“We affirm our continued humanitarian support through various
community-based initiatives in Southern Sudan, and look forward to stronger
cooperation with your government in this area,” said the Rev. Martin Junge,
general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, in a July 6 letter to
the country’s new president, General Salva Kiir Mayardit.
The government is urging citizens to light candles and pray in churches or
public squares on the eve of independence. At midnight in Sudan, bells will
ring and drums sound across the new country to mark the transition from
Southern Sudan to the Republic of South Sudan.
Churches have been leading prayers this week in the region where more than
99 percent of the population voted to secede from the North, ending a
two-decade civil war. Humanitarian agencies estimate more than 2 million
people died in the struggle, fought mainly in the South.
“We are honored to share in the joy of the much awaited birth of a new
nation…whose journey for self-determination has been marked by a long and
painful experience of civil war, but also a strong desire for reconciliation
and peace building,” said Junge.
In a litter to Kiir, the Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World
Council of Churches, said the “continuing role of the ecumenical movement was
to accompany the people of an independent South Sudan in solidarity as they
took up the many challenges and tasks of nation-building.”
“The new nation will be confronted with the daunting problems of
reconciliation between enemies in conflicts, healing of people traumatized
by war, reconstructing a battered infrastructure, restoring its economy,
ensuring respect for human rights and the rule of law and improving the
people’s standard of living,” said Tveit in the letter, which will be read
at the inaugural ceremony by his predecessor, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, who now
serves as special ecumenical envoy to Sudan for the All Africa Conference of
Churches.
Setri Nyomi, the general secretary of the World Communion of Reformed
Churches, sent a congratulatory message to Kiir on July 7. “The road to this
day has been difficult and many have sacrificed. We have been praying for
you and the peoples of Southern Sudan,” he said. “It is our prayer that
under your leadership, Southern Sudan will have a good beginning that sets
the path towards peace, reconciliation, justice, security, good governance
and the welfare of all.”
Church leaders in Sudan are upbeat, but still express concern, since
humanitarian agencies warn that several unresolved disputes, especially in
the border states of Abyei and Kordofan, could spark another bloody
conflict. Over 17,000 people have been displaced due to violence in the two
states.
Roman Catholic Bishop Rudolf Deng of the diocese of Wau said he never
thought he would see this day. “I thought our people were too weak and were
not mature enough to cross ranks and make the necessary sacrifice, but they
have shown it,” he said. Deng said independence was not going to be easy,
because the North would continue pestering the new state. “One great source
of insurance, I can say, is the length of suffering of the people. A lot of
people have been matured by the suffering. It has purified us.”
Sudan’s President Hassan Omar al-Bashir has blessed the region and confirmed
he will attend the independence ceremonies. The development was praised by
church officials, who say his presence will calm the international
community, which feared interference from the North.
