Sudan Connections - American Friends of the Episcopal Church of

SUDAN
CONNECTIONS
spring 2006
Volume 1, Number 3
AFRECS - American Friends of the Episcopal Church of Sudan
SUDAN
Connecting Hopes and Gifts
American Friends of the Episcopal
Church of Sudan (AFRECS) is an
organization of U.S. churches, nongovernmental organizations, and
individuals who care deeply about
the struggles of the Sudanese people.
AFRECS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jerry W. Drino
Frederick E. Gilbert
Helen Perry Grimwood
Frederick L. Houghton
Richard J. Jones
Andrew P. Klatte
Jackie Kraus
Carolyn Weaver Mackay
Anita Sanborn
Steven R. Smith
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR &
CONNECTIONS EDITOR
Nancy Mott Frank
CONNECTIONS CO-ORDINATOR
CONNECTIONS
spring 2006
Volume 1, Number 3
Contents
A Letter from the Executive Director ............................................... 3
Nancy Frank
Episcopal Church of Sudan Visits American Friends ........................... 4
Richard Jones
Synod of the Province of Sudan ........................................................ 7
Nancy Frank
Centenary Celebration: Founding of Christianity in Malek ............. 9
Jerry Drino
Renk Cathedral Consecration Attended by Chicago Episcopalians .... 11
Episcopal News Service
Cathedral Opened Amid Great Joy, Vibrancy ................................... 13
Lauren Stanley
Debra Andrew Maconaughey
CONNECTIONS DESIGNER
Constance Wilson
www.afrecs.org
CONTACT INFORMATION
American Friends of the Episcopal
Church of Sudan (AFRECS)
3737 Seminary Road
Alexandria, VA 22304
info@afrecs.org
2
On the cover: Harriet Baka Nathan, Provincial
Trainer for the Mothers’ Union of the Episcopal Church
of Sudan, with Executive Director of AFRECS, Nancy
Frank, at the worship service of the 2nd Annual
Conference of the American Friends of the Episcopal
Church of Sudan - St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church,
Saratoga, California.
For submissions to Sudan Connections: Send information to Debra Andrew
Maconaughey at downtime66@hotmail.com
D
Dear Members of AFRECS,
if you are interested. Workshop offerings spanned a
wide scope of interest and I hope some can be repeat-
Our second annual conference took place Feb 17-19, ed another year. I was moved by the trauma presen2006, in San Jose, California, at Trinity Cathedral. tation put together by Jerry Drino. It was useful to
Many, many thanks to the great group of volunteers learn and think more about the difference between
who made it happen. The Rev. Jerry Drino helped trauma and stress and I admire the Sudanese who
with the organization of the conference as well as spoke about their personal trauma experiences.
managing the scholarships for the Sudanese. Marge What courage that must have taken!
Lobbes was the overall Chairman of the conference
and managed multitudinous details which ensured Spring will have me working hard on getting the
the success of the week-
project registry up
end.
Melita Wade
and running. I am
Thorp recruited and
surprised to have
managed the volun-
three
teers while Mariette
stacked project pro-
Franke
cooked
and
posals on my desk
served
us
delicious
and I’m anxious to
meals all weekend and
make them avail-
kept
able to all by post-
those
yummy
inches
of
snack bowls filled. And special thanks to all the other ing a summary of each on our website.
members of the Steering Committee and to the volunteers! Our hats are off to San Jose! Thank you so
Your Executive Committee will be meeting in April
much! We look forward to Chicago in 2007. At the in Alexandria, VA. The Board is planning another
moment we are looking at two weekends in April three day retreat in August in Chicago. There is
42007 and will send out a “save the date” alert as much to do!
soon as the date is finalized.
Blessings upon each of you in your Sudan work.
I am remembering the conference as an amazing blur
of challenging speakers.
I thought often that I
wished we could have an hour more to hear from each Nancy Frank
one rather than moving on. Some resources are avail- Executive Director
able such as Chuck Barker’s powerpoint presentation American Friends of the Episcopal Church of Sudan
3
Episcopal Church
of Sudan Visits
American Friends
Although this idea of directing a portion of the
British, Canadian, and US support of the ECU to its
unfunded national and diocesan administrative offices
has been under discussion for over a year, American
Friends of the ECU made no immediate response.
Regarding the use of the 50% of Sudanese oil royalties promised to the Government of Southern Sudan
during the current 6-year Interim Period prior to a
referendum on national unity or separation, Michael
Kevane, economics professor at Santa Clara
University, warned that large public works, even ones
so obviously needed as highways, are prime opportunities for corruption. Kevane commended instead
the dispersal of
public funds to
promote locally
owned enterprises, communityinitiated assets
like schools and
libraries, and
even direct cash
pension benefits
to widowed, elderly, and disabled
citizens.
Reconciliation and reconstruction in postwar
Southern Sudan dominated the conversation of 150
Sudanese and Americans gathered in San Jose,
California Feb. 17-19 for the second annual meeting
of American Friends of the Episcopal Church of
Sudan. Enock Tombe, an engineer unanimously
elected last month as Provincial Secretary of the
Episcopal Church of
Sudan, told the group
that although the ECU
rejects homosexual practice among church leaders, it continues to listen to all voices within
the Anglican
Communion and desires
closer links with friends
in the Episcopal Church
in the USA who wish to
help meet urgent needs
for education, health
care, and clean water in
Giving rapt
Enock Tombe, Provincial Secretary of the Episcopal Church of Sudan
the tropical region
attention to possibilities for return to gainful
where the return home has already begun for 4 million southern Sudanese made homeless by 21 years of employment in postwar Sudan were approximately
war.
50 Sudanese, many belonging to the so-called Lost
Boys who trekked as living skeletons to Ethiopia and
4
Tombe challenged the group, which includes donors
to many local programs of school construction, clinics, and transport in the 24 dioceses of the Episcopal
Church of Sudan, to consider earmarking 5% of such
transfers at the appropriate “point of entry,” to fund
necessary administrative functions of the ECU. “The
branches of a mango tree bend under the weight of
their fruit,” he said. “Unless the trunk and roots are
nourished, the branches can split.”
Kenya during the height of the civil war two decades
ago and have recently resettled in cities from Atlanta
to Seattle. Cesar Gevule of Kansas State University
and John Majok of the Academy for Educational
Development in Washington, D.C. urged these
young men and women to consider short-term volunteer work in the fields of health and education as a
way of testing the feasibility of return.
Episcopal Church of
Sudan visits American
Friends, con’t.
Grant LeMarquand of Trinity Episcopal
School for Ministry in Ambridge,
Pennsylvania along with Theresa Brown
of the Church Divinity School of the
Pacific, Berkeley, California described
ways Sudanese pastors leading the
Sudanese Christian congregations that
have sprung up across the US can
acquire the basic theological knowledge
they lack, even while they continue to
support themselves at minimum-wage
jobs in warehouses and stores. CDSP
offers online theological education,
while TESM is about to initiate a second three-year cycle of conferences,
mentoring, and reading which allows
untrained pastors to strengthen their
grasp of the Bible, Church history, theology, and pastoral care.
Pastoral care of those traumatized by
war preoccupies the host of the conference, Jerry Drino, a native of California
who celebrates that state’s growing cultural diversity. Drino will present to the
Episcopal Church’s General Convention
this summer a proposal for honoring
cultural differences in candidates for the
ordained ministry. “Distinctive culture
is one thing,” said Drino. “Trauma is
another. All of us experience stress,
when the adrenaline flows and we perform remarkable feats. But to have lived
through the trauma of emotional and
physical violence is something else.
Sudanese both in the diaspora and
inside the national territory will be
working for years to accomplish reconciliation after the wounds of war.”
Trauma was not apparent, however,
when Harriet Baka Nathan, a jetlagged, wiry leader of the Sudanese
Mother’s Union enroute to a United
Nations conference on the status of
women, belted out, “Jesus is Lord!
Christ is risen!” A troop of Sudanese
young adults danced the offertory procession down the center aisle of St.
Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Saratoga,
California on Sunday morning, to the
vigorous beat of the drum. Drino invited communicants, on their way to the
high altar, to put their hand into three
gourd bowls holding water from the
White Nile and earth from a destroyed
church and a martyr’s grave in the 100year old Diocese of Bor in Sudan. Ernest
Cockrell, the white-haired rector,
remarked to the capacity congregation:
“The exchange of the peace seems to last
a little longer when our Sudanese brothers and sisters are with us.”
Dr. Richard Jones
President of AFRECS
Pictured top to bottom:
Michael Kevane, Cesar Gevule,
Jerry Drino, Awein Majok,
Harriet Baka Nathan & Nyandeng Aleu
To see more photos of the conference, continue
reading on page 6.
5
Attendees at
the 2nd
Annual
Conference
Clockwise from one
o’clock:
Lost Boys gathering
Sudanese women at
“Sudanese Women in
America” Workshop
Sudanese youth
Sudanese youth dancing at
St. Andrew’s
AFRECS Board Member
and host of the conference,
Jerry Drino with Lost Boys
AFRECS President
Rich Jones
Sudanese young women
during a break
Presenter Charles Barker at
“Approaches to the Peace
and Reconciliation Process”
workshop
Daniel Leek Geu
addressing the group
Author Mark Bixler with
one of the Lost Boys
6
For more photos of the conference visit:
http://www.flickr.com/phot
os/constancewilson/
Synod of the Province
of Sudan
January 23-29, 2006
Juba, Sudan
Excitement seemed to be in the air as the 8th
Provincial Synod of the Episcopal Church of Sudan
gathered in Juba, Sudan during late January 2006.
This is the first time the Synod has been able to
meet in Sudan in almost 20 years. Visiting
observers from ECU, bishops and their delegations
were housed all over the city of Juba as the 200
plus attendees came together. Fritz Gilbert, Treasurer
of AFRECS, and I attended. Last April’s scheduled
meeting had been cancelled due to the insecurity of
the roads. Sunday’s welcoming service was over three
hours long as visitors were introduced.
Announcements were numerous and hymns frequent.
Prayers mentioned the peace, the opportunity and the
hope in everyone’s heart.
In my prior visits to Sudan, “when the war is over”
was a phrase I had heard over and over. The war has
now stopped and the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA) is mostly holding. Many presenters and discussants observed that this is the time to
move out of the war state of mind and to plan and
work for the future. Even so, there was frequent mention of the attacks and unrest on the southern border
and of the continuing humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
The challenges faced by the Episcopal Church of
Sudan are enormous. Discussions of the need for
income generation, leadership, management, fiscal
independence and fiscal transparency highlighted the
need for new energy and creativity. One major challenge given the virtually universal poverty prevailing
among Southern Sudanese is for parishes to find ways
Pictured left to right: The Rt. Rev. Ezekiel Diing, Assistant
Bishop of Bor; Nancy Frank, AFRECS Executive Director;
Wilson Kimani, Executive Director of SUDRA; Mrs. Joseph
Marona, the Archbishop’s wife; behind, The Rt. Rev. Nathaniel
Garang Anyieth, Bishop of Bor; The Most Rev. Joseph
Morona, Archbishop of Sudan, and Bishop Justin Badi
Arama, Bishop of Maridi
of financially supporting their clergy and the programs of the church. A study of the best means of
providing theological education for all pastors was
the focus of a long and searching discussion. Sudanese
bishops have depended on a yearly grant for their
personal support from the Sudan Church Association
in Great Britain during the war. There was great
concern that the grant is expected to be reduced for
the bishops. Provincial level employees haven’t been
paid in several years due to a lack of funding. The
Provincial structures in Juba and Khartoum will now
need to work together to serve dioceses throughout
all Sudan whereas before the Peace Agreement neither the opportunity nor the challenge even existed.
One of the more vexing problems the ECU faces
comes from a pair of dismissed ECU Bishops (Roric
Jur and Peter El Birish) who have established a
7
Synod of the Province
of Sudan con’t.
“Reformed Episcopal Church of Sudan.” Well funded, they are creating additional Bishops and competing for the loyalty of parishes. With courage and
determination, the delegations focused on the overwhelming challenges facing the Episcopal Church of
Sudan.
A visit to the tomb of Dr. John Garang, was
Laity meeting at the Synod under a nearby tree
arranged. His tomb is near the legislature buildings
in Juba and under a canopy. Flowers and decorations
cover the area where he is buried. All were invited to
sign a memory book. Tributes abounded in the book
and all I could think and write was, “Peace at last.”
8
Following the Synod, there were two days of CORE
meetings. Eight Western partners and eight
Sudanese Provincial staff and volunteers met to discuss funding, the Provincial challenges and the need
for development in the dioceses…..all in the context
of extreme penury. I was asked as Executive Director
of AFRECS to attend as an observer. The Ven.
Michael Paget-Wilkes of the Sudan Church
Association and the Rev. Enock Tombe, General
Secretary of the Province of Sudan, co-chair this committee and it was with painstaking care and commitment that the Sudanese, the NGO’s, the American
Church and the British Church representatives
planned the use of the few available resources for the
maximum benefit of the Sudanese Episcopal Church
and the Sudanese.
Juba has suffered in its years of occupation by the
armies of the Government of Sudan. There is only a
very short patch of tarmac in the whole
city. The rest of the roads are hard packed
dirt with multitudinous potholes.
Electricity is sporadic and undependable.
Water runs sometimes. Upkeep on buildings has not been done during the occupation. Despite that, there is one cybercafé with six computers and a tented
camp recently constructed to house the
burgeoning NGO staffs which are moving
there to take part in the rebuilding of
Southern Sudan. It also has a cybercafé.
Fritz and I were grateful to go to this
meeting. In Africa face-to-face relationship is the basis for any later working relationship
and we started that for AFRECS. While discussing
the Project Registry with each bishop and his delegation separately, I had the chance to start connecting
AFRECS more personally with the Sudanese Church
that we have committed to link more closely to
America. It was a grueling trip and very hot but the
AFRECS presence is welcomed and accepted by the
Episcopal Church of Sudan. We must continue to be
reliably present in the important moments of the
Sudanese Church.
Nancy Frank
Executive Director of AFRECS
Centenary Celebration:
Report on Observing the
Founding of Christianity
at Malek
Shaw became know as Macuor and the mission school
became the cradle of the Dinka Church. He labored
for thirty-one years using Malek as the center of the
Anglican mission. A church, Bible School (seminary), primary and secondary schools, and a hospital
were established there through his efforts.
Bor Diocese, Jonglei Province, Sudan
In 1906 the Ven. Archibald Shaw arrived in the Bor
region of Jonglei Province to begin his ministry as an
extension of the Church Missionary Society (UK).
Originally four other missionaries accompanied him,
but within five years they had all left for health or
personal reasons. The Bor Dinka people resisted his
efforts to bring them into the Christian faith. Eight
years would pass before he baptized the first member
of their tribe, Jon Aruor e Thor. Marc Nikkel in his
book Dinka Christianity quotes a letter by Jon to the
archdeacon who was away a Yambio:
Chief Shaw, yesterday I heard of God. I was happy for the
news of God and Jesus came to my heart and I was full of
joy. He has come into my heart. People are persecuting me
and I do not fear their words. As you told me, I kept praying over it. Prayer is very dear to me. I ponder much over
the things of God. Come quickly that our words may mingle about the things of God. God walk with you.
June 1914
Remains of Archdeacon Shaw’s iron boat at Malek –
clergy and youth January 2006
On January 31, 2006 the Bishops, Nathaniel Garang
and Ezekiel Diing, and the Council of the Diocese of
Clergy at Malek, January 31 with Bishops
Ezekiel Diing (l) and Nathaniel Garang with miter.
Bor gathered at Malek the clergy and people of Bor
scattered throughout the Sudan and beyond. For a
variety of reasons only four of us, including two
Sudanese priests, were from the US at this historic
gathering, the 100th anniversary of the founding of
the Anglican Church and Christianity among the
Dinka of the Upper Nile. Over 8,500 people journeyed in 100+ degree temperatures, some of them
walking 3-5 days with little water or food...for two
days there was no food for anyone and when food was
available it was just one small meal a day. But the
joy was tangible.
The first night there was dancing and singing until
the morning hours. Malek is their Jerusalem, Can-
9
Centenary Celebration con’t.
terbury and Oxford all rolled into one. It was the
religious, educational, and medical center for Bor
area and Jonglie Province with 1.5 million people –
mostly Episcopalians/ Anglicans . The majority of
Dinka leaders that led the rebellion that started the
civil war in 1983 were educated there. Consequently,
the whole region was severally punished by the
Khartoum government, with all the buildings leveled
to the ground or nearly destroyed.
On December 23 in 1985 the most severe attacks
took place, killing hundreds and burning everything
in sight. A reporter covering the conflict could not
believe what he saw on the 24th. People came from
hiding in the bush and began to sing and dance their
Christmas hymns. He asked why they were doing
this as they processed to the leveled brick church of
St. Andrew’s at Malek stepping over or past the bodies of their children, parents and family members as.
They told him that they could do no other, for this
was the day of the birth of their Lord.
Shortly after this they gathered in the meeting
Ordinands at Malek, January 31, 2006
10
ground surrounded by the ruins for prayers and then
began to scatter in the four directions. The Bible
School was re-established at Kakuma Refugee Camp
in Kenya in the 90's by the Rev. Marc Nikkel. The
occasion in January was the return for the first time
of most of the people to this holy place...a return
from exile not unlike that of the Babylonian captivity
in the Bible. Appropriately four priests were
ordained by Bishops Nathaniel Garang and Ezekiel
Diing.
The need for support for rebuilding the Church and
society are very broad, ranging from sustaining diocesan staff to support of educational, health and educational projects. Only the bishops are paid a small
stipend. The diocesan administrators who labor in
Nairobi are not paid. They and their families live
right on the margins of life. Yet they must remain
there to organize redevelopment projects and secure
funding. It is imperative that they travel to the
Sudan to supervise and encourage the clergy and people. There are no commercial flights, so chartered
planes must be used, and the roads are next to nonexistent or too dangerous with landmines.
Against this background of continuing struggle
Bishop Nathaniel Garang in his sermon on the 31st
called for his people to become missionaries to the
West and to share the joy of faith that has and is nurturing them with a clear sense that God has a mission for them to fulfill. As Anglicans we are not
members of a denomination. We are members of a
Communion and as such our primary identity is in
relationship with those of the World Church. The
Episcopal Church of the Sudan calls us to be in relationship with them, to be one people in Christ.
The Rev. Dr. Jerry Drino
Executive Director, the Episcopal Church in Province VIII
Board Member, American Friends of the Episcopal Church in the Sudan
Renk Cathedral
Consecration Attended
by Chicago
Episcopalians
Sudanese
Primate Names
Honorary
Canons from
Illinois Parish
[ENS] After a nearly decade-long partnership with the
Episcopal Diocese
in Renk, Sudan, a
group from a
Barrington, Illinois,
church traveled to
see first-hand what
their grass roots efforts
have provided a world
away.
Canons in the Diocese of Renk as a way to emphasize
the missional nature of their work for the diocese and
the Church at large.
St. Michael's has been largely responsible for raising
the funds needed to rebuild the nearby Renk Bible
College following its demolition by the Sudanese
government to make way for a road. A new chapel
within the
Bible College
will be named
St. Michael's
in honor of the
Barrington
church.
Renk Town, February, 2006. Pictured left to right: AFRECS Board
Member Jackie Kraus, Father Joseph Garang Atem, Archbishop Rowan
Williams, Laurie Michaels and Father Al Johnson.
The Rev. Alvin C. Johnson, Jr., rector of St. Michael's
Episcopal Church, and two parishioners, Jackie Kraus
and Laurie Michaels, were invited by Bishop Daniel
Deng Bul of the Renk Diocese to the recently constructed cathedral in Renk, which was consecrated by
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on
Tuesday, February 28. The event marked the first
visit by Williams to the Sudan.
As part of the ceremony, Archbishop Joseph Marona
of Sudan named Johnson and Kraus as Honorary
Kraus has visited Renk
twice in the
past. This was
the first trip
for Johnson
and Michaels,
a nurse, who
was asked to
join the group
to observe the
situation in the
area from a medical perspective.
The relationship with the Diocese of Renk in wartorn Sudan began for St. Michael's in Barrington in
the spring of 1997. Kraus, a parishioner at the
church, met Bul at a conference where he had led a
presentation on genocide. She was immediately taken
by the bishop's radiance and energy. “It amazed me
how anyone who has seen such suffering and has suffered himself could have so much joy and faith and
still be so committed to his people.”
11
Honorary Canons con’t.
still be so committed to his people.”
By July of the following year, Kraus and six individuals from the Diocese of Virginia -- which ultimately
raised funds to build the more permanent cathedral
on the site where a grass-and-mud structure had
stood -- left for Sudan to see first-hand what life was
like for the Christian minority in the country. The
bishop, who was studying at Virginia Theological
Renk Bible College and to support its operation.
Then in May 2005, the shocking news came that the
Government of Sudan had moved on their decision to
clear the land for a road through the area and that the
Bible College had been demolished. Within hours,
years of work and dedication had been wiped out.
Later that summer, the Rev. Joseph Garang Atem
arrived at St. Michael's with a discouraging update.
“I thought I would be coming to give you a progress
report on the Bible College,” he said, “but instead I
have come to ask you to rebuild it.”
Within days, parish leaders were communicating with officials in Renk to determine what would be needed to rebuild.
An emergency capital campaign raised
more than $50,000 in just weeks, and
shortly afterward plans for a new building
were in place and construction was underway. Not only would the new building
replace the smaller building that had been
torn down, but it offered many more
amenities, such as concrete floors (replacing dirt floors), offices, dormitories, and a
chapel.
Archbishop Williams welcomed in Renk Town.
Seminary at the time, subsequently came to
Barrington to meet with others at the church and
with Johnson. A formal partnership between the
Barrington parish and the Diocese of Renk was
formed and eventually led to a second formal relationship with the Diocese of Chicago.
12
Over the first few years, St. Michael’s raised funds to
purchase much needed supplies and books for the
Johnson believes that the opportunity to
experience life in Sudan first-hand, however briefly, is extraordinarily valuable. “My guess is
that preconceived notions about others will be quickly dismantled and replaced by the truth, “he said. “It
is one thing to hear about Sudan in the news and
quite another to be there and experience the spirit,
the land and especially the people. We are ordinary
people demonstrating how the Episcopal Church
lives into its mission,” Kraus says. “It’s important for
churches to live out the Gospel at the grass roots
level.”
from the Episcopal News Service
Cathedral opened amid
great joy, vibrancy
Southerners and Northerners, and Christians from the
Episcopal, Presbyterian and Catholic churches in
town.
Two years ago, this cathedral was nothing but a
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
By Lauren R. Stanley
RENK, Sudan – On Shrove Tuesday, an
extraordinary and historic event took
place in Sudan, the largest country in
Africa. At the northern tip of southern
Sudan, on the border between the Arab
Islamic North and the black, Christian
and Traditionalist South, more than
4,000 people gathered in the town of
Renk for the dedication and consecration of the Cathedral of St. Matthew of
the Diocese of Renk in the Episcopal
Church of Sudan.
Never before had a cathedral been built
this far north in Southern Sudan. But
here, where Christianity meets Islam
face to face and just one year after the signing of the
peace treaty that ended 21 years of brutal and devastating civil war, the Diocese of Renk, under the
visionary leadership of Bishop Daniel Deng Bul,
brought together the Episcopal Church of Sudan, the
Episcopal Church of the United States and the
Anglican Communion for a massive and joyous celebration.
On this Shrove Tuesday, crowds began gathering at
daybreak in anticipation of the arrival of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, and
the Archbishop of Sudan, Dr. Joseph Marona. Among
the thousands were hundreds of women and children,
clergy from all over the country, government officials,
Procession around St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Renk Town
vision in the mind and heart of Bishop Deng, who
knew that if a cathedral were to be built in this
place, this borderland between North and South,
then Christianity would have a foothold here that
could never be displaced.
Now, that vision is St. Matthew’s, a stunning and
massive cathedral, which was built with funding
mainly from the people of the Diocese of Virginia in
the United States at a cost of nearly $175,000.
Construction was begun only 10 months before the
dedication, shortly after the peace treaty was signed
and just before it went into effect. With tremendous
hard work and ingenuity on the part of everyone
involved, it was made ready just in time for the con- 13
Cathedral Consecration con’t.
secration.
In addition to the two archbishops, the honored
guests included a contingent of nine Americans from
the Dioceses of Virginia and Chicago, invited for this
momentous occasion because of their hard work an
faithful support for the Diocese of Renk throughout
the long war.
What happened on Shrove Tuesday wasn’t just anoth-
was a monumental achievement all on its own.
No, this celebration was centered on the people’s
faith in Jesus Christ, and on God’s blessings
bestowed upon those who have endured so much
with so little for so long.
It was a celebration centered on the joining of the
people of the Diocese of Renk, in the middle of
Sudan, where Christianity and Islam meet face to
face, with the people of the Diocese of Virginia, who
financed the building of the cathedral.
It was a celebration of the joining of the
Episcopal Church of Sudan, a conservative church in Africa, with the Episcopal
Church of the United States, a fairly
progressive church in the so-called First
World.
It was a celebration of two bishops –
Daniel Deng Bul of Renk, who had a
vision for a cathedral in the middle of
almost nowhere, and Frank Gray, just
retired assisting bishop of Virginia – who
two years ago decided to make that
vision a reality, no matter how impossible that seemed.
Mothers’ Union at consecration.
er opening of a new church. It was much more than
that. The civil war that devastated this country was
largely religious and ethnic. Many Southerners had
been forced to convert to Islam or face persecution
during that war; 2 million people died and more
than twice that number fled their homes, some having not yet gone back again.
And finally, this celebration served an open declaration to the world: We are Christians, and we are here
to stay.
The Cathedral of St. Matthew was filled with laughter and ululating and songs and prayers on Shrove
Tuesday, and not just because the bricks and mortar
were in place in time.
The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley is an appointed missionary serving in the
14
So this celebration wasn’t just about bricks and mortar, even though the construction of this cathedral
Diocese of Renk in the Episcopal Church of Sudan.