Dinkas in Syracuse NY join with an aging Episcopal congregation
Members of Diangdit Chapel attend the Diocese of Central New York’s diocesan convention in November 2019, during which the congregation became a mission chapel of the diocese. Photo: Diocese of Central New York
[Condensed from Episcopal News Service]
A group of South Sudanese Anglicans has found a home in the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. With the help of the diocese and a local nonprofit, they are putting down roots in the Syracuse area, connecting with their neighbors and breathing new life into the diocese.
Refugees who settled in Syracuse formed the congregation now known as Diangdit – a Dinka word that translates to “trinity” – about 15 years ago. They initially worshipped as a solitary outpost of their home church, the Episcopal Church of Sudan.
In 2018, Diangdit and the diocese began a period of canonical transition into The Episcopal Church, and at the diocesan convention in November 2019, Diangdit officially became a mission chapel of the diocese.
“There was hardly a dry eye that day”, Bishop Duncan-Probe told Episcopal News Service. “They’re beloved in this diocese and it was very moving … Some of them have been on a 15 – 20-year journey, trying to find home, and for them to finally come home in a real way in this diocese was just palpable.”
The congregation is served by the Rev. Amuor Mac Garang. “She was a spiritual, maternal leader – a cultural leader – in refugee camps,” Duncan-Probe said, “and then a bishop in the Sudan ordained her to be their spiritual leader.”
The congregation moved to Emmanuel Episcopal Church in East Syracuse in the fall of 2018. As an aging parish with about 25 congregants, Emmanuel has been especially welcoming to Diangdit, appreciating the energy they bring to the church, said Beth Broadway, president and CEO of InterFaith Works. Diangdit had been holding its own services at Emmanuel for about a year when Broadway started bringing the two congregations together for more joint activities.
The Sudanese-Americans are also shaping the future of their new hometown. Chol Majok, a lay leader at Diangdit and one of the former “Lost Boys of Sudan,” became the first refugee elected to the Syracuse city council in December 2019. He arrived in Syracuse in 2001, and despite the violence and hardships he endured as a child, he was appalled at the city’s widespread poverty. Determined to do something about it, he began working in the mayor’s office and launched a successful career in politics and community development.
News and Notes
From Radio Tamazuj
Displaced people fleeing violence in Jonglei
Almost half a million residents in Jonglei flee increased violence
Radio Tamazuj reports that Gabriel Ajak Deng, Jonglei state director for relief and rehabilitation, had registered for assistance by July 13 about 477,000 residents who have fled their homes since April due to inter-communal violence.
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/thousands-of-displaced-need-assistance-in-jonglei-official
In recent weeks, small groups of Lou Nuer, Murle and Dinka (Bor, Twic East, and Duk Counties) community leaders, church leaders, and politicians inside South Sudan have been meeting by teleconference and Zoom with concerned members of the Diaspora in North America to address this violence in Southern Jonglei.
Before AFRECS in 2016 responded to an appeal from Peter Gai, Chairman of the South Sudan Council of Churches in Juba, to help address the role of North American Diaspora groups in promoting or obstructing reconciliation between factions and ethnic groups inside South Sudan, another network with Presbyterian roots was at work in the United States and Canada.
This group, the Coalition of Advocates for South Sudan (CASS) continues under the leadership of Reuben Gerang, President (Canada); Aludel Pony Mayen (U.S.) and Henry Y. Lejukole (U.S.), Board members; and Bill Andress (South Carolina), Secretary. Meeting in Des Moines in 2014 with Gai, some 300 South Sudanese subscribed to a vision which still guides CASS:
“South Sudan is a reconciled, unified and stable country, proud of its diversity as represented by its 64 tribes and enjoying equality, peace and harmony.
The government of South Sudan is a democratic federal government whose powers are vested by a permanent citizen-informed constitution and whose leaders are qualified and committed to serving the people of South Sudan and whose systems are efficient, transparent and free of corruption.
The people of South Sudan are educated and healthy and they enjoy all freedoms, protection through justice, accountability and the rule of law, and prosperity through the effective management of the country’s resources and the empowerment of its people to realize their unlimited potential. South Sudan is an example for the continent and it is respected by the nations.”
In remarks at a CASS commemoration of the 9th anniversary of independence of South Sudan, Henry Y. Lejukole concluded his remarks by saying:
- If we want to move our country (South Sudan) forward, regardless of our diversity, we should develop the courage to recognize evil for evil and good for good.
- We should be a people that do not compromise our moral integrity for tribal affinity because we are all one people which is the measure of our creation.
- As citizens, sons, and daughters of South Sudan, we must develop the courage to speak up without fear or favor.
- The people of South Sudan regardless of its diversity should be our measuring stick of what is good and not party or tribe. If it is not good for the people or country, it is not good for anybody.
Quarantine-Time Home Video Starting Production
A Stay-Home amateur film team is seeking extroverts and smartphone videographers to film dialogue among young Southern Sudanese living in the U.S. and Canada. Mrs. Helen Achol Abyei St. Louis, Missouri, author of the play Tribalism No More which was performed August 2019 in Lexington VA, is inviting creative youth to film brief speeches from her second play, Cultural Shock. The play involves a youth who rebels against family rules but returns home broken by his attempt to live on his own. Mr. Maurice Rial, a videographer in Salem, Massachusetts, has offered to edit videos filmed in various homes into a coherent and enjoyable viewing experience. Those selected to perform or record will be rewarded with a gift card. Leaders of the South Sudanese Diaspora Network for Reconciliation and Peace (SSDNRP) currently recruiting participants are:
Mr. Noel Kulang, Warrenton, Virginia (n.kulang@gmail.com)
Deacon Francis Nyawello, Des Moines, Iowa (nyalam05@gmail.com)
Rev. Robert Lobung, Boulder, Colorado (rev.lobung@gmail.com)
For a copy of the script, prospective actors may contact Mrs. Abyei at achol.abyei@yahoo.com or telephone 720-209-2591. Details on required production values are available at: https://www.facebook.com/morrisrial/videos/2792842307437965/
Sudanese Christians Welcomed in Richmond, Virginia
Sudanese worshippers at St. Bartholomew’s Richmond
From Dinka Lost Boys to immigrants educated in South Sudan, Sudanese Christians arriving over the past 20 years in Richmond have known hospitality from Episcopal parishes including St Bartholomew’s, Patterson Ave; Epiphany, Hermitage Road; and Christ Church, Glen Allen, whose rector, Shirley Smith Graham, briefly taught Hebrew and Old Testament at Renk Theological College in South Sudan.
St. Bartholomew’s is the meeting place for the South Sudanese Christian Fellowship, which began with four young Dinka men who arrived from the U.N. refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya in 1999. After agreeing with the parish on ground rules, this group elected its own governing body and established a liturgy based on what was familiar to them. The English-speaking and Dinka-speaking congregations, varying from 20 to 100, join for special events–most notably, an Easter Vigil celebrating the baptism of six Sudanese young people. Each Sunday the English-speaking congregation proudly processes at the offertory a cross given by women of Kakuma Refugee Camp. The cross includes carvings and metal salvaged from crashed airplanes and missile shells from their homeland.
Timon Kenyi, a Kuku from Kajo-Keji, is the sexton at Epiphany Episcopal Church. He mows the grass and keeps the church building open for use by Alcoholics Anonymous, during this time when the Sunday morning English-speaking congregation can meet only remotely because of the pandemic. A Sudanese fellowship of some 8 households meets by Zoom on Sunday evenings. Kenyi’s wife Mary Guo leads singing in English, Arabic, and sometimes Swahili, along with Mary Pita. Their young daughter Kiden Joye, a future piano accompanist, currently pounds away on a piano while her father talks on the phone. Christine Morbe, trained in Petersburg VA, has assisted as a lay pastor.
The Rev. Joseph Elionai, a Moru-speaking missionary priest, from the ECSS Diocese of Mundri in South Sudan, has been a member of Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Richmond, Virginia since 2000. He has over the period of twenty years in Richmond, Virginia, been leading the Non-Denominational Sudan Christian Fellowship, together with the Rev. Rose Maraga (ordained by visiting Episcopal Church of South Sudan bishops) and Pastor Joram Kiromo of the Africa Inland Church who is affiliated with the West End Presbyterian Church. The Team has provided Sunday afternoon worship space to the Sudan Christian Fellowship for many years, and welcomed Bishop Bismark Monday Avokaya of Mundri Diocese during a three-month sabbatical leave in Richmond.
A Reminder
AFRECS has long sought to help the Episcopal Church of South Sudan to build its capacity and raise its voice for peace and healing in South Sudan, and the current COVID-19 crisis raises an especially poignant call for our help in this regard. Rev. Dr. Joseph Bilal chairs a Task Force to mobilize all levels of the church in the campaign to address COVID-19. Our support will be vital in helping raise their collective voices. AFRECS is financing the purchase of megaphones for rural churches, a primary request of the Task Force, as well as support for radio broadcasts and the printing and distribution of educational materials. Please join members of the AFRECS Board and other friends who have already committed support for the ECS COVID-19 Task Force. Checks made out to AFRECS can be marked “Task Force.” You may also give online through the AFRECS website.
HELP US SUPPLY MEGAPHONES FOR RAISING VOICES!!!