SOUTH SUDAN: Diocese in South Sudan to Release Its First Synod Document on the Day of World Mission Sunday

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

Next Sunday when the Church will be commemorating this year’s World Mission Sunday, the Local Ordinary of Tombura-Yambio Diocese has announced the release of a document on its first diocesan Synod which was celebrated last year.

“The celebration of the mission Sunday comes under the celebration of our first diocesan Synod where we will be handing out the final document on the first synod of this diocese, meaning a journey of 100 years,” Bishop Barani Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala said in an audio clip sent to AMECEA Online Tuesday, October 13.

“We are celebrating the World Mission Sunday under the theme of our first diocesan synod which says, “We are a family of God’s people, a participatory servant Church,” Bishop Hiiboro disclosed the link between the Mission Sunday to be commemorated October 18, and the first Synod of the diocese.

Last year’s Synod which deliberated on the need for the diocese to continue listening to the Good News of God’s mercy focused on seeking God’s will, listening to everyone and discerning with all those who are part of the Church.

“We celebrate the Mission Sunday at the invitation of the Lord himself,” the Prelate said and narrated his intention for the celebration, “We have sat down to see how this our local Church is truly grounded in the faith and mission that has been given her and to go out as individual missionaries united in Christ to bring the one message of salvation to ourselves, to our families, to our neighbors, to our communities to our entire diocese and to our nation and the world.”

Speaking to the theme of this year’s World Mission Sunday “Here I am Send Me,” the Local Ordinary of Tombura-Yambio Diocese noted that all Christians and believers are missionaries who are invited to go out and preach the Word of God to South Sudan which is already in Crisis.

“We are missionaries of Jesus Christ. Our mission, our objectives, our programs, our work, must be after the model of the missionary Jesus,” the Bishop underscored and explained further, “Our savior in his missionary work was to reach to everybody and to bring them the message of salvation and to save them. He was so passionate and he was so concerned about the lives of the people.”

He appreciated the missionaries who preached the Word of God in the Diocese of Tombura-Yambio and made people believe in Christ and challenged the Christians saying, “It is now our duty and our work to be missionaries, to go out and preach Christ to the people wherever we are in offices, in schools, on the road, in the families, everywhere even in the farm.”

“We are missionaries, the Church is missionary, our Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio is a missionary Church. We received this from our baptism, from our faith, from instructions that we become missionary because we are following Jesus Christ who came so that all humanity may be saved,” Bishop Hiiboro added and continued, “our diocese must be missionary and there should not be any part of this diocese left out without being a missionary Church,”

In conclusion the Bishop encouraged the Christians to focus on Christ who is at the heart of the mission as their role model and allow the Holy Spirit to be their guide.

“Being in union with Christ requires better preparations among ourselves and collaboration. It needs everybody to be on board because the mission is for the salvation of all humanity. So this surpass all our ethnic differences, all our community differences and we must all be in proper relationships in order to be able to bring Christ and to bring the Kingdom of God to all our brothers and sisters,” he said.