Executive Director’s Update
Sudan. The violence has, if anything, intensified, as the RSF has attacked Omdurman and has placed El Obeid under siege. It is estimated that 3000 have been killed and 3 million displaced, including over 700,000 who have exited the country. In June the RSF and allied militias killed 87 in Geneina, West Darfur, mostly Masalit, buried in a mass grave, as cited by the UN Human Rights Office. The Egyptian Government convened neighboring and concerned governments for a new round of negotiations July 13, but the army and the RSF weren’t present. Meanwhile, talks continue in Addis Ababa under the auspices of Kenyan President Ruto with civil society elements, still boycotted by Gen. Burhan, who claims Ruto is not neutral. The New Humanitarian summed up the situation: “External mediation on Sudan falls flat.” There seems to be little prospect that the conflict and the attending violence can be ended in the near future. The International Criminal Court has launched a new probe into alleged war crimes in Sudan.
South Sudan Election. On July 4 President Kiir announced that elections would take place in December 2024 and that he would be a candidate. A few days later UNMISS Chief Nicholas Haysom stated publicly that South Sudan is not ready for elections in 2024. The UN has provided $8 million to assist South Sudan in coping with the flow of refugees from Sudan. The rainfall picture this year, after a fairly wet start, turned very dry in May. Seasonal forecasts predict fairly dry conditions in South Sudan during July to September. So a repeat of the floods of the last three years appears unlikely. Rain outlook is uncertain.
Episcopal Church of Sudan U.K. church partners have been sending money to ECS in Port Sudan to pay clergy and salaries. Salisbury Diocese is sending funds for office equipment to help Primate Ezekiel Kondo run the office in Port Sudan. Christian Aid also is trying to help EDARRA, the ECS development agency, to develop proposals to fund projects where needed in the Province of Sudan. Bishop Ismail Gabriel Abudigin of El Obeid Diocese reports: “Our situation remains the same, but we have hope that it will [become] alright. Killing has become normal, and hunger. No place is secure within the cities, cars are being looted, by force, by lawless forces.”
Episcopal Church of South Sudan. Provincial secretary Peter Garang Deng reported to the monthly call coordinated by The Episcopal Church’s Partnership Officer Daniel Karanja that the flow of refugees has made the ECSS particularly concerned about the high demand for their housing, food, and sanitation. SSUDRA, the ECSS development agency, is seeking funds to assist. It has already started using a grant from Canada’s Primate’s World Relief & Development Fund to provide cash distributions to households in Nyamlei Diocese of Northern Bahr al-Ghazal Internal Province, as well as to pay its Justice Peace & Reconciliation Commission Officer. SSUDRA is also working with Christian Aid on humanitarian assistance for families in conflict-afflicted Abyei.
Like Water Dripping on a Stone
by Susan E. Bentley
The desert father Abba Poemen said, “The nature of water is yielding, and that of stone is hard. Yet if you hang a bottle filled with water above the stone so that the water drips drop by drop, it will wear a hole in the stone. In the same way, the word of God is tender, and our heart is hard. So, when people hear the word of God frequently, their hearts are changed.”
Consider. Sit quietly and imagine your heart as stone. Ask God to come as water, as word, to change it. Repeat this exercise often until you see and feel your heart changing. What gift(s) did God give you that changed your heart?
Meeting John Garang in the 1990s
by Frederick E. Gilbert, a founding member of AFRECS
While serving as Director of the U. S. Agency for International Development’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa in Ivory Coast in the early 1990s, I was invited to meet John Garang at his Abidjan hotel suite. The leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement was seeking financial support from various African governments and organizations. Because I was not authorized to convey commitments on behalf of the U.S. government on matters outside West and Central Africa, I encouraged the affable Ph.D. in agricultural economics to share stories instead.
Col. John Garang de Mabior (1945-1995) earned a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Iowa State before leading the Southern Peoples’ Liberation Movement and becoming Vice-President of Sudan.
One of the more interesting stories Garang told me concerned the time he had been made a colonel in the Sudanese Army around 1982. Not long afterwards he stopped overnight at the army base near Kassala on his way to a training course in Port Sudan. After freshening up, he went to the Officers’ Club at about the cocktail hour. He walked up to what he thought was a steward and ordered a drink. The man bowed and went off to the bar. When the somewhat crowded room immediately went silent, Garang knew that something was amiss and that it had something to do with him. He guessed, accurately, that he had mistaken an officer in civilian dress for a servant (an easy thing since suffragis, or servants, usually wear the same white robes and turbans as Sudanese male guests). He decided that the best defense was an offense. So he loudly addressed the mainly Northern officers and told them that if he had made a mistake, he was sorry. But being new, he had no way of knowing who was who, so it was not fair to use his honest mistake to make him look foolish or arrogant. The “suffragi”, none other than General Burmah Nasser, handed him his drink, welcomed him to the group, and apologized for his discomfort. They became good friends.
During the rebellion in the southern region against the government in Khartoum, USAID career diplomat Fritz Gilbert met with SPLM leader John Garang in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (Photo courtesy of Erik Gilbert)
That was only one of the stories Garang shared over our two-or-so-hour conversation. He had an idea that I could somehow help him with his wish that AID would provide medium-term development-oriented assistance in SPLA-controlled areas. After explaining that I had no role in deciding about such matters, I gave him a few suggestions about how the SPLM might make it easier for the U.S. Government to take steps in the directions he desired. Before long U.S. assistance to populations in SPLA-controlled areas moved in the desired directions.
Comings and Goings
A funeral for the Reverend Solomon Mursal, pastor of the Sudanese community in Portland, Maine, took place on July 8. Six Sudanese pastors, including Joseph Elionai Gindalla and Rose Maragan from Virginia, served as pallbearers, in a ceremony broadcast on the internet. Among the estimated congregation of 1,000 were his wife Asunta, and his sons Ganzi on keyboard and Silas on drums. The Reverend Kwathi Akol Ajawin preached.
“God is Good”, reports the Reverend Rhonda Parker, Senior Director of Ministerial Formation & Student Life at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. “Bishop Allison Theological College has repatriated from Uganda to its former home in the town of Yei in South Sudan, as of February 2023.” Duke plans to send two students to teach in Yei for ten weeks during the 2023 summer term.
The Reverend Michael Kiju Paul, rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Wharton, Texas and member of General Convention’s Task Force on the Sudanese Diaspora and The Episcopal Church, returned recently from a sabbatical in his birthplace, Kajo Keji, South Sudan.
A youth conference of the Ma’di Community Association took place July 1st and 2nd in Dallas, Texas. Photos at https://www.macaus.us.org/event-details/macaus-youth-conference
Good Luck, Athing Mu
A daughter of refugees from South Sudan recently finished a close second in the 1500 meters at the US National Outdoor Championships, under the tutelage of her legendary coach Bob Kersee. Athing Mu of Trenton, NJ, won the 800-meter run and anchored the winning US 4×400 relay at the Tokyo Olympics. Behind her entry this year into an event in which she does not normally compete, according to The Trentonian, is a strategy. She ran in the 1,500 to build up her strength for a possible assault later this summer on the 800-meter world record.
Who Reads Theology?
The Rev. Dr. Chris Wright, Global Ambassador for the Langham Partnership in London, reports grants for purchase of library materials have been made this year to:
Chaima Christian Institute, Maridi
Grace Theological College
Kajo Keji Christian College
Morobo Lay Training Centre
The Rev. Peggy Harris (peggyh48@gmail.com), a retired deacon of the Diocese of Iowa now living in Florida and formerly with Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities, has offered to interested theological colleges 41 books on Sudan and Darfur, along with 3 volumes of the mission theology of Roland Allen.
Who is Affiliated with the Episcopal University of South Sudan?
Dr. Eeva John reports: “Bishop Gwynne College is now the Bishop Gwynne School of Theology of The Episcopal University (accredited by the South Sudan Ministry of Higher Education). This is also now true for St John’s College in Wau and Chaima Christian Institute in Maridi, as well as Renk Theological College (temporarily closed). They are all now affiliated with and accredited as part of The Episcopal University.”
AFRECS welcomes the Joint Statement of June 27 by the governments of the USA, Norway, and the UK on the violence in Sudan and the need for South Sudan to fulfill its commitments: https://ss.usembassy.gov/joint-statement-by-the-troika-on-sudan-and-south-sudan/
On July 18 bishops of the ECSS, led by Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, called for timely preparation and offered to assist the transitional government of South Sudan with the national elections now postponed to December 2024: https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/anglican-bishops-call-for-timely-elections
Useful addresses:
Provincial Secretary of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, Peter Garang Deng: provincialsecretary@southsudan.anglican.org
Provincial Secretary of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, Musa Abujam:
msabujam@gmail.com
Rev’d Canon Dr. Joseph Z. Bilal, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, The Episcopal University of South Sudan Tel: +211 (0) 928 073 020, WhatsApp: +211 (0) 920 004 jzebedayo776@gmail.com, episcopaluni@gmail.com
U. K. Supporters of the Episcopal University of South Sudan: hanna.john@hotmail.com, https://www.ecsssup.org/contact
This issue of the E-Blast was compiled by Richard. J. Jones, Jacqueline Herrera Wilson, and Suzan Voga-Duffee. We welcome your news, comments, or concerns at anitasanborn@gmail.com.