July 31, 2007

In response to an urgent appeal from the Episcopal Church of Sudan, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has issued a statement calling on all U.S. Episcopalians to pray and advocate for the people of Sudan, amid "fears that open warfare could resume within months, producing a humanitarian disaster of tremendous proportion."

Jefferts Schori noted that, in the coming weeks, she will be announcing a series of responses to that request, adding that the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C., will be coordinating grassroots advocacy through the Episcopal Public Policy Network. "As an initial response, I urge all Episcopalians to call, write, or email their Senators and Representatives and ask them to press for U.S. diplomatic engagement to avert breakdown of the 2005 peace agreement in the Sudan," she said. "Additionally, I urge all Episcopalians to pray regularly for peace in Southern Sudan."

The full text of the Presiding Bishop's statement follows.

Over the past several weeks, my prayers and attention have been drawn to Southern Sudan, an area that has seen more sustained conflict and violence over the past forty years than any in the world. A landmark 2005 peace agreement to end decades of civil war between the northern Sudanese government and the people of Southern Sudan appears on the verge of failure. The Episcopal Church of the Sudan, a longstanding witness for peace, has expressed fears that open warfare could resume within months, producing a humanitarian disaster of tremendous proportion.

During the coming weeks and months, I urge the prayers and advocacy of all Episcopalians for the people of the Sudan. The U.S. government played a critical role in brokering the 2005 peace agreement, and with sustained advocacy from the American people, can play a similar role in ensuring that it continues to be upheld and strengthened.

The 2005 agreement ended a war that claimed the lives of more than two million Southern Sudanese civilians and displaced more than four million others from their homes. The underpinnings of the war were economic, historical, religious, and political. (Like the separate, though related, tragedy currently taking place in the Darfur region of western Sudan, the north-south civil war had many layers of cause and effect). The formula for peace in the 2005 agreement called for mutual recognition that, though one country, Sudan needs two systems of governance and civic life: one for the predominantly Arab north and one for the predominantly African south.

In the intervening two years, however, the northern Sudanese government has been defiant in refusing to implement the peace deal as promised. Northern military units have not withdrawn from the south as scheduled. The northern government has sought to redraw the political borders set by the 2005 agreement, and its lack of fiscal transparency has led to widespread fears that it is not honoring the agreement's stipulation that oil revenues from southern oilfields be shared equally between north and south. Income from shared oil revenues is critical to the existence and strength of the Southern Sudanese government. Any weakening of that government could lead to the resumption of hostilities with the north, an outcome that would carry tragic consequences at a time when millions of formerly displaced southern Sudanese have begun to resettle in their homeland.

The Episcopal Church of the Sudan has appealed urgently to the Episcopalians in the United States to work for U.S. government action to help resolve these issues. In the coming weeks, I will be announcing a series of responses to that request, and our Church's Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C., will be coordinating grassroots advocacy through the Episcopal Public Policy Network. As an initial response, I urge all Episcopalians to call, write, or email their Senators and Representatives and ask them to press for U.S. diplomatic engagement to avert breakdown of the 2005 peace agreement in the Sudan. Additionally, I urge all Episcopalians to pray regularly for peace in Southern Sudan.

In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells us to "be ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us." In this critical moment, Episcopalians and other people of faith in the United States have an opportunity to serve as ambassadors in God's appeal for peace in the Sudan. May we have the grace to embody that witness and help bring healing and reconciliation where it is needed most.

Episcopal News Service