Most of the 42 dioceses in the Church of England has a partnership link with somewhere else in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Usually this is a diocese-to-diocese arrangement, but in the case of the Diocese of Salisbury’s Partnership, it is with the two Episcopal Church provinces of Sudan and South Sudan comprising some 68 dioceses and 74 bishops and assistant bishops.
The Partnership was founded in 1973 by Bishop George Reindorp and is amongst the most active of the Partnership Links in the Church of England. We share the association with the Episcopal Church of Sudan with the Diocese of Leeds (formerly Bradford). In 2011 after many years of conflict, the people of South Sudan voted for self-governance and the two countries, and their episcopal churches became independent of each other. South Sudan is approximately 85% Christian spread across a variety of denominations – with Episcopalian (Anglican) and Roman Catholics being about equal and 15% Islamic and animist; Sudan is the opposite with an 85% Islamic population and 15% Christian.
The founding priority of the Salisbury partnership link in 1973 was the need for a very much better educated clergy centred initially on the Bishop Gwynne College in Juba. The college still exists and is part of the new Episcopal University of South Sudan which teaches law as well as theology.
For quite some time many of the clergy in Sudan were illiterate and yet played a vital role in sustaining the Christian faith in a state of continuous conflict and tribal fighting. Tribalism and interfaith conflict continue today, but the Church is recognised as an instrument of peace including in the North (in Sudan) where violence between two warlords has been destroying whole communities across the North and West of the country.
We often get asked ‘what is the point of Salisbury and the Church getting involved with governments when peace in and across both Sudan’s seems so unobtainable?’ The first answer is that ‘we will never give up’ and secondly that with God’s help we can and are making a difference. For historical reasons, the governments of the United Kingdom together with the United States and Norway continue to hold responsibility for delivering peace in the Sudan’s – we are known as the ‘Troika’ and our ongoing role is to deliver the CPA (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) - it is a constant challenge.
The UK government has long endorsed the role of the Churches in supporting and sometimes initiating peace initiatives and the Salisbury partnership works closely with the UK’s ambassadors and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office teams, the Sudan’s Unit therein, and the Sudan and South Sudan APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group). In supporting the APPG, Salisbury seeks to inform and be better informed by effective mutual briefing of issues and initiatives. The UK is also the ‘Penholder’ in the United Nations and tasked with drafting legislation and leading on debates about the Sudans in the Security Council. The Sudan’s desperately need peace, and without it, millions of people continue to be in danger of severe malnutrition, starvation, homelessness. The economies of both Sudan’s are in a hopeless state and are barely recoverable despite available oil resources – inflation is so high that it virtually ceases to be measurable.
This is a brief background and outline of our advocacy activities which are interlinked with our priorities of Health (through our Salisbury Medical Link) and our Education Committee working with schools and Colleges. So do lookout for updates on the Salisbury-Sudan’s partnership website in the coming weeks and months.
Canon Ian Woodward Chairman, Salisbury Sudan’s Partnership