Twenty months after escaping from Khartoum to Port Sudan, where he borrowed an office and restored communications with his five dioceses, Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo, Primate of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, made a front-line pastoral visit to his devastated city at Christmas.
“One hundred seventy-three Christians were confirmed yesterday in one service in Omdurman”, Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo wrote to Dane Smith on Dec. 27th. “It was the Feast of St. Stephen the first Christian martyr, and it was a five-hour service! … Pastors, Mothers’ Union, and the entire Episcopal Church of Sudan community, including other denominations, came to welcome me and my team. They very much appreciate the little relief food that ECS send them from time to time. They told me, ‘Archbishop ,we thank God for the food you give us’. I told them that the support is from our good friends and partners abroad. Thank you.”
In his public Christmas greeting, Kondo said: “We celebrate the Baby Jesus who is the life of all people. My prayers are with you wherever you may be. This is the second year [the] majority of us celebrate Christmas as displaced and as refugees, because of the war situation which began 15 April 2023. People continue to live in a miserable circumstance. I repeat my appeal to the two warring parties, Sudanese Army and Rapid Support Forces and their supporters: Consider putting the guns beyond use and silence them for peace…. Continuing using guns, there will be no people left to rule over, nor will there be a country called Sudan to live in….. Enough is enough to death. Life is precious in the eyes of God. He has created man in His own image…. Let us abide in Him as long as we live.”