The Second Sunday of Trinity, 9 June 2024, Austwick, Keasden
The clergy of Leeds Diocese received an unexpected, and somewhat unusual letter from Bishop Nick this week. This is how it began:
Dear Colleague,
I am writing this in the lobby of a hotel in Port Sudan. Bishop Toby and I arrived here (without our luggage) for a visit to our sisters and brothers, some of whom are now displaced and who have lost everything. Going for a walk in 34ºC at 8am is an interesting experience. The city feels safer than London or Leeds, but there is evidence all around of a state in trouble. It is a city with an air of suspension about it - waiting for something to happen elsewhere that might return some stability to the country.
On arrival we met with Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo, now exiled to Port Sudan from Khartoum. He and most of the Episcopal Church of Sudan have lost almost everything - including people, many of whom have fled the country or are now internally displaced. There is not much we can do to help (despite praying consistently and bringing financial aid), but a visit in person clearly matters to our sisters and brothers here: they know we love them because we have come despite travel bans and problems at every stage of planning.
We have visited displacement and refugee camps and sat in the homes of local people. We have prayed with some very desolate people in desperate circumstances. All are grateful for your prayers and loving support. Archbishop Ezekiel and Bishop Abdu send their love and gratitude for our mutual love in the name of Christ. [1]
This was a sharp reminder to me, in the middle of an ordinary week in the Yorkshire Dales, that our diocese has a long-established link with the Episcopal Church of Sudan, and that last year the Diocesan Synod sent a letter to all our churches, encouraging us to prayerfully support our brothers and sisters of Sudan throughout their current crisis. [2]
What is happening in Sudan, in a nutshell, is that for the past year two rival factions of the military government have been at war.
The war has triggered the world’s largest hunger crisis, coupled with the worst ongoing displacement crisis worldwide. The World Food Programme report that there are now 10.5 million people, far more people than the entire population of London, displaced, with over 25 million people in need of humanitarian aid. Nearly 15,000 have already been killed, and 26,000 more have been injured, with women and children bearing the brunt of unspeakable violence. [3]
In the early days of the war The Archbishop of Sudan, the Most Revd Ezekiel Kondo, was forced to flee Khartoum after an attack on the cathedral compound, which is why he is now based in Port Sudan. Following an appeal you may remember from last year, money was sent from our Yorkshire churches to the Sudanese Church, to support food delivery and to enable their clergy to continue their ministry.
A Sudanese journalist, Zeinab Mohammed Salih, recently wrote of ‘trying to tell our story but it feels that the world is looking away’. Bishop Nick said it remained a challenge to keep the country ‘on the radar’, but that his current visit would inform questions tabled by the bishops in the House of Lords. [4]
Why do families fight? Why do brothers and neighbours tear each other apart? Human conflict is embedded in the founding story of our faith, with that all-too-recognisable trading of accusations at the start of Genesis: ‘The woman made me eat the fruit’; ‘No, it was the serpent who tricked me, and I ate.’ Whatever the causes of our enmity, and however bad our own behaviour towards them, we accuse those we oppose as having the devil in them, just as the scribes accused Jesus of being the devil incarnate.
But Jesus spoke of the possibility of human relationships which overcome conflict and transcend differences. Looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’
What is the will of God for us, as we contemplate, from such a great distance, the plight of the people of Sudan?
Last month, Bishop Nick Baines issued a joint statement with Bishop Paul Swarbrick, Lead Bishop for Africa for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, calling for more attention to be paid to the ongoing conflict in Sudan. This is how it read.
It is over one year since the start of the Sudanese civil war. The actions of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continue to have devastating consequences for the people of Sudan. However, today, with attention turned elsewhere, Sudan remains largely overlooked – a forgotten conflict with no winners that is already one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes of our time.
Pope Francis, in his 2020 Easter Message, reminded us that “this is not the time for forgetfulness”, aligning with the Archbishop of Canterbury's plea “to stand with those suffering because of war”. It is in this spirit, that we must, however hard it is, not simply shift our attention from one crisis to another. Instead, we should acknowledge, pray, and act in solidarity for all who suffer worldwide. For each crisis is akin to a sick child in our universal family, deserving equal love, care and attention. [4]
What is the will of God for us, as we contemplate, from such a great distance, the plight of the people of Sudan? Bishop Nick wrote, ‘There is not much we can do to help (despite praying consistently and bringing financial aid)’. But those things are not ‘not much’. They mean a lot. Like the Bishops of Leeds and Bradford being in Port Sudan this week, our prayers and our giving are signs to those people that we love and care for them, and that they are not forgotten.
The secretary to our Sudan Link Working Group, Revd Dale Barton, this week told me that “It is not all bad news. The Church in Sudan is facing the civil war with considerable faith and fortitude (it humbles us). The Bishops are an amazing advert for episcopacy as they lead. Churches in the Nuba mountains are growing. Elsewhere churches are full. Praises are rising to God.”
Notes
[1] Rt Revd Nick Baines, Ad Clerum, 3 June 2024.
[2] Jonathan Wood, Letter re. Sudan Emergency Motion [PDF]. Diocese of Leeds, 28 July 2023
[3] Bishop Nick issues ecumenical call for support for Sudan. Diocese of Leeds, 1 May 2024. See also Situation Update April 2024: One Year of War in Sudan. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), 14 April 2024; SUDAN Situation Report. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, accessed 3 June 2024.
[4] Madeleine Davies, Calls for aid to Sudan after one year of civil war. Church Times, 19 April 2024.
[5] Bishop Nick issues ecumenical call for support for Sudan. Diocese of Leeds, 1 May 2024
- To make a donation in support of Leeds Diocese link with Sudan, please go to their Sudan Initiatives page.
- For more information about the situation in Sudan and the Leeds link, please see the Sudan Overseas Link page.
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