We knelt on the pavement, three long lines of women. One woman at a time led in prayer, acknowledging our need and crying out for God’s intervention in South Sudan.
South Sudanese church leaders continue to amplify hope for their country as the people quietly marked the eighth Independence Day Tuesday without an official government celebration.
With the many conflicts causing suffering around the world as well as the troublesome policies in the United States, our brothers and sisters in South Sudan are oftentimes forgotten. Church leaders there are working faithfully to shore up South Sudan’s fragile peace and head off new humanitarian crises, even as international agencies find evidence of continuing abuses.
When soldiers are seeking to reclaim lost territory they have little regard for the peace agreements signed by their national leaders. That’s why the grassroots work of the Rev. Peter Tibi and PC(USA) partner RECONCILE is a critical component of South Sudan’s fragile peace process.
Last Wednesday rival factions in South Sudan signed a peace agreement to end the country’s devastating civil war. The world is holding its breath. Sharon Kandel, Presbyterian World Mission regional liaison for South Sudan, along with her husband Lynn, who have been living in the war-torn country as mission co-workers for more than four years, are praying fervently for a lasting peace.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a bloc of eight nations in the horn of Africa, has invited the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) to convene a South-South dialogue to strengthen the commitment to peace-building in South Sudan.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a bloc of eight nations in the horn of Africa, has invited the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) to convene a South-South dialogue to strengthen the commitment to peace-building in South Sudan.
Critical peace talks began in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 6 aimed at ending the ongoing civil war in South Sudan. PCUSA partner, the Rt. Rev. Peter Gai and his ecumenical colleagues, Archbishop John Baptist Odama and Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro opened the talks with prayer.
“What are we going to do with these people who are shedding tears day and night, who are wounded in their hearts, about these children who are suffering? How can the Church be a light in the situation? How can we give hope? God has entrusted us with this responsibility, to be the voice of these people.”