Defrocked Jonglei bishop returns to Bor as Kiir’s office gives permission

JUBA – South Sudan’s defrocked Archbishop of Jonglei Internal Province, Rt. Rev. Reuben Akurdit Ngong, has returned to the capital Bor after he was granted permission by the presidency in Juba.

Akurdit was ordered in January to leave Bor with a group of other rival bishops from Jonglei by the state government and banned from returning until further notice.

The government reached the decision after a group of youth linked to Akurdit attacked, with guns and sticks, a church compound hosting Bishop Moses Anur, Akurdit’s successor.

The attack resulted in the injury of at least two people.

The Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS) split in August 2020 when Primate Justin Badi Arama, defrocked Bishop Reuben Akurdit accusing him of canonical disobedience for turning down suspension a year earlier.

Akurdit rejected the decision and fought his way back to the throne at the South Sudan high court.

In August 2021, high court judge Lawrence Jaja ruled that the church should sit down and solve the case through the ECSS tribunal court, a decision Akurdit immediately rejected and vowed to carry his own cross saying the “road to heaven doesn’t go through Juba”.

In a letter dated July 27^th 2022, the presidency granted Akurdit the permission to return home, saying mediation efforts to bring to an end the four-year long church conflict is “yet to be completed”.

Upon his arrival in Bor on Saturday, Bishop Akurdit calls for peace among Jonglei state Christians.

“The president of the Republic of South Sudan urges me to write an apology letter to Justin Badi in order for peace to prevail among the divided ECSS church but Justin Badi rejected the apology latter,” Akurdit said upon arrival in Bor.

He added that the office of the president has given him three months to reunite the divided Christians in Jonglei state.

“I have come as a man of peace. I don’t have any problem with anybody here in Bor. My problem is only with Justin Badi Arama. He is the person we have a problem with and it will finish only between the two of us. I’m calling on the Christians to remain united. This issue has nothing to do with the Christians in the church,” he added.

Gabriel Manyang, ECSS Communication officer and Spokesperson for the Primate, said Ruben Akurdit remains a defrocked bishop, adding that Moses Anur is attending a conference in his capacity as Archbishop of Internal Province of Jonglei and the diocesan Bishop of Bor.

“If he had the paper from the office of the president then we are not aware there is no any copy of the latter issued by the office of minister of presidential affairs, we only saw that latter circulating on social media. So, he remains as defrocked” Gabriel said.

Primate Justin Badi Arama, the head of ECSS who is also the leader of Global South Anglican Communion, has led a 113-delegation from South Sudan including Moses Anur, to attend the Lambeth Bishops Conference in London.

Lambeth Conference is an international meeting of Anglican bishops. The conference discusses church and world affairs and the global mission of the Anglican Communion for the decade ahead.