Three Christian Visitors Depart Juba: After the Wind, a Still, Small Voice?
Aboard the papal airplane returning from Juba to Rome, Archbishop Justin Welby recalled for reporters, “When I was speaking out there the last couple of days, you could hear the shouts from the crowd when any of us mentioned peace, the security of women, and the need for an end to corruption. The people of South Sudan are calling for peace. The leaders must give it. My cry and prayer is for the human hearts of the leadership In South Sudan to be changed.”
Aleem Maqbool & Nichola Mandil, BBC news editors visiting in Juba, heard Lino Nyaro Ungom, a former high school teacher and community activist, complain, “Churches both locally and globally failed in their moral responsibility to infuse doses of morality into political life in South Sudan.” He added, “If the churches had a strong voice, they would have challenged the politicians who are faithful in their churches and violence could have been prevented.”An Anglican student at the University of Juba, Deborah Yar Juma, disagreed: “I am so happy the Pope is visiting us since we have been having a lot of issues. His coming will actually change a lot. When someone like the Pope comes and talks about peace, there is a hope that they [South Sudan’s political leaders] will implement it.”
On the second day of the three-day visit, Archbishop Welby joined the Pope and Moderator at Freedom Hall, where they met with people displaced by conflict in South Sudan. The three leaders heard testimonies from young people growing up in displacement camps. Before departure on Sunday morning, the Archbishop and Moderator attended Mass with the Pope and around 70,000 worshippers at the John Garang Mausoleum.
There was huge excitement in South Sudan over the visit of the three clerics.
Image: AFP
Executive Director’s Update
Two South Sudanese Episcopal Church leaders gave powerful testimony at the Global Episcopal Mission Network webinar led by AFRECS February 16. Mama Harriet Baka, National Coordinator of the Mothers Union, described their work in teaching literacy, generating livelihoods and easing trauma in dioceses around the country. She passionately called for an end to the plague of gender-based violence afflicting the country. Canon Joseph Bilal, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Administration, described the vision for the new Episcopal University of South Sudan and its progress in uniting existing theological institutions, while offering much needed opportunities for higher education. We were delighted that some 60 people tuned in to find out how AFRECS and other groups are accompanying the Episcopal Churches of South Sudan and Sudan in bringing Jesus’ good news to the poor.
Dane Smith
Executive Director
AFRECS Webinar with Global Episcopal Mission Network Attracts Participants from South Sudan and UK and Across the US
Mission companionship with Christians in Sudan and South Sudan was the theme of the Mission Thursday on Feb. 16, webinar, sponsored by the Global Episcopal Mission Network. (GEMN). Congregations, dioceses and organizations with connections to the Sudans as well as others interested in learning about ministry in the Sudans participated. Individuals participated from South Sudan and the UK as well as from across the US.This Mission Thursday, hosted by the American Friends of the Episcopal Churches of the Sudans (AFRECS), attracted over 60 participants. AFRECS executive director Dr. Dane Smith, a former US ambassador and envoy in Africa, hosted the webinar, assisted by Dr. Richard Jones, retired mission professor at Virginia Seminary.
The Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS) is a rapidly growing faith community in a country characterized by communal violence and a dysfunctional government. ECSS is bringing Jesus’ message of good news to the poor at the local level through literacy, livelihood generation and trauma healing with help from AFRECS. It is also building the newly accredited Episcopal University of South Sudan.
The Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) operates in a country where more than 90 percent of the population are Muslims. It has enjoyed greater autonomy since the overthrow of Islamist President Omar Bashir in 2019, though the transition to democracy was halted by the military in 2021. The ECS has been growing quickly in the Nuba Mountains area to the south.
It Began with Goats
Francisco-fact: St. Francis’s relationship with the Diocese of Ezo began in 1996.
St. Francis Episcopal Church, Great Falls, Virginia celebrates this March 5th at 10 a.m. the twenty-fifth anniversary of their link with the Diocese of Ezo, in the Internal Province of Western Equatoria in South Sudan. Two lay leaders, Leslie Sigmund and her husband Jack Mathias, involved from the beginning, explain:“In 1996, our Assistant Rector Hentzi Elek, a former relief worker in Sudan, introduced St. Francis to ministry in southern Sudan through collecting money to buy goats for Sudanese women widowed by the long civil war. In 1997, Father Hentzi introduced us to a priest from the Diocese of Ezo in southwest Sudan who was studying at Virginia Seminary. David Bako’s stories of his life in Sudan, his faith, and the needs of Sudanese Christians inspired St. Francis to make Sudan a vital part of our prayers and outreach ministry. Since then, we have signed and renewed (2008) a covenant with Ezo, sent Franciscans to visit both St. Francis Basic School in Juba (started with 63 students and four volunteer teachers) and the diocesan center in distant Ezo, and welcomed Bishop John Zawo (predecessor of the current bishop Isaac Ephraim J. Bangisa) to Washington, DC.”
Enock Tombe, retired Bishop of Rejaf, reports from Juba:
Because peace cannot be built only from the top down, seven laborers for peace were presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury on Saturday, February 4 at All Saints Cathedral in Juba to receive his blessing. On the second day of the visit he shared with Pope Francis and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, Justin Welby blessed a corps of peace workers, designated E-MAT ( Episcopal Mediation Advisory Team):* Samuel Peni – Archbishop of the Western Equatoria Internal Province / Chairperson
* Moses Deng Bol – Archbishop of Northern Bahr al Ghazal Internal Province / member
* Zacharia Manyok- Bishop of Wanglei /member
* The Rev. Awatif Kafe- Mothers’ Union, / ECSS Headquarters/member
* The Rev. Francis Philip- Mission and Evangelism Office/ECSS Headquarters /member.
* Dr. Isaya Rombek -Youth Leader, Central Equatoria Internal Province/ Diocese of Rejaf / member.
* Ms. Martha Adut- Youth Leader, ECSS Provincial Headquarters /member.Archbishop Welby encouraged the group to seek opportunities to carry out peacebuilding activities all over South Sudan, starting with hot spots.
This formalizing of peacemaking responsibilities recognizes that peacebuilding is a process made up of a multiplicity of interdependent roles, functions, and activities. The goal of peacebuilding, in the words of John Paul Lederach in his book Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies, is “to create and sustain transformation and the movement toward restructured relationships.”
Visit Us in Jacksonville, Florida
Please drop by the AFRECS display at the annual conference of the Episcopal Parish Network (formerly Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes) to be held March 8-11 at St. John’s Cathedral and the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel. We will be inviting new churchwide supporters for the peacebuilding, theological education, and women’s empowerment work of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans. Speakers include Thabo Cecil Makgoba, Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa; Jon Meacham, acclaimed biographer and Canon Historian of the Washington National Cathedral; Scott Gunn, Director of Forward Movement; Sam Wells, Vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London; and Mari Kuraishi, co-founder of the crowdfunding site GlobalGiving.
Spending Lent with My Neighbor
Robin Denney, Viticulturist and former missionary in South Sudan, asks, “Who Is My Neighbor?”
Robin Denney worked with the Episcopal Church of Sudan from 2008-2011 to help community leaders and displaced farmers.
This Lenten Season, Episcopal Relief & Development (ER-D) invites you to join others in meditating on the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to consider the meaning in our daily lives of this fundamental teaching. The author of this year’s meditations is the Rev. Robin Denney, a parish priest in Napa, California and former missionary focused on agricultural development in Liberia and South Sudan. While in South Sudan, Robin became the adopted daughter of Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak. Robin’s poignant and personal reflections challenge the reader to consider the question, “Who is my neighbor?”. For more information, click here.
Salisbury Diocese in England Celebrates 50 years of Companionship with Sudans
Sudan Day begins at 10 am at St. Francis’ Church, Salisbury on 18 March. Attendance for the event is free, but the Sudan-Link event organizers ask that you send them an email at sudan.secretary@salisbury.anglican.orgto confirm your attendance.Salisbury works with Sudanese and South Sudanese church leaders to develop peace at the heart of every community during continued turbulent times.
One year ago, Sudan Day 2022 coincided with the Lambeth Conference when Anglican Bishops from across the world gathered together in Canterbury, providing a unique opportunity for Salisbury to host 50 Sudanese and South Sudanese bishops and their wives, as well as Dane Smith and James Hubbard from AFRECS.
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 AFRECS’ work with the people of the Sudans and will offer a prayer for them. You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302.
This issue of the E-Blast was prepared by Board members Anita Sanborn and Richard Jones. Please send news from parishes and Diaspora congregations in North America, celebrations, losses, travels to and from the Sudans — or corrections and responses — to the editors at anitasanborn@gmail.com.
