Sudanese church leaders urge support from U.S. faith community

["Lesley Crosson" <lcrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

Sudanese church leaders urge support from U.S. faith community

"Now is the time for the church community in the United States--and 
the world--to raise its voice in solidarity with the people of 
southern Sudan as they move closer to an important referendum in the 
North Africa nation."
Editors:  Photos to accompany this story can be downloaded at 
www.churchworldservice.org/hires

NEW YORK, Monday, October 18, 2010 -- “Now is the time for the church 
community in the United States--and the world--to raise its voice in 
solidarity with the people of southern Sudan as they move closer to 
an important referendum in the North Africa nation.”  

That message of urgency is being delivered to the U.S. faith 
community as part of an awareness and advocacy campaign by a 
delegation of Sudanese church leaders as the country approaches a 
January 9 vote on whether southern Sudan should become independent 
from the rule of the Government of Sudan. 

 "The churches want to say 'no more war in Sudan.'  We have lost more 
than two and a half million people. We don’t want to lose anybody 
again," said Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul of the Episcopal Church of 
Sudan.

In an interview following an Oct. 13 luncheon at the Interchurch 
Center in Harlem, Deng underscored the suffering and injustice 
southern Sudanese believe they have been subjected to at the hands of 
the Government of Sudan, which rules the predominantly Christian 
south from the predominantly Muslim northern part of the country.  He 
said both Christians and Muslims in the multi-religious south have 
suffered under the central government and want the freedom to choose 
whether to remain part of the state of Sudan or become independent.
The referendum is a provision of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace 
Agreement, which ended 21 years of war between the Government of 
Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in the south. The 
delegation fears that attempts to interfere with the balloting or the 
results will result in chaos and renewed fighting between the north 
and south. 

The Reverend John L. McCullough, executive director and CEO of Church 
World Service, responded to the delegation's appeal, saying, "From 
their vantage point this is one of the most critical and urgent 
global issues of our times.”  

McCullough joined the delegation in urging American churches to raise 
their voices "in places of power and policy." 

Church World Service, which has a long history of working in 
partnership with the Sudan Council of Churches, hosted the luncheon. 
McCullough was especially moved by luncheon remarks from Roman 
Catholic Bishop Paride Taban, Bishop Emeritus of Torit, who said the 
faces of "the orphans, the widows, the people who reside on the 
ground" were reflected in the faces of the delegation. 

"That was a very, very powerful witness and a message that all of us 
need to hear as we look for the most effective ways and means to join 
them in their witness for peace and justice," McCullough said. 

For delegation members, the idea that the church--and the 
international community--should speak forcefully to encourage a free 
and fair referendum is not just a humanitarian gesture but a gospel 
imperative.  

"People have been suffering, people are oppressed, people are not 
treated as true human beings. They say they are treated like 
second-class citizens by Sudan and this must come to an end. It is in 
keeping with the Gospel of Jesus Christ," said the Rev. Dr. Sam 
Kobia, Sudan envoy for the All Africa Conference of Churches.  
The delegation is taking steps to assure that its advocacy resonates 
beyond the walls of the sanctuary.  In addition to sermons and 
meetings with ecumenical leaders, the Oct. 10- 22 U.S. visit includes 
discussions with U.N. officials and General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, a 
forum at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, and 
meetings with state department officials in Washington, D.C. 

Kobia, also a former general secretary of the World Council of 
Churches (WCC), said, "The international community should do whatever 
they can to make sure that this referendum takes place; that it is 
free, it is fair, and it is dignified. Whether the final vote is for 
or against independence, the position of the people of southern Sudan 
should be respected and accepted by the international community." 

"The world church, when it comes together, is a formidable source,” 
Kobia added.  He recalled President Nelson Mandela telling 
participants in the 1998 Zimbabwe meeting of the World Council of 
Churches that when the WCC called apartheid a sin, no weapons were as 
lethal in dismantling the system of apartheid in South Africa as that 
WCC statement. 

That is the essence of the message the southern Sudanese churches are 
seeking from their ecumenical partners in the U.S. 

“We want the government of Northern Sudan not to be allowed again to 
manipulate the referendum and then to bring back war to the people, 
and we need the churches to mobilize themselves and say 'Hey, no more 
war in Sudan,’" said Archbishop Deng. 

Other members of the delegation include Roman Catholic Auxiliary
Bishop Daniel Adwok Marko Kur of Khartoum; the Rev. Ramadan Chan, 
General Secretary of the Sudan Council of Churches; and John 
Ashworth, Sudan advisor for Catholic Relief Services and the Sudan 
Ecumenical Forum.
 
Media Contact: 
Lesley Crosson, 212-870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526, jdragin@gis.net