President Salva Kiir of South Sudan spoke in a Catholic church in Juba on Easter Friday ‘calling upon the troubled young nation to join hands to strengthen communal harmony and brotherhood’.

A veteran commander of the decades of armed struggle, Kiir told his countrymen: ‘If there is anything we should fight for in this country now, it is the unity… We must all be ready now to embrace change in the way we think. We must embrace change in our attitude towards one another, change in our attitude to our work and responsibilities and change in our attitude towards our nation. We must be united by the symbol of our country.

His call for churches to preach ‘messages aimed at promoting peace and dialogue’ was supported by an Easter message from the Chairperson of the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), Bishop Michael Taban Toro, asking all member Churches  and laity to ‘pray for healing of people of South Sudan to allow true reconciliation to succeed’.

‘It is imperative and critical that a process of healing from the trauma of long-suffering be allowed to happen,’ read Bishop Taban’s statement.  ‘We have all witnessed the culture of violence and killings manifested in most States both in towns as well as rural areas. Such insecurity is threatening socio-economic and political life or our young nation… Therefore forgiveness and reconciliation from past wounds is a necessity.’

Bishop Taban has been representing the SCC at weekly meetings of the Organizing Committee for the ‘Journey of Healing for National Reconciliation’ since the Council decided to support the campaign, which was started last November by the Government of South Sudan with Initiatives of Change as one of its major partners. A representative of the Conference of Catholic Bishops also joined the latest meeting, along with civil society leaders and representatives of various areas of government.

The Sudan Tribune (March 31, 2013) reported that ‘tens of thousands of Christians in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, celebrated the Easter Sunday with the message of national reconciliation’. Read the article in the South Sudan Tribune here.

Nearly six thousand members of the Presbyterian Church converged at the Nyakuron Cultural Center in Juba on Easter Sunday where the Reverend Paul Ruot Kor stressed the reconciliation between man and God meant that ‘it was also high time to reconcile the communities of South Sudan with one another’.

Speaking before the sermon, Vice President Riek Machar Teny told the worshippers that the war had created barriers between communities which should be broken in order to achieve peace and development in the country. ‘Communities have been torn apart by wars, creating a no-man’s land between themselves where they can no longer interact or speak one another’s languages as it used to be in the past.’

Just before Easter Machar had meetings with political leaders and youth leaders from the three states of Warrap, Lakes and Unity, urging them to play an active role in bringing about peace and understanding between the adjacent communities, urging them to change the pattern of ongoing cattle-raids and revenge killings in their region.

Plans are being redrawn for an extended consultation process to get broad community and cross-sector support for the reconciliation movement, with a national conference now moved to June. Meanwhile, the training of 200 selected ‘peace and reconciliation mobilizers’ is about to start in Juba with an IofC training team, and at least six IofC workshops will be run concurrently in mid-April to advance the outreach into the community.

Report and photos by Mike Brown