WCC NEWS: WCC hails independence of South Sudan

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World Council of Churches - News

WCC HAILS INDEPENDENCE OF SOUTH SUDAN

For immediate release: 07 July 2011

South Sudan achieves its independence on Saturday 9 July 2011, and the
new president has received congratulations and an assurance of continued
solidarity from the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the
World Council of Churches (WCC). In a letter dated 7 July on behalf of the
WCC, Tveit extended to the president of the Republic of South Sudan,
General Salva Kiir Mayardit, “our prayers and very best wishes for the
bright and peaceful future of your country and people.”

Four decades of recurring warfare and confrontation in Sudan have caused an
estimated death toll of more than 2 million as well as destroying much of
the region’s infrastructure and eroding resources necessary for a
healthy economy.

Tveit’s letter recalls that “the WCC, our ecumenical partner the Sudan
Council of Churches (SCC) and both councils’ member churches have been
accompanying the people of Sudan for much of your long struggle. Forty
years ago, the WCC together with the All Africa Conference of Churches
(AACC) mediated between the two parties [in Sudan] and reached the 1972
Addis Ababa Agreement.”

Later, as conflict reignited, the WCC together with partner churches and
organizations remained deeply involved in efforts toward peace in Sudan.
In 1994-95, the WCC, AACC and SCC were instrumental in the creation of the
Sudan Ecumenical Forum through which Christians provide support to
Sudanese churches in their advocacy for peace and reconciliation. These
undertakings helped bring about the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement
which ensured the creation of the Republic of South Sudan.

Tveit’s letter will be read at the inaugural ceremony on Saturday in
Juba, the capital of the newly instituted Republic of South Sudan, by his
predecessor as WCC general secretary, the Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, who serves
as special ecumenical envoy of the AACC to the Sudanese peace process.

In an interview on the future of the region, Dr Mathews George Chunakara,
director of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs,
remarked that “in the new era of independence the challenges for
Sudanese churches will be greater as they roll out creative initiatives
for peace and reconciliation and support people in the process of dialogue
addressing internal conflicts in the new republic.”


Full text of the WCC general secretary's letter (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=ff2d2ed9fa38d7e92cb3 )

Read also: South Sudan is born, ecumenical movement needed for
nation-building (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=c58794c4584e9554ebf6
) (WCC press release of 21 February 2011)


The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness 
and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of 
churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, 
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, 
from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.



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