Episcopal Church of the Sudan

Note concerning data about Parishes and Priests:
*The ECS is in the process of collecting statistical information after the years of civil war.

The Church Missionary Society began work in 1899 in Omdurman. Christianity developed among the Africans living in the southern part of the country. Until 1974 the diocese of Sudan was under the Jerusalem archbishopric. It reverted to the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Canterbury until the new province, consisting of four new dioceses, was established in 1976. The archbishop resides in Juba, Southern Sudan, where the provincial head office is located.

The Sudan has suffered from two civil wars, from 1955-72, and from 1983 up to the peace agreement in 2005. Apart from the effect of the wars on the church, in terms of large-scale displacement of people and destruction of many lives and property, the EPS went through an internal schism from 1987 to 1992. It was resolved through the creation of more dioceses. Thus the number of dioceses in 1992 doubled to 24. Most of these (16) are in the areas controlled by the SPLM (Southern Peoples Liberation Movement), eight are under the Sudan government. In spite of the problems caused by the armed conflict the archbishop has been able to travel freely in the country as a whole, with support from the two liaison offices in Khartoum and Kampala. The EPS has 15 theological colleges and Bible schools for the training of its clergy.