2024 Holes Bay Walk
The Holes Bay Walk, PWP's main fundraising event, took place on Saturday 13th July 2024, led by Karen, Bishop of Sherborne. The event (highlighted in Grapevine, the weekly e-newsletter from the Diocese of Salisbury) attracted 21 people and 2 dogs walking on the day and a further 6 who walked on a different day. Walkers set off on the 7-mile walk at 9.30 (see photo above) in ideal walking conditions (dry yet not too hot), but were rained on as they neared the end of the return leg. Spirits were however undampened as walkers got back to St Dunstan's Church for tea or coffee, pizza and ice cream. Many thanks to Bishop Karen and to all who took part or sponsored a walker. It will be a few weeks before we are able to confirm the total raised towards the finished touches needed for the new building at St John's College, Wau, but we hope to raise at east as much as in 2023. Walkers: please collect your sponsor money promptly and forward the money to us as soon as you are able to - details of different ways of conveying the money to PWP are on the back of the Sponsor Form (downloadable from the Events page of our website). Final part of main construction of new building at St John’s College is well-advanced In a wonderful answer to prayer, work on the final stages of the main construction of the new Poole-Wau Partnership Building at St John’s College, Wau is proceeding rapidly (see photograph above), following the transfer of £15,000 from the Poole-Wau Partnership in November 2023. “We used the funding,” writes Principal Philip Abiel, “to purchase windows and doors; installation of electricity; and plastering and slabbing.” The additional grant of £5,000 kindly provided to PWP by the Slavanka Trust in February 2024 will be sufficient to complete the ceilings. There are, however, two finishing touches to the new building which remain to be done: interior and exterior painting (c.£6,500), and the construction of a verandah in front of the building (c.£4,000), a traditional feature of buildings in South Sudan which will provide shade for students and help to keep the temperature inside the building slightly cooler. The Trustees have decided to put all the money raised by this year’s Holes Bay Walk towards the verandah and we are planning to apply to other trusts for as much of the cost of the painting as we can get. More details about our fundraising of more than £40,000 for this vital building project may be found on the Appeal page of this website https://www.poolewaupartnership.com/appeal.html or in Newsletter 64 and 65: https://www.poolewaupartnership.com/newsletter.html Our grateful thanks go to all our supporters and churches in Poole & North Bournemouth Deanery who have contributed generously towards bringing this project to fruition, as well as to the Slavanka and Charis Trusts. CLIP conference brings eight ethnic groups together Archbishop Moses Deng Bol reports that a very successful multiethnic dialogue took place in late November 2023 at Good Shepherd Cathedral, Wau, with the theme 'We are stronger together'. The three-day dialogue brought together 50 representatives of eight ethnic groups (Bongo, Bai, Balenda, Sere, Ndongo, Luo, Dinka and Golo) including Chiefs, women and youth leaders from Wau and Jur river counties. The conference was organized by Church Leaders Initiative for Peace (CLIP) with support from USAID-funded Sheja Salam.The dialogue was preceded by a two-day trauma awareness facilitated by Trauma Awareness and Healing Alliance (TAHA). |
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South Sudan 'Bright Stars' compete in Olympics The South Sudan Mens Basketball team are about to play in the Olympic Games for the first time ever. In a friendly warm-up tournament in London last week, the Bright Stars, as they are known, beat the Great Britain team 84-81, and led the USA (the Number 1 basketball team in the world) in the Final for most of the match before finally being defeated by the narrowest of margins 101-100. https://apnews.com/article/south-sudan-usa-basketball-paris-olympics-c82d07445a8d43040915f300258c22a6 Archbishop Moses has commented on the Bright Stars’ performance on Facebook: “the Bright Stars have shown a positive image of South Sudan to the world” and added that the young people of South Sudan have the potential to excel in business or education or other fields if given the opportunity, following the fine example of the basketball team: https://www.facebook.com/mosesd.bol The team will play their first match in Paris on Day Two of the Olympic Games, Sunday 28th July, at 10 a.m. Conflict in Sudan Number who have fled to South Sudan reaches 700,000 [Last update: 12/07/24] It is now more than a year since the civil war in Sudan started. The conflict and its consequences for South Sudan have faded from UK media as troubles in other parts of the world, notably the terrible conflict in Gaza, make headlines. Two articles, both published on 12th July 2024, draw attention to different, but equally alarming, effects of the continuing civil war in Sudan. An insightful article by Faisal Ali in The Guardian examines the plight of Sudanese people displaced by the civil war there. This reveals that the number who have fled to South Sudan has reached 700,000 – only Chad, with over 780,000, has received more, although the number of those internally displaced within Sudan is much larger, at well over 7 million: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/11/civil-war-sudan-displacement-crisis A second article by Madeleine Davies in The Church Times reports on a claim by a south Sudanese bishop that food is being “weaponised” in the Sudanese civil war and that this is likely to lead to famine in 14 areas, including Greater Darfur: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/12-july/news/world/food-being-weaponised-in-sudan-bishop-says This collection of photographs illustrating the refugee crisis in South Sudan is a little less up-to-date, having been published in April 2024, but is still worth viewing:: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2024/apr/15/inside-south-sudans-worsening-refugee-crisis-in-pictures These sources, which are frequently updated have more details about the crisis in Sudan and its effects on South Sudan: https://www.theguardian.com/world/sudan https://unmiss.unmissions.org/ https://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/World+News/Africa/South+Sudan Bishop Joseph seeks more clergy Bishop Joseph of Wanyjok has published an appeal for volunteer clergy to minister to the huge congregations in his diocese. Bishop Joseph is a longstanding friend of the Poole-Wau Partnership, having visited Poole on more than one occasion, most recently with other bishops from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal province in August 2022. He writes, "We have a huge congregation with limited numbers of trained pastors and many of our parishes are being run by untrained Lay-readers and evangelists," so there is an acute need for more clergy to come forward. Here is the full text of his appeal on Facebook: Are you an Anglican theologically trained clergy looking for a young growing missionary Diocese to Volunteer in? Are you called and passionate about mission in less developed towns? Are you called and love to serve in a challenging environment where ministry demands is high? Are you a ministry-minded clergy? The Episcopal Diocese of Wanyjok is the Diocese of your choice. Please don't hesitate to contact us either here [on Facebook] or privately. We have a huge congregation with limited numbers of trained pastors and many of our parishes are being run by untrained Lay-readers and evangelists due to limited human resources. Having experience in education would be an added advantage to us because we also have 7 primary schools and one secondary school. May our good Lord lead and direct you as you plan accordingly. "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. ... So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more." Matthew 9:38 Below is a photograph of Wanyjok cathedral and its congregation. Links to find out more about South Sudan News Organisations: Sudan Tribune: https://sudantribune.com Radio Tamazuj: https://radiotamazuj.org/en Eye Radio: https://eyeradio.org Associated Press: https://apnews.com/hub/south-sudan The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/south-sudan BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=South+Sudan Radio Miraya: https://audioboom.com/channel/radiomiraya News Now: https://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/World+News/Africa/South+Sudan Regular publications: Diocese of Salisbury Sudans Link, including quarterly Salisbury-Sudans Link Bulletin: https://www.salisbury.anglican.org/mission/the-sudan-link Renewal Magazine: https://anglican.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=bc17f2b699f53a98ce265ecab&id=69d5549620 The Church Association for Sudan and South Sudan, including twice-yearly Sudan Church Review: https://www.casss.org.uk AFRECS (American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans), including fortnightly E-Blast: https://afrecs.org Church organisations in South Sudan: St John’s College Wau: https://stjohnscollegewau.org South Sudan Council of Churches: https://sscchurches.org The Epicopal Church of South Sudan: https://southsudan.anglican.org ECSS Northern Bahr El Ghazal province: https://www.facebook.com/northerbahrelghazal/ International organisations and charities working in South Sudan: Anglican International Development: www.anglicaninternationaldevelopment.org CRESS UK (Christian Relief and Education for South Sudan): https://cressuk.org/blog/ ECSSSUP (UK-based charity supporting The Episcopal University of South Sudan, of which St John's College Wau is a constituent institution): https://www.ecsssup.org/copy-of-home Health Initiative South Sudan: https://health-initiative-south-sudan.org/homepage TEAR Fund: https://www.tearfund.org/about-us/our-impact/where-we-work/south-sudan UNMISS (United Nations Mission in South Sudan): https://unmiss.unmissions.org World Food Programme: https://www.wfp.org/stories/south-sudans-road-out-hunger ECSSSUP: https://www.ecsssup.org/copy-of-home |