South Sudan’s church leadership wrangles weaken faith among believers

Although the Church leadership wrangles in South Sudan seem to have gone quite harmless, several congregations have lost hope in attending Sunday services.

Many of them believe most churches have lost their connotation to the followers unlike during the missionaries’ period when words of the Bible were considered by important. The earlier missionaries indoctrinated them into biblical foundations to instill discipline and obedience to God.

This made the locals to believe so much in the churches, especially in ancient times. But with the rise of modern church acrobatics, things seem to be falling apart among church leaders. This has made it very difficult for many people to understand the current trend in the Church.

Recently, most churches in South Sudan, including the Catholic Church and Episcopal Church of South Sudan have been battling the waves of leadership wrangles.

Nevertheless, the believers now revealed the growing church rackets which they said have clearly demonstrated how some church leaders do not have the vision of instilling God’s love among the people.

Juan Evalyn Mule, a concerned South Sudanese said it was quite unfortunate that the church leaders who were supposed to be the custodians of God’s peace have now switched away from the teaching of the bible to personal interests.

She said the adoption has angered the believers that she said is making it difficult for them to enjoy the usual love for God.

“Most of the people are discouraged because they see no sense of going to church when these religious leaders who are supposed to be exemplary are showing the opposite of what they should do,” she said.

 “It is a frustration to citizens and anybody who is a Christian. People are losing hopes in Christianity and religion as a whole because our spiritual leaders are doing the opposite of what they are preaching,” Ms. Mule added.

Wrangles in the church  

The Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS) has been in serious disagreements with one of its internal provinces for the last two years.

The conflict in the ECSS that became a major concern in the country in recent months, started when a former defrocked Archbishop of Jonglei Internal Province Rev. Akurdid Ngong Akurdid stood firm on his decision refused to apologize to his Boss the Rt. Rev. Dr. Justin Badi Arama Primate after he was fired over canonical disobedience.

The incident led the Church to a high storm that almost dragged the congregation to a physical confrontation after the court refused to rule over the matter.

The riot later culminated into several factors where the rival bishops in Bor were ordered by Jonglei State government to leave the state as some of them have now been restricted to a limited territory.

In April 2021, the Bishop-elect of the Rumbek Catholic Diocese was attacked by gunmen in Rumbek town of Lakes State.

Fr. Christian Carlassare was shot at his residence at midnight by unidentified aggressors over an alleged power struggle that barred him from being installed on May 23, 2021.

Last month, the suspects of his shooting being arranged at the court confessed that they triggered the shooting to scare the Holy See from Rumbek Town.  

They had to reveal the shelling was masterminded by Fr. John Mathiang, the former caretaker administrator of Rumbek Diocese who had wanted to be appointed to the position.

On December 9, 2019, when Pope Francis appointed Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla as the metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdioceses of Juba, a wrangle sprung up when a group of clerics and laymen within the Archdiocese of Juba rejected the appointment.

In the previous damning letters, the group accused the then appointed Archbishop of colliding with some government officials and priests that they claimed influenced a Vatican diplomat to appoint Ameyu for their interests.

Other concerns raised on his rejection include inadequate knowledge of the local language and the culture of the indigenous communities of the Archdiocese of Juba.

The then insolent allies had warned that Bishop Ameyu would have to work from Torit, Eastern Equatoria State as there was no chance for him to serve as Archbishop of Juba. They had threatened not going to cooperate with him.

But the Bishop survived the odds and he was installed as the Bishop of Juba.

Consequences  

Jok Gabriel Mawut, an ardent church supporter said the aforementioned spiritual wrangles have forced him to sign out from the church till God’s people were later appointed to the religious positions.  

According to the believer, Satan is currently in control of the South Sudanese churches and it was unhealthy for the believers to continue going to church.

“Many of us especially the youngsters are not going to the church due to the growing crises which used not to happen before,” Mawut noted.

“If people can be attacked and shot in the church while we claim to be believers; what are we up to? He asked.

Mr. Gabriel warned he may return to the church if the current religious regime ceases from clerical dramas.

Mawa John, another Juba resident stressed that only the loyalists of the drama makers were the ones attending churches.

He said those who hate the escalating crisis were not interested in the church.

Rev. Peter Kuol Chol Awan, a senior religious leader from the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan admitted that the power wrangle within the South Sudan churches was surely disturbing the audiences.

“It is surely affecting the audiences; the Christians, the believers and the worshippers,” he stated.

Root causes

A senior cleric has said that the rows in the church leadership were caused by the questions of resource control and management.

“I can call it poverty. Everybody wants to make much control of the little resources that are contributed by the congregations to the church. It is also connected to the leadership struggle, between those who want to be in leadership and those who are being removed from the leadership,” Rev. Awan noted.

“The other thing is the political aspect of it; where some pastors are siding with some factions; so, this might be another reason for the church persisting crisis,” he stated.

Recent occurrence

On March 2, 2022, the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan underwent another managerial battle when the Principal of Nile Theological College was summoned by Police after the administration accused him of resistance when he was fired before his term expires.

Several reliable sources within the Presbyterian Church revealed the embattled faithful term was ended because of resource control.

The moderator and the vice moderator were implicated in the case; given that they were custodians of the case that involved the academic.

Solution                                                                                               

Rev. Awan revealed the only way to shun the tricky crises was to revert to the bible so that the faithful correct themselves from the growing church-related mishaps.

“People have to go back to the bible; it is the bible that will bring these crises to an end. We are told by Christ in the book of John Chapter 14 verses 27, that he is going to leave peace with us; a peace World cannot give us, where is this peace? He asked.

When contacted for comments, Rt. Rev. Dr. Justin Badi Arama, the Primate and the Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS) pronounced that the church was being tempted by the devils. 

“As a church, we called ourselves Christian soldiers and as Christian soldiers, the devil also has his soldiers, so the church in the World is always a church at war,” he narrated to The City Review on Thursday in an interview.

“So, when the devil attacks, it doesn’t mean we lose ground. We stand firm in our faith to the end. We are not moved by any wind which puts us here and there,” he urged.

According to Dr. Arama, once the believers continue to stand firm despite temptations as stipulated in the book of Revelation, they would earn answers from God as soon as possible.

“Jesus is always victorious; he died and rose again. This gives the victory and the hope to the church that in every dark moment, there is brightness ahead,” he stated. 

“We should not lose hope. We should be expectance because our Lord Jesus died and rose again, and we believe in every situation; we shall always be victorious,” the Anglican Bishop concluded.

However, most of the loopholes have remained unsolved in most of the recent growing church crises in South Sudan.