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Churches in South Sudan shared Easter messages of hope, even amid troubling times for the African nation.The South Sudan Council of Churches, in its message, emphasized renewed hope. “In today’s world, marked by so many conflicts and so much suffering, we understand that many of us feel disheartened,” reads the message.

Church leaders in South Sudan emphasized peace and hope, as the world’s youngest nation marked the 12th Independence Day.

Hope, excitement, and expectations are rising is South Sudan ahead of the ecumenical pilgrimage of peace by the Pope and world Protestant leaders.

After postponing their unique ecumenical pilgrimage of peace to South Sudan, world Christian leaders will travel to the world’s youngest nation in February.

The churches of Sudan – and especially the Sudan Council of Churches as their ecumenical forum – have suffered from a serious lack of attention and support by international ecumenical partners since the separation of South Sudan in 2011.

The South Sudan Council of Churches, an ecumenical body of seven members and associate members, held its first General Assembly since the independence of the largely Christian and animist country in 2011.

Rev. Fidon Mwombeki, All Africa Conference of Churches general secretary, has expressed concern at the slow pace of the South Sudan peace process, while highlighting that the Africa-wide ecumenical body has accompanied the people in the world’s youngest nation for many years.

South Sudanese church leaders continued to amplify hope for their country, as the people quietly marked the 8th Independence Day, without an official government celebration.
The world’s newest nation which became an independent state on 9 July 2011, is facing enormous challenges including insecurity, economic stagnation and famine due to a new conflict.

When Sudanese women join the mass protests for change and reforms, demonstrators revere them as Kandakes or Candances – the queens of the ancient African Kingdoms of Kush.

South Sudanese churches have welcomed the signing of a permanent ceasefire agreement by the main rivals, while cautioning that many other such pacts had also been dishonoured.

South Sudanese church leaders said in their Easter message that the Church stays committed to hope and refuses “to yield to fear or indifference” in their troubled homeland where the end of a bitter conflict seems elusive once again.

On 23 February Pope Francis has called for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for South Sudan and The Democratic Republic of Congo; two countries plagued by conflict, unrest and famine. The call is heeded by the World Council of Churches and all are encouraged to join in the prayer.

The South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) is calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a halt to atrocities being committed in the world’s youngest nation while calling on the international community to speak as one for a peaceful resolution to the conflict tearing their country apart.

Not nearly enough is being done to save the lives of the 20 million people who face famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria. Among them are 1.4 million children, who are at imminent risk of death unless aid reaches them immediately.

For most of the world’s newest nation, wracked by internal conflict, joy seems far away, and yet for Christians, Easter is still a time of hope. A recent message from the South Sudan Council of Churches says the Resurrection reminds us that even in this world there is “goodness and light with triumph”.

For the general overseer of the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) there is trauma and hopelessness in his country, and the only institution that can offer hope at the moment is the church. “We are experiencing levels of violence we have never seen before,” says the bishop. “I talk as a church person, as a person who is involved in the situation every day, listening and hearing from both sides and the ordinary person in the street,” says quiet-spoken Dau, whose words carry a poignant power.