Most likely, the militia (and its sponsors) targeted Mabior because he was a prominent, beloved leader in the community. He had recently become archbishop of Twic East diocese, newly formed to accommodate the fast-growing church in Bor county, which is part of Jonglei state in South Sudan.
While the Obama administration has focused on legendary atrocities in Darfur, the western region of Sudan, the UN reports that the rate of violent deaths in South Sudan now surpasses that in Darfur. Lise Grande, UN Deputy Resident Coordinator in Southern Sudan, recently said more than 2,000 people had died and 250,000 had been displaced by inter-ethnic violence across the region.
Witnesses report that Mabior was shot twice in the legs and that his attackers may have also used a military knife called a “sonki.” After the first shots, 30 men and women from the church and town, including tribal chiefs, soldiers, a university student and other youth leaders, and several of the town’s oral historians, covered Mabior with their own bodies. All 30 gave their lives in their effort to protect him. Mabior died two hours later.
In the aftermath of Mabior’s death the Episcopal Church of Sudan is grieving: “Everyone in the diocese of Bor and the diocese of Twic East is painfully shocked and devastated at losing Joseph. Archdeacon Mabior was a father to many and a mentor to many of us who are clergy,” said John Chol Daau, a priest of Bor diocese currently studying at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pa., and a former Lost Boy of Sudan who worked closely with Mabior.
After Mabior’s death, Daau phoned Nathaniel Garang, the bishop of Bor. “Son, I lost a strong man, a follower of the living Christ who never hesitated to preach the gospel of Christ to our people,” Garang said as he wept. “He was like my frontline captain as he and I preached the gospel . . . a great intercessor . . . a pastor and a leader . . . full of patience and love . . . very humble. . . . He would always want to care and serve in any circumstance.”
Archdeacon Mabior, Saint and Martyr, has lit such a fire in Sudan as shall never be put out.
A related appeal
Does anyone have a litany or prayers of the people for Persecuted Church Sunday. I would like to use it this Sunday. Please post link or email me off list
David Wilson, [url=http://www.opendoorsusa.org/UserFiles/File/WWL 2009 Prayer Guide.pdf]try this[/url].
It’s a 32-page PDF file from opendoorsusa.org
with photos and prayer points for each area under persecution.
The Rabbit
A heart-breaking story. One that needs wide distribution. Bogged down in Iraq and especially Afghanistan with unpopular wars, the Obama administration is even less likely than the Bush administration was to offer more than lip service to helping protect the people of southern Sudan (New Sudan as they like to call it) from the treacherous and brutal National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum. In a world filled with terrible dictators (think North Korea, Zimbabwe, and Burma for starters), I personally think that Omar al Bashir is the worst of the worst, a truly evil and utterly wicked man.
At the end of Faith McDonnell’s article she asks the rhetorical question, can the Sudanese government be trusted to negotiate in good faith? And the obvious answer is, No Way, not a chance.
Thanks, Kendall, for posting this tribute to a great man of God and Christian hero. Many of us remember when the revered evangelical Uganda archbishop, Janani Luwum, was martyred under that insane dictator Idi Amin back in 1977. I hope the name of archdeacon Joseph Mabior Garang becomes almost as well knwon and fondly remembered.
And thanks, David Wilson+, for reminding all of us that Sunday is the Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. I wish it were observed in every church in America, not least the growing number of Anglican churches with strong ties to persecuted fellow Anglicans in Africa.
David Handy+