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Call to prayer and fasting for South Sudan and DR Congo

Archbishop Masimango Katana with the Revd Andrew Rawding (Rector of Brackaville, Ballyclog and Donaghendry).
Archbishop Masimango Katana with the Revd Andrew Rawding (Rector of Brackaville, Ballyclog and Donaghendry).

Following updates from its global partners, CMS Ireland is echoing a call to pray and fast for South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Friday (23rd February).

CMS Ireland partners with three dioceses in DR Congo and four dioceses in South Sudan. Currently, 26 Church of Ireland parishes and two dioceses are involved in partnership links with one or more of these dioceses. This has included the attendance by the Revd Andrew Rawding, Rector of Brackaville, Ballyclog and Donaghendry, at the consecration of the Most Revd Masimango Katanda, as Archbishop of the Province de L’Eglise Anglicane du Congo, in 2016.

The mass movement of people within and outside these two countries is not stopping. Over many years, sustained violence and insecurity in both places resulted in huge numbers of people leaving their homes in search of safety and refuge. Following a recent, tentative peace agreement in South Sudan, some people have begun to return home, but this brings with it its own problems. 
 
In encouraging prayer for DR Congo, Archbishop Masimango Katanda says: “With Christ, let us learn that active non–violence is a force that can transform society when it denounces time and time again the situations of injustice and exclusion that violence feeds. May our families be places where we learn to resolve conflicts in a non–violent way. Every Friday of Lent, I invite you to fast so that God will expel from our hearts and men’s hearts any desire for violence and make them welcoming to his forgiveness.”

Archbishop Masimango has suggested the use of the following prayer: God who watches over our world, look at the country where you gave us to live. Grant to all its inhabitants to seek the common good, to those who govern us to do it wisely, so that there is among us more justice, and in the whole world more happiness and peace.

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