wfn.org | SUDAN: WCC URGES CONTINUED ACTION ON SUDAN

[Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>]

Sept. 23, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.9.3.7]

SUDAN: WCC URGES CONTINUED ACTION ON SUDAN

(ENI) The central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has
urged WCC member churches, particularly those with direct links with the
Sudan, "to continue and intensify their efforts to encourage and support
the unified peace initiatives" by Church organisations in the north and
south which are seeking to bring peace to the beleaguered African
country.

Since 1983 more than three million people have been killed in Sudan's
civil war. Five million have been displaced inside the country and
another 500,000 forced to seek refuge in neighbouring countries,
especially in Kenya and Uganda. The war, in which the predominantly
Christian and animist southern Sudanese have been struggling for
autonomy from the mainly Islamic north, has divided churches in the
north and the south.

However, leaders of the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), based in
Khartoum and representing Churches in the north, and the New Sudan
Council of Churches (NSCC), representing Churches in the south, last
year signed a common position paper: "United we stand in action for
peace".

The paper, which WCC officials said constituted a solid basis for broad
ecumenical action, has since been presented by Church delegations to
the faction leaders in the south and to the government of Sudan in the
north.

In its statement agreed  at the meeting, the central committee gave its
backing to the common position paper by the SCC and NSCC and highlighted
the "principles elaborated by the Sudanese Church leaders upon which a
just and meaningful peace in Sudan must be built", which included
"freedom of religious expression, worship and witness" and the
"acceptance of cultural, linguistic and social diversity".

The central committee also called on warring factions in the south of
the country and the government of Sudan to issue an immediate
cease-fire. Only a cease-fire could ensure a climate "conducive to
serious discussions" among the Sudanese and lead to a peaceful end to
the conflict, the WCC said.