Christian Church History in the Sudan

History of the Various Christian Denominations in the Sudan

Roman Catholic missionaries began work in Sudan in 1842. Today the Catholic church is the largest church in Sudan.

The Anglicans (Church Missionary Society) entered in 1899. From 1916 onward, tens of thousands were converted. Presently the Anglican Church is the second largest church in Sudan.

In 1900 the United Presbyterians initiated work in both the north and the south. From their work, the Presbyterian Church in the Sudan emerged in the south, and the Evangelical Church of the Sudan (which was linked with the Egyptian Coptic Evangelical Church) emerged in the north. Sudan United Mission (SUM) opened work early in the 20th century, founding the Sudanese Church of Christ. The Africa Inland Mission entered in 1949, forming the Africa Inland Church.

SIM entered the country in 1937. Work began among the Mabaan, Uduk, Dinka, Jum Jum, and Koma peoples in that order. In 1964, however, missionaries of all agencies were expelled from the south as the civil war escalated. By 1970, SIM had only five missionaries in Sudan, all in the Khartoum area. They helped to provide liaison for other missions who were forced to leave entirely. Meanwhile they instructed believers in the Scriptures. Many were southerners taking refuge in the northern city.

Africa Inland Church - Sudan
The Africa Inland Mission moved into the southern Sudan from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Mission was established in 1949 in good understanding with the Anglican Church which existed already in the area. It was expelled only 15 years later when all foreign missionaries had to leave the southern Sudan. In the meantime the Africa Inland Church came into being. The church became autonomous in 1972, when it had about 1000 members and a few Sudanese pastors. Under indigenous leadership the church began to grow steadily and to expand to other parts of the country. To date it has 70 000 baptized believers, 154 congregations and 320 pastors The church is Trinitarian, confesses the divinity of Christ and accepts the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as the absolute and final authority in all matters of faith and conduct. The Central Church Council declared its agreement with the WCC Basis on May 23rd, 1997.

History
In 1898, the British took control of southern Sudan, leaving Egyptian authorities to manage northern Sudan.

By 1947, the British recognized that Sudanese independence is inevitable, and fused north and south Sudan.

With the independence of Sudan from the Anglo-Egyptian condominium rule in 1956, the two distinct communities of northern and southern Sudan were put together as one nation against the wishes of the vast majority of the southern Sudanese, who were not given a choice in the matter. This resulted in successive civil wars between the South and the northern Sudan Government soon after independence. These wars destroyed southern Sudan beyond imagination.

In 1972, a peace agreement was reached in Addis Ababa, but soon after the Sudanese president who negotiated the Addis Ababa peace agreement declared it void, and war resumed.

In 1983, Sudan was declared an Islamic state governed by Sharia (Islamic) law. Southerners “rebelled.” The Muslim government in the North proclaimed a jihad, or holy war, against the South, the home of the majority of Sudanese Christians and traditional African religion adherents. The war lasted 21 years and was termed the longest civil war in Africa. The discovery and subsequent sale of oil pumped from areas located in southern Sudan further complicated the resolution of the war.

On January 9, 2005, a historic comprehensive Sudan peace accord was signed between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the Government of Sudan designed to end virtually fifty years of bloodshed between the people of the north and the people of the south. The agreement includes wealth sharing, power sharing, political autonomy for South Sudan, and a referendum on independence for and by South Sudan after six years.

The wars resulted in the deaths of more than two million people, five million people displaced, and a virtual destruction of the entire infrastructure of southern Sudan. There are almost no hospitals or schools in all of southern Sudan, which holds a population of more than 12 million people in an area larger than the entire countries of Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti combined. It is said that southern Sudan does not even have one “inch” of paved road. Vast areas of fertile lands lie uncultivated. Beautiful towns, villages, schools, hospitals, and churches of yesteryear remain but in ruins.