The Story of Women Priests in Renk, Sudan
By The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley, Missionary in Renk
[Lauren Stanley, a missonary whom the women of the Diocese of North Carolina help support, eloquently tells the story of six women who dared to become Episcopal priests in Sudan. Once you've read this account, please print out the information and keep it close at hand as a prompt for prayer or meditation. They, who work to nourish the spirits of so many in their battered land, need us to walk with them in thought and spirit.]
On 20 March 2005, six women deacons of the Diocese of Renk were ordained priests of the Episcopal Church of Sudan by The Rt. Rev. Daniel Deng Bul. The six, all of whom had been leaders in the Mothers' Union, all of whom had served as deacons since the Feast of St. Thomas 2003, were the first women to be ordained priests in Renk.
All had been sought out by Bishop Daniel; all had been asked if they would take this first courageous step into a position where previously, only men had served. All knew they would face resentments and in some cases, outright rejection.
But all six said yes.
And so, on Palm Sunday 2005, all of them took their vows and began walking on a new journey for each of them and for the Episcopal Church in this war-torn land.
At the time of their ordinations, the 21-year civil war had just ended in Sudan, with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement on 9 January 2005. Since 1983, black Southerners had been engaged in heavy and quite brutal fighting with primarily Arab Northerners. This was not the first war that engulfed this country; it was, in fact, the third. The first had erupted in 1955, the year before Sudan had achieved independence and the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium had ceased. That war trickled on for years, bleeding at last into the second war, the Anyanya Rebellion, which raged from 1964 to 1972, ending with the Addis Ababa Accord. Negotiations to end this latest war, which killed more than 1 million people and displaced more than 2 million more and was based for the most part in ethnic and religious hatred, had taken more than three years. Peace was still a fragile thing in Sudan; the CPA would not go into effect until 9 July 2005. For the next six years, there will be, in effect, two governments - the national one of unity in Khartoum, the capital, and a semi-autonomous one in the South, based in Juba. In 2011, Southerners are to vote in a referendum, facing two choices: Stay with the North as one country, or become an independent nation.
The issue is a complicated one in Bilad al Sudan (Land of the Black People), which has experienced war throughout its millennia-long history. At heart, the issue has always been ethnic: The North is predominantly Arab, the South predominantly black. Since the 7th century, the issue has been complicated by religious tensions: The North is, for the most part, Muslim, while the South is both Christian and traditionalist. Until the last three decades, it would be more accurate to say that the South was more traditionalist than Christian, but that statistic has been reversed, with Christianity spreading rapidly. Eight years ago, it was common to say that between 5 percent and 10 percent of the South was Christian. Now, the figure is between 50 percent and 80 percent (although the former is more likely to be accurate). So many generations had been raised in war that peace, while welcome, is quite elusive.
In Renk Diocese itself, located in the Northern Upper Nile region of the country, peace is even more complicated. For Renk is the borderland between North and South, where Arab and black, Christian and Muslim meet face-to-face on a daily basis. The predominant sound in Renk Town is the five-times-daily call to prayer from the mosques; only one church, the Roman Catholic one, has a bell to call its own followers to Masses and prayer meetings and songfests. Unlike the majority of the South, here in Renk, Arabic is the lingua franca, for here is a place of refuge and sanctuary. Located about 250 miles south of Khartoum, nestled on the White Nile River, the mightiest in Africa, the war was far more distant than in, say, Bor, where most of the fighting took place. Renk was a garrison town until partway through 2006; the Sudanese Armed Forces had a large garrison here, to protect the road that led to the South, and to keep the Southern People's Liberation Army from moving North. Here in Renk, more than a dozen of the nation's tribes live together, not always in peace. Ethnic and religious tensions flare on occasion; ethnic and religious slurs are commonplace. Not only is there trouble between Northerners and Southerners, Arabs and blacks, Muslims and Christians, there is trouble at times between the various Southern tribes. Relations between the tribes have been acrimonious throughout history; not even the signing of the Peace Agreement could end those overnight.
But now, one-quarter of the way through 2005, halfway between the signing of the Peace Agreement and its implementation, hope was building. The country was on a new path.
And so was the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Renk.
Only four years earlier, the Province had approved the ordination of women. There were many still who opposed this move, claiming that only men could be priests, that women were only good for staying at home, cooking, cleaning, having babies and raising them, that men and women alike would refuse to take Communion from the hands of a woman priest.
But these six women, at the urging of Bishop Daniel, decided they would lead the way.
All six were chosen because of their work in the Church as lay leaders; because of their deep faith, which was obvious to all, even those who objected to ordaining them; because they could preach the Gospel with passion and fervor; because they were, the Bishop knew, committed to being servants of God.
These are their stories.
 The Rev. Martha Deng Nhial |
 The Rev. Alice Benzine Foke |
 The Rev. Deborah Akon Wei |
 The Rev. Teresa Aduk Jerboam |
 The Rev. Grace Isaiah Kpari |
 The Rev. Ludia Galia Jambo |