Biographies
Russell Randle, Esq., Convener, Russ Randle is a Principal at Miles & Stockbridge PC in Washington, DC. He served on the AFRECS Board of Directors from 2008 to 2017. He is an honorary canon of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Renk, South Sudan. He has worked with the Episcopal Church of Sudan and the Episcopal Church of South Sudan since 1997 in advocacy to The Episcopal Church, including adoption of multiple General Convention and Executive Council resolutions. He has collaborated with the Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations in presenting concerns about human rights, religious persecution, peace, and development to Congress and U.S. Government agencies on a pro bono basis.
Buck Blanchard is the former Mission and Outreach Director for the Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church in Colorado. He also served for a time as a member of the staff of the Global Partnerships Team of The Episcopal Church. He has travelled to South Sudan extensively, beginning in 2008, and has visited more than a dozen dioceses there.
Brian D’Silva has over 45 years experience working in Africa – in Northern Nigeria, Sudan and South Sudan and Kenya. He retired from the US Government after 32 years. His time with USAID was spent both in residence in Sudan as well as a regional position with USAID in Kenya covering East and Southern Africa. He continues to work on issues related to Sudan and South Sudan. Most recently he worked as an advisor to the Minister of Finance and the Office of the PM, during the Civilian Transitional Government of PM Hamdok (2019-2021). Before that he worked as an advisor to the Minister of Finance in the independent Government of South Sudan. Currently he is advising USAID on their $60 million initiative for Sudan. He lives with his wife in Reston, VA.
Rev. Robin Denney, Rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal, Napa, CA. was ordained in 2017, and before that had a career in agriculture development as a missionary of the Episcopal Church in Liberia and South Sudan. She also served as a lay church-planter, starting a bilingual ministry in the Salinas Valley. Robin grew up on a farm and ranch in northern Salinas Valley and has a degree in Viticulture and Enology from UC Davis. She has a Master’s in Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary.
Liz Ha is the CEO of Five Talents, a Christian micro-enterprise organization that ministers in South Sudan as well eight other countries in the global south. Five Talents is proud to partner with the global church and partner organizations such as AFRECS to facilitate literacy, savings, and entrepreneurship training to help people find a sustainable path out of extreme poverty to the flourishing of the body and spirit.
The Rev. Andrew Merrow serves at Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia, one of the parishes that helped to build the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Renk Diocese. He has made numerous trips to South Sudan over the years and was blessed to lead a Retreat for Deans at the request of the then Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul. Saint Mary’s prays at all Sunday services for the people and church in Sudan and South Sudan.
Bishop (Rtd) Alan Scarfe was born in Bradford in Yorkshire, England. Before ordination in 1986 he served as Executive Director of Keston College USA, an independent research institution advocating freedom of religion in communist countries. He was rector of St. Barnabas’ Episcopal Church in the Los Angeles area before his election as Bishop of Iowa in 2002. As Bishop he created a diocesan companionship with the ECSS Diocese of Nzara. Bishop Scarfe co-chaired the Task Force on Dialogue with the South Sudanese Anglican Diaspora 2018-2024. He has twice visited South Sudan and has frequently hosted Archbishop Samuel Peni of Western Equatoria and Yambio Diocese.
The Rev. Oran E. Warder is the long-time rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia, a congregation that has a decades-long mission partnership with the Diocese of Renk, South Sudan and also has a South Sudanese worshipping community that is part of the parish. He has made two visits to South Sudan, once to visit the Renk Basic School (which the parish supports) and once to attend the first General Synod Meeting of the Church of South Sudan following independence.
