AFRECS Conference 2011
Judith Lane Gregory, Business Manager for the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware, attended the 2011 Conference for the American Friends of the Episcopal Church in Sudan. Here are some photos and her comments.
Above: Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail of the Kadugli Episcopal Diocese. In his diocese, in the war-torn South Kordofan region, the Anglican cathedral and offices in Kadugli have been ransacked and looted.
"I am told that armed men went house to house, searching for me, calling my name," Elnail told the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Africa on 4 August 2011 in Washington D.C. He narrated how a member of his congregation had witnessed the Sudan Armed Forces and northern militia groups burying 100 or more dead bodies in mass graves in Kadugli.
"If I were not here today to testify before you, I do not know whether I would be in a mass grave in Kadugli now," he said. Elnail said he has received frequent reports of the bombing of civilians in the Nuba Mountains by the Sudan air force. He expressed the people's fears that a state-sponsored ethnic cleansing campaign was unfolding there.
Above: L-R, former British Ambassador to Sudan Alan Goulty, now senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, discusses current Sudan situation with the Rev. Canon Ian Woodward of the Diocese of Salisbury, England, and the Rev. Hillary West, assistant rector of Christ Church Episcopal in Glen Allen, VA. Photo by Emily Cherry, Communications Officer, The Diocese of Virginia and Managing Editor of The Virginia Episcopalian.
Above: On the right is Bishop David Jones, President of AFRECS and Suffragan of the Diocese of Virginia. He is talking to a gentleman from Sudan. Photo by Emily Cherry, Communications Officer, The Diocese of Virginia and Managing Editor of The Virginia Episcopalian.
Above: The Rt. Rev. Shannon Johnston, Bishop of Virginia, leads others in prayer, including the Rt. Rev. David C. Jones, Suffragan bishop of Virginia and President of AFRECS, and Judith Lane Gregory of the Diocese of Delaware, AFRECS Secretary. Photo by Elizabeth Boe, Program Officer, Global Networking, Episcopal Church Center.
Sunday Morning Eucharist. Front row, front to back – the Rev. Canon Petero Sabune, Africa Partnerships office, Episcopal Church Center; PB; Bishop David C Jones; Rev. Paul Johnson, rector, and Rev. Hillary West, assistant rector of Christ Church Episcopal, Glen Allen. Second row, Larry Duffee, foreground, and Darryl Ernst. Photo by Elizabeth Boe, Program Officer, Global Networking, Episcopal Church Center.
Bishop David C. Jones, Suffragan Bishop of Virginia and President of AFRECS, welcomes Bishop Abraham Nhial of the Diocese of Aweil, Sudan.
Conference participants packed the workshop "Seeking Peace after the Long War" moderated by the Rev. Ross Kane of St. Paul's, Alexandria, VA (center). Presenters were Dr. Barry Hart of the Center for Justice and Peace Building, Eastern Mennonite University (center) and Marie Dennis, co-president of Pax Christi International (right). Photo by Emily Cherry, Communications Officer, The Diocese of Virginia and Managing Editor of The Virginia Episcopalian.
Dr. Ellen Davis of Duke Divinity School described the Visiting Teachers Program with Renk Theological College in Sudan to a rapt audience in the workshop on theological education at the AFRECS conference. Other presenters, seated in front row, were Dr. Stephen Cook of Virginia Theological Seminary, left, and the Rev. Canon Trevor Stubbs of Bishop Gwynne Theological College in Juba, Sudan. Photo by Emily Cherry, Communications Officer, The Diocese of Virginia and Managing Editor of The Virginia Episcopalian.