Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan

The Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan, formerly known as Episcopal Church of Sudan, is a province of the Anglican Communion located in South Sudan and Sudan. The province consists of 41 dioceses, each headed by a bishop. The current archbishop and primate is the Most Rev. Daniel Deng Bul.

Archbishop

Daniel Deng Bul is the current Archbishop of South Sudan and Sudan

The episcopal see of the Archbishop of South Sudan and Sudan is at Juba. The incumbent serves the church as both its Primate and its Metropolitan archbishop and is titled "Archbishop of South Sudan and Sudan, and Bishop of Juba". He represents the province to the rest of the Anglican Communion, and serves on the international Primates' Meeting. In February 2008, the Episcopal Church of Sudan elected Bishop Daniel Deng Bul of the Diocese of Renk to serve as its next archbishop, succeeding Archbishop Joseph Marona, who retired on 31 December 2007 after serving seven years in the office.^[1]

History

The first major Anglican mission in Sudan was founded in Omdurman in 1899, under the auspices of the Church Mission Society. The mission led to widespread conversion to Christianity throughout southern Sudan. Missionary activity came first under the Diocese in Jerusalem, and then, in 1920, as part of the new Diocese of Egypt and the Sudan, with Llewellyn Henry Gwynne as its first bishop. As the pace of growth continued, a separate Diocese of the Sudan was formed with its own bishop in 1945. In 1957, oversight for the Diocese of the Sudan was transferred from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Archbishop in Jerusalem. In 1974, when the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East underwent structural reform, Sudan became an independent province of four dioceses.

Due to continued growth and displacement due to the Second Sudanese Civil War, the province had 11 dioceses in 1993 and has currently 41. Most of the dioceses are small and clustered in the south. The Episcopal Church of Sudan has played a prominent role in the peace process in Sudan. With the secession of South Sudan, in 2011, it has 5 large dioceses covering Sudan (Khartoum, Port Sudan, El Obeid, Wad Medani and Kdugli), and 26 dioceses at South Sudan. With an estimated number of four and a half million members, the Episcopal Church of the Sudan accounts for almost half of South Sudan population.

Ezekiel Kondo (left), archbishop of the internal province of Sudan, with David Hamid (right), suffragan bishop in Europe, in Mikael Agricola Church, Helsinki.

The Episcopal Church of Sudan decided to rename itself as Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan at the meeting that took place in Bor, South Sudan, from 27 to 30 November 2013. It was decided to keep the unity of the Anglican province, despite the secession of South Sudan.^[2] The Internal Province of the Episcopal Church of Sudan was created, comprising the 5 dioceses situated in Northern Sudan, of which Ezekiel Kondo, the Bishop of Khartoum, was elected the first Archbishop on 4 April 2014.^[3]

Membership

There are approximately 4,500,000 Episcopalians in the province, mostly in South Sudan, with a small number also in Sudan.

Archbishops

There have been four Archbishops and Primates of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, currently named Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan, since his creation in 1976.^[4]

1. Elinana J. Ngalamu, 1976–1988
2. Benjamin Wani Yugusuk, 1988–1998
3. Joseph Marona, 2000–2007
4. Daniel Deng Bul, 2008–present

Dioceses

The Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan has 41 dioceses.^[5]

Anglican realignment

The Episcopal Church of Sudan is a member of the Global South and of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, and as such has been involved in the Anglican realignment movement. The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church of Sudan decided to break communion with the Episcopal Church from the United States, because of their acceptance of non-celibate homosexuality, at their General Synod, held in 14–16 November 2011, declaring itself at the same time in full communion with the Anglican Church in North America.^[6][7] It was decided still to "work with those parishes and dioceses in TEC who are Evangelical orthodox churches and faithful to God". Archbishop Robert Duncan of the ACNA spent the three days of Easter, at 19–21 March 2013, in the province, at invitation of Archbishop Daniel Deng of the Episcopal Church of Sudan.^[8] Ezekiel Kondo, of the Internal Province of Sudan, was one of the eight Anglican archbishops that attended Foley Beach enthronement which took place on 9 October 2014, at the Church of the Apostles, in Atlanta, United States.^[9] The House of Bishops decided to formally recognize and to forge a closer relationship with ACNA, following their meeting, held in 25–28 November 2015. At the same time, it was decided to end any formal ties with the Episcopal Church, due to their resolutions that redifined marriage and are not in conformity with the Scriptures, in their view. The House of Bishops also recommended that their Provincial Synod severed any relationship with other province of diocese that approves the blessing of same-sex unions, like the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil. They also encouraged all the South Sudanese and Sudanese "diaspora congregations" in the United States to join, wherever possible, ACNA.^[10]

References

External links

• Episcopal Church of Sudan Official Website
• Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan Official Website (In Construction)
• Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan at the Anglican Communion Website
• AFRECS: American Friends of the Episcopal Church of Sudan
• Kitap De Duɔr Prayer Book with Hymns, in Dinka, Bor dialect (1956) digitized by Richard Mammana in 2015

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