At Ecumenical Prayer, Catholic Archbishop in South Sudan Urges Love for Humanity

Engaging in the mission of love for humanity, he said, “we can be able to live in peace and prosperity and God will keep us united in this nation.”

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The South Sudanese Archbishop lauded the initiative of coming together as members from different denominations in prayer saying, “The ecumenical prayer is a better way to express our faithfulness to one God.”

“We need to remain as brothers and sisters because it’s a movement or a tendency towards the Christian unity and cooperation,” the 58-year-old Local Ordinary of Juba Archbishop who doubles as the Apostolic Administrator of Torit Diocese said.

Credit: ACI Africa

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He added, “The Catholic Church is committed to ecumenism which is based on the conviction that a divided Christianity openly contradicts the will of Christ … that damages the whole course of preaching the gospel to every creature.”

“Ecumenism has to be celebrated in our daily lives,” Archbishop Ameyu said, adding that families whose members belong to different denominations have to remain united, and share time together as family.

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He underscored the necessity of coming together in prayer saying, “The prayer of ecumenism is like an oxygen in our lungs because without that oxygen we are dead.”. 

“For us in South Sudan it’s not something new because it has been there since faith was brought to us,” the South Sudanese Archbishop said, and continued, “That is why we are united because there is no war based on religion or denominations, because we embraced ecumenism from the beginning.”

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He said that the World Council of Churches was born in service “to the ecumenical movement which itself originated in a power summoned to a mission,” adding that “all of us have a mission and this mandate to preach and proclaim the gospel is for all of us who believe.” 

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“For us as Christians working together is not a ploy to strengthen our own position but an act of obedience to the Lord, and the love for the world,” Archbishop Ameyu said during the June 18 prayer session.

The South Sudanese Archbishop who has been at the helm of Juba Archdiocese since March 2020 said, “Let us ask our father in heaven to help us work together all the more resolutely in the ways of the spirit.”

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Patrick Juma Wani is a South Sudanese journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. Patrick holds a Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication from Makerere Institute for Social Development (MISD) in Uganda. He has over 7 years of extensive experience in leading the development and implementation of media, advocacy, communication and multimedia strategy and operations, with an excellent track record of editorial leadership, budget management, and stakeholder outreach. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.