Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service -- Oct. 1, 2007 Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, News Director 800-323-8039 ext. 260 -- cobnews@brethren.org
SUDAN ASSESSMENT TEAM FINDS WARM WELCOME FOR THE CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN
(Oct. 1, 2007) Elgin, IL -- A three-member assessment team traveled to Sudan from July 8-Aug. 5 to listen to Sudanese voices and to prepare for a decision about where the Church of the Brethren will begin work in southern Sudan.
The team included Enten Eller, director of distributed education and electronic communication at Bethany Theological Seminary, and Phil and Louise Rieman, co-pastors of Northview Church of the Brethren in Indianapolis.
"Our assessment team was blessed with good travel and wonderful experiences," said Brad Bohrer, director of the Sudan mission initiative. "The welcome they experienced in all of their travels was very warm and inviting, with many areas filled with those who remember the work of the Church of the Brethren in the past."
Bohrer said the visit found a "strong invitation to come and share the work of rebuilding." The infrastructure of southern Sudan has been decimated by decades of war, which concluded a few years ago with a peace agreement between south and north.
Through a review of the team's findings, the Church of the Brethren has settled on the area of Torit as the initial location for a mission. The town of Torit is in southeastern Sudan, near the borders of Kenya and Uganda. The target date to begin placing mission workers is Feb. 2008.
Of the choice of Torit as an initial focus for Brethren efforts, "it is reflective of much of southern Sudan, an area of great need and great potential," Bohrer said. "Our purpose in the Sudan Initiative is clear and exciting: we are sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ...working to heal and rebuild communities by addressing collaboratively with those we serve the physical, spiritual, and relational needs we encounter."
The team visited with a variety of Christian bodies in southern Sudan, including the Sudan Council of Churches--a newly merged organization that includes the former New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) in the southern part of the country, and the original Sudan Council of Churches that represented Christians in the north. The Church of the Brethren has been a longtime partner in the work of both church councils, and also provided staff for primary health care, refugee health work, emergency response, and theological training to the Sudan Council of Churches since 1980.
Church leaders who met with or helped host the assessment team included Sudan Council of Churches General Secretary Peter Tibi, Roman Catholic Bishop Paride Taban, Episcopal Bishop Nathaniel Garang, Episcopal Bishop Hilary of Malakal, and the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Malakal, as well as various pastors' groups. They also visited the Holy Trinity Peace Village in Kuron, which was founded by Bishop Taban. Political leaders who met with the team included the state governor in Torit.
The Sudanese are "very excited about the Church of the Brethren coming," said Louise Rieman, who stressed that the assessment team tried consistently to talk seriously about the prospect of church planting by the Brethren. They received repeated assurances that "there is room for everyone to share the good news," she said. One note of caution about the goal of planting churches came from a leader in the Sudan Council of Churches, because the council has valued Brethren support for existing churches.
The tragic effects of decades of civil war and violence were plain to see, the team found. They saw a need for trauma healing and pychological services and reconciliation work for a population affected by war, a lack of development, the destruction of infrastructure including health facilities and schools, a lack of health care, a need for veterinary care for the cattle on which many rely for their livelihood, poor nutrition, opportunity for vegetable gardening and fresh foods as part of the diet, little education and experience in democratic processes, and a need for peacemaking work. "Even though there's relative peace, there's need for the peacemaking gifts the Church of the Brethren can bring," said Phil Rieman.
"Of course the Gospel is central" to the Brethren mission in Sudan, Louise Rieman said, "to live it as well as to preach it and speak it."
Despite the hardships, there is a sense of hope in Sudan, "hope that God will work things out," in Phil Rieman's words. "God is very present" in the lives of the Sudanese people, Louise Rieman said, adding that the Sudanese "are our family, they are our sisters and brothers, and they have suffered beyond our comprehension."
For more from the Sudan assessment team, go to their blog at www.sudan.brethren.org.
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts almost 130,000 members across the US and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.
# # #
For more information contact:
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford Director of News Services Church of the Brethren General Board 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120 800-323-8039 ext. 260 cobnews@brethren.org
********************************************************** To receive Church of the Brethren news via an e-mail list serv, go to http://listserver.emountain.net/mailman/listinfo/newsline