Director’s Update
The violence which broke out in Sudan in April between rival military units has disrupted life in a manner unprecedented since the country became independent in 1956. Neither the government nor commercial life is functioning, and food is short. As for the Episcopal Church, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) elements entered the Episcopal cathedral compound in Khartoum, chased out church leadership, destroyed vehicles and other property, and bivouacked troops. Primate Emanuel Kondo and Provincial Secretary Musa Abujam initially managed to get their staffs to safety in private homes. The church in Omdurman was also attacked. In recent weeks the Provincial leadership has managed to relocate their offices to Port Sudan, where, since the Sudanese Armed Forces expelled the RSF, the situation is relatively calm and banks have reopened. It is likewise relatively quiet in the diocese of Wad Medani. The Bishop of El Obeid reports that his people are surviving, but the banks are closed, and “there is no law at all.” Violence and death have been particularly severe in West Darfur but have recently worsened in other parts of Sudan’s “Wild West.”
I felt personal pain at a New York Times report, “A Lifetime of Hospitality Disrupted by War in Sudan.” The Acropole Hotel, home to visiting missionaries and NGO workers for decades — and to me during recent visits for AFRECS — carried on without running water or electricity for several days, while menacing fighters barged in demanding food and drink. When the hotel ran out of food, the Greek Pagoulatis family, which created it in 1952, evacuated with staff and tenants, and are now in Athens. I emailed one of the owners expressing my sorrow. He replied, “We never thought that Acropole would close that way.”
The UN Mission in South Sudan reports that “violence against civilians persists” in that country. In the first quarter of the year there were 920 documented cases, including 405 deaths, a 12 percent increase over the corresponding period in 2022. Although Jonglei State and Pibor Administrative Area were the worst affected, serious violence also occurred in Warrap, Lakes, Central and Eastern Equatoria States. The violence is attributed to “inter-communal violence,” but numerous observers have asserted that military leaders in Juba often orchestrate the local violence to their own political ends. There will be no real peace and law and order in South Sudan until that situation is brought under control.
Susan E. Bentley is the Newest Member of the AFRECS Board
We welcome to the board of AFRECS the Reverend Susan E. Bentley, 23-year rector of a congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia which included a congregation of South Sudanese.
Sue tells of an image important in the African Diaspora: a bird with its head turned backwards while its feet face forward, carrying an egg in its mouth.
This image is associated with the word Sankofa in the Anka language of Ghana, translated as “to retrieve”. It is heard in the proverb, “It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.” Sue suggests, “The Sankofa bird can represent our need to reflect on the past to build a successful future. It symbolizes taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present.” To the congregation she was leaving, Sue said, “While you all are moving feet forward with the precious egg of Gospel love to share, you many want to look back. You will each have a perspective and insights. This will guide your feet.”
During Sue’s tenure, Samson Mamour, a South Sudanese immigrant factory worker and proprietor of a cigarette shop in Roanoke, Virginia emerged as the spiritual leader of the Sudanese congregation and now serves as priest and the rector’s assistant at Grace Church in the college town of Lexington, Virginia. The continuing pastoral leader of the Roanoke Sudanese congregation is Mr. Peter M. Alier mawut9@hotmail.com . Sue quotes Simon Sinek: “Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge.”
Comings and Goings
Michael Kiju Paul, rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Wharton, in the Diocese of Texas, is making a three-month visit to his home village in the Diocese of Kajo-Keji, South Sudan. Kiju helped foster a companion relation between the Dioceses of Kajo-Keji and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Patrick Peter Augustine, a resident of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA who was consecrated in 2019 to serve as an assistant bishop by Reuben Akurdit Ngong, has been in the Diocese of Bor in South Sudan since Easter. He preached, visited the primary and secondary school, met with the Mothers’ Union, led a pastors’ retreat, and promoted construction of a well in the compound of St. Andrew’s Cathedral.
Two women engaged each other outside the Bor Mothers’ Union dressmaking school while Bishop Patrick Augustine visited on June 7th.
Anita Sanborn, past board chair of Iliff School of Theology, past director of the Colorado Episcopal Foundation, and active board member of AFRECS, has moved from Denver to her home territory in Angola, Indiana.
AFRECS Board member Thomas H. Staal, temporarily acting director of USAID/Ethiopia, has sent a description of his agency’s current relief efforts in Sudan and South Sudan highlighting disease, food shortage, and number of conflict-affected people.
Musa Abujam, Provincial Secretary of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, relocated to Port Sudan because his home in Khartoum was in the center of the fighting.
Joseph Garang Atem, Archbishop of the internal province of Upper Nile (including Renk and Malakal) in South Sudan, writes from Juba, where his back and eyes are improving, to thank St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia; Tydale House Foundation; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and Dr. Ellen Davis for funds sent to assist refugees and returnees who since April 15th “came in big numbers which Renk cannot control”.
Ezekiel Kondo, Primate of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, has relocated his office from Khartoum to Port Sudan. Along with Wad Medani, Port Sudan is flooded with Internally Displaced Persons, some sleeping inside the cathedral and its compound. Although initially there was some fighting in Port Sudan, now the Rapid Support Force is reportedly “not of much consequence there”, according to John Poole of Bradford, UK, for Church Association for Sudan & South Sudan.
Belo Elbuluk, director of Episcopal Development and Relief in the Episcopal Church of Sudan, is reported to be still in Omdurman, although international communication is difficult.
In Abyei Primate Justin Badi Arama and the South Sudan Development and Relief Association has been working to reconcile Twic Dinka and Ngoc Dinka, with support from Anglican Communion Relief.
Patricia Kisare, International Policy Advisor for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America & The Episcopal Church’s office of government relations in Washington, reports that the U.S. participated at the recent High Level pledging conference for relief efforts in Sudan and announced an additional $172 million in funding.
Marc Nikkel Day
Marc Nikkel Day will be observed this year at Grace Church, Lexington, Virginia on Sunday, August 27, with AFRECS Board member Rev. James A. Hubbard as guest speaker. Although Marc Nikkel died of natural causes, we think of him among the martyrs of Sudan.
Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints, and who raised up your servant Marc Nikkel to be a light in the world: Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth your praise, who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The Generals’ War Over Khartoum
Michael Holden, husband of AFRECS board member Rachel Scott, writes, “The fact that both sides view the war as a zero-sum game …points to a protracted war that will further destabilize an already unstable region.” Comparing the nimble, irregular Rapid Support Force of General Dagalo with the air power, more troops, and conventional organization of General al-Burhan, Holden recalls an advisor to the British during the American Revolution who said, “the Americans would be less dangerous if they had a regular army.” For the history of the continuing war that broke out April 15 in Khartoum and now has touched all 18 provinces of Sudan, go to https://jamestown.org/program/can-the-saf-defeat-the-rsf-in-sudan/.
Bishop Stopped, Car Burned in Equatoria
On June 5th, Amosa Data Elinoma, bishop of Morobo in central Equatoria, and his driver were stopped by a soldier while travelling from Bazi to Morobo. The Bishop thought, according to Morobo County Commissioner Moses Soro, that the soldier was a member of the armed forces, but five armed men came out of the bush. “Bishop,” they said, “we need to do for you something that you will not forget in your life, and we wanted to burn your car because you are the supporter of the government.” Shortly after looting their bags and burning the car, the men released bishop and driver.
The Bishop of Lainya, the Most Revd Paul Yugusuk, who is also Archbishop of the Internal Province of Central Equatoria (including the diocese of Morobo), appealed to the leadership of the National Salvation Army, an anti-government militia, to instruct their soldiers to “stop harassing servants of God and civilians.” “We passionately call on all armed groups in South Sudan to give peace a chance,” he said, “ by utilizing mediation and other forms of negotiations to settle political disputes.”
The Bishop’s car was purchased only two months ago with donations from three funders whom the secretary-general of the Anglican Communion, Anthony Poggo, had put in touch with Bishop Amosa.
Is There Hope for Hope House
by Douglas O. Cumming
Hope House, a shelter in Kitale, Kenya for 25 to 40 South Sudanese boys and girls in between sessions of their Kenyan boarding schools, is losing its funding. Backers of the shelter hope to start returning the children to their homeland in 2024-25, eliminating the cost of rent in Kenya and exchanging their refugee status for lives as young citizens of South Sudan.
Hope House was started in 2014 by the Rev. Peter Yuol Gur, now the Episcopal bishop of Tonj, South Sudan, the original home of many of the children. Thanks to a British donor, Dr. Clive Kelly, an effort has begun to build a school on land acquired in Wau, South Sudan. Two classrooms and a latrine have been constructed. A borehole for clean water still needs to be funded.
Gabriel Turich Dak, director of Hope House, stands with William Marial, a South Sudanese resident of the shelter studying in Kenya and sponsored by Grace Episcopal Church, Lexington, Virginia
Gabriel Turich Dak has lived at Hope House since childhood and will graduate from a Kenyan college this month. Now he is the director. Gabriel needs help in running Hope House and in grant-writing, having recently spent three months launching the construction in Wau.
Other resourceful alumni of Hope House include John Makol Deng, who entered a two-year course at Nairobi University, received tutoring from Virginia Tech interns, and now has a full scholarship to Macalester College in Minnesota. Luke Kur Malith, who enrolled at Nairobi School of Law last fall, now has a full scholarship to Elmhurst University outside Chicago. John Makuei Bath will enter a two-year program at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, while Luka Bol, who returned to South Sudan for his post-secondary degree in accounting, will graduate this year. John Garang Manyang, who has also aged out of Hope House, is seeking higher education in computer science or pharmacology; his brother Agoth, who earned top leadership honors at his Kenyan secondary school, is still seeking his place in higher education.
The potential returnees still need a year of shelter in Kitale as they prepare for post-secondary education or an independent life. The girls in particular need a measure of autonomy lest they be forced into an early marriage back home in their villages.
Contact: Dr. Douglas O. Cumming, cummingd@wlu.edu, 540-570-0293 or Dr. Susan V. Mead, svm@diversityserves.org, 540-267-5678
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 edition of the E-Blast was prepared by Board member Richard J. Jones. We solicit your news, corrections, and views. Please send them to anitasanborn@gmail.com.