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Last Updated: 02/25/2005
The Rockbridge Report is produced
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Denied visas set back R.E. Lee
Memorial Church's plans for service in Sudan
By Rob Armstrong R.E. Lee Memorial Church’s international outreach program in Sudan had a setback earlier this month. Two Lexington parishioners and the local Episcopal bishop planning to visit the region were denied visas by the Sudanese government. The obstructed plan to expand the Anglican Church’s missionary efforts in Southern Sudan comes after 20 years of invested charity work in a region marked by some of the worst political violence and religious hostility in the world. R.E. Lee Memorial, one of Lexington’s largest congregations, has joined with an Anglican diocese in Bradford, England, to support Episcopal churches throughout Sudan that are suffering from religious and political persecution. Until his death in 2000, the Episcopalian liaison to Sudan was the Rev. Mark Nikkel, a missionary who provided R.E. Lee with “a link of human companionship to the region in a real, human way,” said the Rev. Tom O’Dell, priest of the Lexington-based congregation. “But since his death, R.E. Lee has lost its personal contact with the region.” R.E. Lee parishioners Chuck and Ellen Ivy and the diocese's Bishop Neth Powell planned to visit Sudan in February. They wanted to gather information and reestablish a connection with the people of Southern Sudan. In the past, R.E. Lee Memorial has helped educate several seminarians, including Father Bartholomayo Deng, a native of Sudan who was given a stipend to complete seminary work in Kenya. Deng said that the value of the Anglican Church’s support to the Sudanese people is very important. According to Deng, R.E. Lee Memorial has been especially helpful to the region, but the government has often obstructed the effectiveness of missionary efforts. Deng’s personal background reflects these difficulties. As a young adult, he was forced to flee from his home in order to escape torture for practicing Christianity. Deng and others fled to Ethiopia, then to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, before escaping persecution. It was at this camp where he met Nikkel, who had also been exiled to Kenya. Several years later, Deng was ordained into the Anglican Church, his studies largely funded by members of R.E. Lee Memorial Church. Now an accomplished member of the Episcopalian clergy, Deng has continued seminary study in Alexandria, Va., and occasionally visits Lexington to preach at R.E. Lee Memorial. The Sudanese government has opposed Christian missions in the past. Controlled by Islamic fundamentalists, the Sudanese military “inflicted a reign of terror on the people of Southern Sudan in the 1960s,” said Deng. “Many people, including church leaders, were forced into exile.” A peace accord was signed in 1972 between the Sudanese government and the Southern minority. Acting without restriction, the Episcopal Church “came back again with great zeal and vigor,” said Deng. But the treaty was short-lived and lasted less than 12 years. The current conflict in Sudan, which some media have called genocide, has displaced many Christians, causing them to seek refuge in rural areas. But Deng said the exodus of the Episcopalians has led to a spread of the gospel. “According to many analysts, the Episcopal Church of Sudan is perhaps the fastest growing church in the Anglican Communion today,” he said. Other results of the violence in Sudan have been massive population displacements, destruction of social service structures, loss of thousands of lives, and increasing the general impoverishment of the Sudanese people. According to Amnesty International, a human-rights organization, more than two million Sudanese people have died since 1984, including thousands of woman and children who have been abducted or raped. According to the organization, in the 21 years of turmoil, “not one perpetrator of war crimes or crimes against humanity is known to have been brought to justice in Sudan.” A new peace treaty was signed in January to end the conflict in South Sudan, but violence continues in the capital of Darfur and in West Sudan. “I’m convinced that the Sudanese government thinks that international attention will turn away and the peace in the South won’t last,” said O’Dell. “It is my hope and prayer that R.E. Lee Memorial and our fellow parish in Bradford, England, will enter into a meaningful relationship [with the Sudanese people] to give us a voice on their behalf for their promises and freedoms.” O’Dell and his parishioners have been encouraged by Bishop David James of Bradford, England, who was granted access to Sudan. His trip represents a significant gesture to the Sudanese people from the Anglican international community. James has not yet returned from Sudan. The parishioners of R.E. Lee are praying for his safety and hope for encouraging news that will allow their own efforts to become more effective. “At this juncture, the whole community looks at the Church as the only institution who can do something not only for Christians, but for the whole population of the troubled African regions,” said Deng.
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