Prayer Vigils

People gathered at Juba All Saint’s Cathedral, and all over Juba for a day of prayer today, in anticipation of the Referendum which begins tomorrow. The Sudan Council of Churches hosted the gathering at All Saint’s. It was the culmination of a 40 day campaign of fasting and prayer for peace. The mood of the service was one of joy, and a commitment to peace and reconciliation. Several speakers said that the new country must be founded with God in mind. The representative from the government called on the Church to be a witness to the government. She compared the Church’s role to the role of Moses with the Israelites, saying that the church needed to pray to God for guidance, and be a witness to the government.

Passages from the beginning of the book of Joshua were referred to, and a parallel drawn between the struggles of the people of South Sudan, and the 40 years that the Israelites spent in the wilderness.

“We have come now to the banks of the Jordan,” the preacher said. “And it is by the grace of God that we shall pass to the other side.”

It is the Promised Land which the people of South Sudan long for, and there is great jubilation that their hour has at last come.

With the eyes of the world upon us, tomorrow, and throughout the week of voting, the people of South Sudan will show the world their commitment to peace, and their joy at this opportunity to exercise their democratic right to self-determination.

More:
Episcopal News Service Article about prayers being conducted in the US

Episcopal Church (US) page of resources and prayers for Sudan