New Primate elected for the Episcopal Church of South Sudan

January 25, 2018

Congratulations to Bishop Justin Badi Arama of Maridi Diocese who has been elected as the new primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan.

 

[ACNS January 22, 2018] The Bishop of Maridi, Justin Badi Arama, has been elected as the new Primate and Archbishop of the Church of South Sudan in a very-tight election. In an interview with the Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS), Bishop Justin said that the election, on Saturday, had gone “very well” and was an example to the government and others in South Sudan on how tribal differences should play no part in political processes. Bishop Justin received 80 votes in the election. The other candidate, the Bishop of Aweil, Abraham Yel Nhial, received 79.

“The lesson I learned from the election is that tribalism is not in the Church,” Bishop Justin told ACNS. “The fear was that Dinkas could not vote for Equatorians, but in turned the other way around: most Equatorians voted for the Dinka candidate; and most Dinkas voted for the Equatoria candidate. This was a good sign of unity in the Church, and a lesson for the government of South Sudan.”

Bishop Justin said that he was surprised to have won the election, saying that the Bishop of Aweil was the favourite to succeed Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul, who has retired at the age of 67 after almost 10 years leading what was at first the Episcopal Province of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, before becoming the Church of South Sudan and Sudan on South Sudan’s independence, before its current format as the Church of South Sudan, following the creation last year of the Church of Sudan as the 39th province of the Anglican Communion. “The election was the choice of God,” he said.

 

Read the full article on the Anglican Communion News website: 

Bishop of Maridi elected to lead the Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan