Church Head Offers Message of Hope in Sudan Peace Visit

The spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams, has arrived in Sudan following the nation’s peace deal that ended more than 20 years of violence, on a pre-Lent visit.

|PIC1|The Archbishop of Canterbury, used the visit to appeal for tolerance, with more than 1,000 gathering to hear his speech.

“So many of these conflicts are about who is to be king,” said Dr Williams in Khartoum, where Islamic Sharia law applies.

He continued, “Together as groups, as tribes ... as religions, we know that God alone is king and we can therefore be at peace with each other.”

The spiritual leader of more than 70-million Anglicans across the globe, will spend one week in Sudan to preach the reconciliatory message of co-existence. His schedule includes plans to travel to southern Sudan to open a Cathedral, as well as visiting the United Nations feeding programmes taking place in the country.

The Sudanese Civil War claimed more than 2 million lives, with violence widespread, but with a majority of the deaths coming from famine and disease brought about from the conflict.

However, last year an historic peace deal was signed, and saw the Islamic ruling party form a coalition with its previous enemies, in the form of the Christian and animist southern rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

|AD|Disputes are still apparent, especially with regards to the country’s oil shares, and Dr Williams stated to the large crowd of Christians gathered: “I shall want to know more about how you will come to have a full share in the good things of this country.”

The Archbishop also visited one of the slum areas around Khartoum, where millions of southerners fled during the war. He told them that he wanted to work to ensure that when these people returned home, to southern Sudan – one of the poorest regions in the world – that there would be food, water and roads for them to enjoy.

One youth, who had turned out to greet the Anglican leader, 19-year-old Cecelia Samuel said, “Now with peace we are much more accepted in society. Things used to be different and we were repressed, but now we have our people in government and things are so much better,” according to Reuters.

The peace deal that was struck last year in the south of Sudan, does not cover the separate conflict on Western Darfur, which has been raging for three years now, as well as a violent rebellion in the east of the country.

As spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop is religious leader of more than 3 million southern Sudanese and a majority of his trip will be spent in the south. During his stay, Dr Rowan Williams is expected to meet Muslim and Christian leaders and hold services throughout the country.