances the path of peace.

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