RHODE ISLAND: Sudanese bishop speaks of hope in the midst of violence
Episcopal News Service. December 11, 2009 [121109-03]
Ruth Meteer, Communications Officer for the Diocese of Rhode Island
"We should not continue to be second-class citizens in our own country" is a well-known phrase to Americans familiar with the 1960s civil rights movement, but one that southern Sudan Bishop John Zawo of the Diocese of Ezo spoke frequently during his recent month-long visit to the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island.
Rhode Island Bishop Geralyn Wolf and the diocese welcomed Zawo Nov. 7 to consummate a new companion diocese relationship with the Diocese of Ezo. The visit was an opportunity for Rhode Island Episcopalians to share in the experiences of Zawo and his fellow Sudanese, who have experienced the brunt of the recent violence committed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan guerilla group.
Zawo's diocese circles around the town of Ezo, in an area of southern Sudan that has been in ongoing conflict with the Islamic government in Khartoum since 1983. In 2005, the U.S. government helped broker a Comprehensive Peace Agreement intended to end the 22-year civil war, but since then Khartoum has fueled doubts within the international community as to the success of the agreement, by sponsoring the highly publicized ethnic cleansing in the western region of Darfur, and also by backing the LRA in these new violent attacks against the people in southern Sudan.
One of the most horrific of these attacks happened the day after Christmas in 2008 when the LRA surrounded a Roman Catholic Church and slaughtered the 123 Christians worshipping within. In Ezo alone there are more than 40,000 people who have been forced to flee their besieged villages to live under tarps propped up with twigs. The LRA has destroyed their crops and the local children have not been able to go to school at all this year.
Zawo's message to the diocese was one of hope, despite the dire conditions in his own diocese where children go without food and education. He encouraged young people to remain in church and to recognize the unique gifts God has given everyone to carry out his work.
"What a blessing for me to be here with you in the United States while our people are in distress," said Zawo, when he met diocesan youth after school over a pizza.
He spoke of his people's ability to "focus on God in the midst of misery and chaos" and of the wonderful joy and potential there is within people, if enough peace can be found to nurture it.
In his visits to parishes and special events across the state, Zawo spoke of the importance of education, plans to improve Ezo's "Schools under Trees" initiative, and the goat farm the diocese is helping Ezo set up for greater self sufficiency. He expressed Ezo's gratitude to Rhode Island for the hope its presence is giving his people and the aid the diocese has already sent. He spoke with certainty that the LRA attacks can be quickly brought to an end with the help of the international community, and he challenged his listeners to urge the U.S. government to act upon their stated commitment to achieving peace in Sudan.
In response to this call, the dioceses of Rhode Island and Virginia jointly arranged for Zawo and the Rev. James Bocchino of St. John's in Barrington, Rhode Island, to visit Washington, D.C., where they met with members of organizations such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (AFRECS), as well as Rhode Island senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and staff in the offices of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, of Massachusetts.
"Bishop Zawo's visit to Washington afforded an opportunity to share a firsthand view of the crisis in Sudan with U.S. elected officials, with a particular focus on the grave threat to peace posed by the Lord's Resistance Army," said Alexander Baumgarten, director of the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations. "Because the issue of the LRA's incursion into southern Sudan is new within the last 12-18 months, it has not received a sufficiently high profile in international conversations, including those led by the U.S. government."
Baumgarten also noted that Zawo's visit was timely, as "with many in the international community fearful that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement is on the verge of collapse, the United States government is seeking a renewed commitment to the agreement's terms from all parties involved."
Zawo's visit inspired children to write letters to the children of Ezo, which he said he would have translated and distributed to the young people. Zawo said that such a connection between children in the U.S. and Sudan would bring his people hope for the future.
Mary Ann Kolakowski, Christian formation director for the Rhode Island diocese, said of the visit: "Hearts have been touched, our companion relationship has been nurtured and strengthened, and seeds for the growth of the Reign of God have been scattered all around."