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Rev. James Oyet of the South Sudan Council of Churches reflected on the bishop’s passing. “I extend my heartfelt condolences to the family of Bishop Paride and the entire Christian denomination across the country for the unfortunate demise of the most important figure in the history of the country,” said Oyet. “Bishop Taban embodied excellence and was a figure of peace during the struggles and beyond. May the perpetual light shine upon his soul and may rest in peace.”
Bishop Taban was a South Sudanese prelate of the Catholic Church and was the first leader of the Sudan Council of Churches, which was founded in February 1990. He was auxiliary bishop of Juba from 28 January 1980 to 2 July 1983 and served as bishop of Torit from 1983 to 2004.
Bishop Taban received numerous awards, including the Sergio Vieira de Mello Peace Prize awarded by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in 2013 for his work at the Holy Trinity Peace Village in Kuron and the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in 2017 for co-founding the ecumenical New Sudan Council of Churches, building Kuron Peace Village, and chairing the mediation initiative between the Government of South Sudan and COBRA Faction of the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army, which produced a successful peace agreement on 6 January 2014.
