The Bishop of the Anglican Catholic Diocese of Aweil, Sudan, is in the United States to attend a provincial synod of the Anglican Catholic Church in Richmond Virginia. Bishop Wilson Garang who oversees more than 180 churches in Southern Sudan is also here to raise awareness about the plight of the people in Southern Sudan.
<!-- IMAGE -->Garang was a refugee and part of the “Lost Boys,” a group of thousands of Sudanese children orphaned by the country’s civil war in the 1980s. He ended up living in refugee camps in Ethiopia where he was converted, and became a Christian.
He told VOA from Athens, Georgia that he will use his stay in the USA to talk about the plight and conditions of the people in Southern Sudan. Southern Sudan is not in the news, he said, “it is only Darfur that people are talking about but the war in the south [of Sudan] lasted a long time.”
Bishop Garang said there is a good relationship between the church and the government of Southern Sudan. “There is freedom of worship.”
But he lamented the lack of basic services, “it is very hard because when you are leading people they expect some services. When people have a problem they expect the church to help them.” It is very challenging, Bishop Garang said. “When you see people starving or dying and there is nothing you can do. It is a big challenge.”
He said many people in Southern Sudan have embraced the faith. “Many people who fled the fighting were able to go to school and go to church and they became believers.”
Bishop Garang said that despite the difficulties people face, the church in Southern Sudan is growing. “We have a lot of people coming to [Jesus] Christ on a daily basis.”
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