Director’s Update
Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced July 4 that the military would withdraw from the U.N.-mediated talks in Khartoum seeking a transitional solution to the present political stalemate. He added that the military would pull out of Sudan’s political process more generally. The announcement has generated some skepticism, because the Forces of Freedom and Change and the Resistance Committees, the key civil society elements pressing for complete civilian rule, were already boycotting the talks. There is suspicion that the military is looking to its civilian allies, including members of the old regime, to carry its water. A more generous interpretation is that Burhan is prepared to see what an inclusive set of civilian actors might come up with. There are indications that conversations were quietly proceeding among the civil society leadership and the political parties, with a pause for the Eid al-Adha holiday earlier this month. Stay tuned.
The postponement of the papal visit to South Sudan scheduled for this month led to messages from the Vatican, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland regretting the delay and promising to reschedule it. Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Paolin, visited South Sudan in early July to reinforce that promise. In his message to the people of South Sudan, Archbishop Justin Welby reminded President Kiir and Vice President Machar of their commitment to peace at the 2019 Vatican meeting. He said, “[Those] leaders promised to work together for the good of all. Peace requires much more than not being at war. It must be created together, with your fellow leaders and even with your enemies. There will be challenges ahead, and I pray that … your leaders would listen to you and to themselves and to God.”
The World Food Program has announced resumption of its school feeding program suspended because of the COVID pandemic. The US announced $117 million in food support for WFP July 8 — welcome news as warnings of starvation in the country multiply.
Other positive news: The South Sudan Ministry of General Education announced July 6 that it is introducing an alternative learning program for girl students who drop out of school, usually because of pregnancy. South Sudan is reportedly among the countries with the highest prevalence of adolescent pregnancy. Factors include early marriage, the high incidence of sexual violence against girls and women, and continued displacement of families.
AFRECS Board member, Rev. James Hubbard, and I are looking forward to our August visit to South Sudan and Sudan, plus a stop in the UK to touch base with British partners. We hope AFRECS Vice President Steven Miles will join us in South Sudan.
Executive Director
Archbishop of Canterbury Regrets
Archbishop Justin Welby with South Sudanese refugees in Uganda in August 2017.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, cancelled a visit to Juba which had been planned for July 5th to 7th, due to physicians’ advice to Pope Francis, who would have taken part along with Dr. Iain Greenshields, Moderator of the Church of Scotland. Welby sent to the people of South Sudan on July 5th a video message of regret, expressing his hope for a future visit and exhorting government leaders to act on their commitments made at the Vatican in July 2021 to reconcile and end factional violence.
Come See Us at New Wineskins in North Carolina Sept. 22-25
Dane Smith and AFRECS Board members look forward to welcoming visitors at our exhibit during the once-every-three-years New Wineskins gathering of Anglicans and Episcopalians engaged in international cross-cultural mission. Our guest on Friday and Saturday will be Bishop Grant LeMarquand, editor of the letters of Marc Nikkel Why Haven’t You Left?, recently Bishop of the Horn of Africa in Gambella, Ethiopia, and professor of New Testament at Trinity School for Ministry. We will also welcome Tad deBordenave, founder of Anglican Frontier Missions and author of Light to the Nations: God’s Covenant with the Unreached Peoples.
Register now at https://www.
Eating for Peace
Pastor Kwathi Akol Ajawin writes from Burke, Virginia:
It was in 1989 that I first heard of Paride Taban, the Roman Catholic bishop of Torit in Eastern Equatoria state, and a Madi by tribe. After refusing to allow the Sudan People’s Liberation Army to use the church’s vehicle, he was physically slapped by a general. Later I read his small booklet written in Jerusalem, where he had gone for healing and meditation, and discovered a coöperative peace village called Neve Shalom where Christian, Muslim and Jewish people lived together in harmony. Taban argued — influenced by Matt. 12:1-8 — that the liberation movement is for the people and not the people for the movement. Bishop Taban co-founded with Episcopal Bishop Nathaniel Garang the New Sudan Council of Churches in the then-liberated areas of South Sudan.
After his retirement in 2004 Taban founded Holy Trinity Peace Village at Kuron, now grown to some 3,000 people. Once asked by a Swiss mediation institute interviewer what he eats, Taban replied, “People in the area raid cattle. I don’t eat this meat because I don’t know whether it is raided or not. Sometimes I would go to visit a poor family. Because I am bishop, they would kill their only goat or their one chicken for me. I said, ‘No, I eat what you eat.’ They have green vegetables, they have beans. Their goat is very precious. Why should they kill it because of me?”
I had the pleasure of hosting one meeting of the bishop with Southern Sudanese community members in Washington, DC.
More at http://www.
Dancing for Peace
Paul Jeffrey of Friends in Solidarity writes from Malakal, South Sudan (forwarded by John Ashworth in Kiserian, Kenya):
Peacemaking has a distinctly African rhythm in this sprawling camp for some 35,000 displaced persons at the United Nations base in Malakal. “I like to dance,” said Vivian James, a teenager. “It brings people together. Our dance is for everyone. Even though we are from different tribes, we dance together.”
The dance choir’s director, David Luk, says it’s a very Catholic thing to do. “The Bible says we are to pray to God with song and dance. We have a lot of tribes in South, and each tribe has its own dances. But the Catholic Church stands for unity around the world, so here we dance for unity. I am Nuer, but if a Shilluk sees me dancing like a Shilluk, they’ll see that there is no difference between us. I do a Shilluk dance, the Shilluk does a Dinka dance, and so on. That’s what peace is.”
Father Mike Bassano, a Maryknoll priest from the United States, dances with members of a youth dance group inside the Protection of Civilians area in the United Nations base in Malakal, South Sudan.
The church’s pastor, Father Mike Bassano, is a Maryknoll priest who came from the United States to work in Malakal’s teacher training college. Following Malakal’s 2013 battle, Bassano returned, constructed a simple church structure, and began celebrating Mass. “Over the years,” Bassano said, “we established a group of dancers who meet every day to practice for the liturgy on Sunday. The idea of the dance is to express our worship to God through our whole body. And to show unity.”
According to Rhoda James Tiga, a Dinka woman who still lives in the camp, Bassano helped people to unite. “Outside, people still fight. Outside, we still point fingers at the other tribe. But when Sunday comes we sing together. We pray together. We chat and we laugh, and we dance.”
More at https://www.solidarityfriends.
A Must-See Film for Visitors to Sudan
Photojournalists continue to document lethal response to street protesters against military dominance of the government of Sudan. Arsonists and gangs on motorbikes spread sporadic intercommunal violence. Food and water prices soar. Death threatens women and children especially. A seasoned visitor from Bradford, England, meeting church leaders in Khartoum, Port Sudan, and Wad Medani during four weeks in May, was reminded of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Mr. John Poole also met reasons for hope. Travelling as a trustee of the Church Association for Sudan and South Sudan (www.casss.org) in the UK, along with Rhys North, a community accountant, Poole met Bello Elbuluk, recently appointed Provincial Relief and Development Officer. Elbuluk spent time learning how British partners look at projects, before he headed to Nairobi for formal training. Poole also met the Rev Dr Isaac Kodi, Khartoum Diocesan Relief and Development Officer. Makki Eldoonki, director of Theological Education by Extension across the whole province, showed Poole copies of completely refreshed study materials in Arabic.
Arriving in Wad Medani by night after a fourteen-hour bus journey from Port Sudan, Poole found a whole row of lighted shops, newly completed by the diocese to be rented out. Bishop Saman explained, “Income from one of the shops will be given to the Mothers’ Union and another to youth work.”
For the first time in three years, a House of Bishops was able to meet, facilitated by Archbishop Mounir of Egypt. They were preparing for the August Lambeth Conference and for a General Synod to be held later this year. The bishops’ wives attended also, following an example set by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
At a pre-primary school near Omdurman, Poole saw children learning their numbers. A notice board full of photographs of the previous year’s children graduating to primary school testified to the pride of parents. The children were singing of the love of Jesus, and they embraced each other at the words, “We must love one another too”.
Poole’s video: https://www.casss.org.uk/wp-
Weddings, Linguistics, and Prayer
Mrs. Jackie Kraus, of St Michael’s Episcopal Church, Barrington, Illinois, recalls being met on her first landing at Khartoum airport in 1998 by Awan de Gak, a linguist with the Wycliffe Bible Translators’ Old Testament project for the Dinka Cam language.
“Three years later,” Mama Jackie remembers, “his nephew, Abraham Awan, moved to Chicago and told me his uncle Awan said to greet me. I was moved.”
Besides that epilogue, Jackie recalls a prologue. “A year before that visit to Sudan, when the first bishop of Renk Diocese, Daniel Deng Bul, was studying at Virginia Theological Seminary, he had wanted to meet a woman at the University of Wisconsin who worked summers on the translation project. Dr. Cynthia Miller became a mentor for my 1998 visit. On one of the visits to the Diocese of Chicago by the second bishop of Renk, Joseph Garang Atem was asked to officiate at the marriage of Cynthia and Dr. Jacobus Naudé, who had worked together through Wisconsin’s department of Hebrew studies. The Dinka had been praying for her to marry.”
We give thanks for your continued support in prayer and generosity
We are deeply grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, continue to nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact. You make a difference in the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, so needed in these challenging times. We hope you will make a contribution to support our work with the people of the Sudans and offer a prayer for their nations. You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302.