U.S. Episcopal, Lutheran Heads Urge Prayers for Sudan

By Ethan Cole, Christian Post Reporter Sunday, June 08, 2008

The presiding bishops of two U.S. Protestant church bodies issued a call to prayer for peace this past week after the recent outbreak of violence between north and south Sudan.

The Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori of The Episcopal Church and the Rev. Mark S. Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church released a joint statement on June 5 urging U.S. citizens to pray for peace between north and south Sudan, warning that the renewed violence "threatened the resumption of widespread conflict in a nation just three years removed from decades of civil war."

"Our sense of foreboding is heightened because the violence has come in and around Abyei, a town whose history, resources and proximity to the border between northern and southern Sudan make it a proving ground for the success or failure of the nation's still-young peace agreement," Hanson and Jefferts Schori wrote.

Abyei is an oil-rich region in central Sudan and the location of fighting last month that caused tens of thousands to flee their homes. According to Reuters, officials from both sides are currently drawing up a "road map" to resolve border disagreements until the region can choose to join the north or south in 2011, when south Sudan will vote on succession.

The Abyei conflict has raised concerns for Africa's largest country, which some fear might return back to its days of civil war.

The conflict between Sudan's predominantly Muslim north and the majority Christian and animist south was one of the longest and deadliest civil war in the late 20th century. Some 1.5 million Sudanese were killed and more than 4 million displaced from their homes during the 21-year conflict – the longest in Africa's history. Besides the high death toll, the north-south fighting also destroyed at least 500 churches in southern Sudan.

Although the civil war officially ended in 2005 with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, there have been signs that the agreement is unraveling with the South accusing Khartoum of not fulfilling its end of the bargain.

In response to the Abyei violence, the presiding bishops called on the international community to address the current situation and safeguard against the resumption of widespread and decentralized fighting.

They noted that Sudan is already destabilized by "the unchecked and catastrophic war in its western Darfur region."

Both church leaders said three actions are needed: humanitarian assistance from the U.S. government and private donations; increased diplomatic pressure from the international community; and for the United States and other party's involved in Sudan's 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement to insist on "full and immediate" implementation of the pact, especially in Abyei.

"These steps are necessary for the remainder of the peace process to unfold as envisioned by its drafters and to avoid the pitfalls we have seen in other areas of implementation such as the current census," Hanson and Jefferts Schori declared.

Southern officials say the "road map" could be signed as early as Sunday, according to Reuters.