Bishop Eric Menees
This Tuesday the Church commemorated the Martyrs of Sudan.
The Anglican Church in the Sudan, known as the Episcopal Church of the Province
of Sudan, has suffered greatly over the past thirty years. And yet, they are
faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to living out that faith.
Who are the Martyrs of the Sudan? Back in 2006, when we were
still in TEC, the following was presented to General Convention:
The Christian bishops, chiefs, commanders, clergy and people
of Sudan declared, on May 16, 1983, that they would not abandon God as God had
revealed himself to them under threat of Shariah Law imposed by the
fundamentalist Islamic government in Khartoum. Until a peace treaty was signed
on January 9, 2005, the Episcopal Church of the Province of the Sudan suffered
from persecution and devastation through twenty-two years of civil war. Two and
a half million people were killed, half of whom were members of this church.
Many clergy and lay leaders were singled out because of their religious
leadership in their communities. No buildings, including churches and schools,
are left standing in an area the size of Alaska. Four million people are
internally displaced, and a million are scattered around Africa and beyond in
the Sudanese Diaspora. Twenty-two of the twenty-four dioceses exist in exile in
Uganda or Kenya, and the majority of the clergy are unpaid. Only 5% of the
population of Southern Sudan was Christian in 1983. Today over 85% of that
region of six million is now mostly Episcopalian or Roman Catholic. A faith
rooted deeply in the mercy of God has renewed their spirits through out
the years of strife and sorrow.
Last year, the Episcopal Church of the Province of Sudan
formally broke off relations with TEC, and with that they lost all funding.
Even in the midst of suffering, their faith remains a shining example for all
Christians. When I’m tempted to feel like we’ve suffered as a result of our
faith, due to the legal confiscation of our property, I just remember the
Christians of the Sudan and others all across the globe.
Join me in the following prayer:
O God, steadfast in the midst of persecution, by whose
providence the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church: As the martyrs
of the Sudan refused to abandon Christ even in the face of torture and death,
and so by their sacrifice brought forth a plenteous harvest, may we, too, be
steadfast in our faith in Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit
livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Thirty-nine Articles
of Religion
XXIX. Of the Wicked,
which eat not the Body of Christ in the use of the Lord's Supper.
The Wicked, and such as be void of a lively faith, although
they do carnally and visibly press with their teeth (as Saint Augustine saith)
the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ; yet in no wise are they
partakers of Christ: but rather, to their condemnation, do eat and drink the
sign or Sacrament of so great a thing.
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