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 Supporting our Brothers and Sisters in Sudan
I was in the southern Sudan during Easter week, visiting the Diocese of Rumbek where I dedicated Hope and Resurrection School, a secondary school built largely through gifts given to Hope for Humanity, a non-profit corporation organized by members of Christ Church, Glen Allen, in Richmond. Jennifer and Darryl Ernst, the organizers of Hope for Humanity, were part of the team that joined me in the Sudan, along with diocesan missioner Buck Blanchard, the Rev. Hillary West of Christ Church, Glen Allen, journalist Alberta Lindsay, and photographer Margaret Nea. We were joined on our way to the Sudan by the Rev. David Copley, the director of mission personnel for the Episcopal Church Center. The Diocese of Virginia has had a long relationship with the Episcopal Church of the Sudan. The only Episcopal priest who is currently a missionary in the Sudan is the Rev. Lauren Stanley, a Virginia priest who is teaching at a theological school in the Diocese of Renk. In 2006, the Diocese of Renk dedicated a new cathedral, built in large measure from gifts given by people in the Diocese of Virginia, and our then Assistant Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Francis Gray, was present for the dedication. In February of this year, the Most Rev. Daniel Deng Bul, the Bishop of the Diocese of Renk, was elected Archbishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church in the Sudan, and I wanted to visit him to assure him of our continuing interest in the mission of the Church in the Sudan. Our team entered the Sudan from the south so that we would not have to deal with the Islamic-dominated national government out of Khartoum. Under the terms of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement, reached in 2005 to end the long period of civil war between the Islamic north and the Christian south, the government of the southern Sudan has authority to issue travel permits, which our team received in Nairobi, Kenya. We flew into Rumbek, a small city in the southern Sudan, and were greeted at the airport by several hundred enthusiastic members of the Church in the Sudan, singing in the Dinka language songs of welcome, as well as by the bishop of the Diocese of Rumbek, the Rt. Rev. Alapayo Manyang Kuctiel and his two assistant bishops. The welcoming committee members were holding banners and crosses and singing enthusiastically as we stepped off the plane onto the red clay tarmac. We stayed in a nearby compound where the available lodging consisted of canvas tents built over concrete slabs, and behind a flap in each tent was provision for running water and a shower, a toilet and a sink. Our first day involved a visit to the village of Pacong, where we participated in the dedication of a new church building. Samaritan’s Purse, an American non-profit charity operating out of North Carolina, has completed ten new church buildings for the Diocese of Rumbek. A team of young, American, Christian men provides the expertise and the tools for building the churches, then trains local laborers on how to use the tools and how to assemble the buildings so local people can learn building trades while they participate in building the churches. The Episcopal Church is the second largest Christian body in the Sudan, after the Roman Catholic Church, and is a leader in the country’s attempt to build structures of reconciliation and peace. The next day, our team left Rumbek to go out to Hope and Resurrection School for the dedication. Again, we experienced hundreds of people singing songs of welcome and witnessed the enthusiasm and dedication of the Church in the Sudan. Missioner Buck Blanchard, the Rev. David Copley and I left our team behind at the Hope and Resurrection School and flew on to Juba, the capital of the southern Sudan, for a visit with then Archbishop-elect Deng Bul and his staff. As I write this, Daniel Deng Bul is preparing for his enthronement in his cathedral in Juba. Buck Blanchard is back in the Sudan along with our own Bishop Coadjutor Shannon Johnston, representing the Diocese of Virginia, and our retired Assistant Bishop Francis Gray, representing the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Juba is a large, bustling city, with primitive roads and housing. We stayed in a not-yet finished hotel and were entertained by the Archbishop-elect at a dinner under a tent on the cathedral grounds. I have been in informal settlements in South Africa and witnessed the severe poverty of that environment. But in those settlements, one is not far from the first-world environments of Johannesburg and Cape Town. The southern Sudan has no such signs of a first-world economy. One must drink bottled water exclusively, the telephone service is unreliable, the postal service is almost non-existent. Cell phones and satellite television are widespread, so the people are in touch with the worldwide community. I thank God for the commitment and energy of the people of our Diocese in supporting our brothers and sisters in the Sudan. Thank you for your support for this important ministry. Faithfully yours, Peter James Lee
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A vivid memory of my week in the southern Sudan is that of guards in camouflage uniforms holding loaded AK-47 assault rifles, providing security for government officials attending the liturgies in which I participated.