The Archbishop and Primate of the Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS), Dr. Justin Badi Arama, has said defrocked Archbishop Ruben Akurdid Ngong Akurdid of the Jonglei Internal Province should embrace the spirit of God and retire to end the impasse in the church there.
Dr. Badi defrocked Akurdid in August 2020 after accusing him of canonical disobedience after the latter disallowed his suspension from the church over the unilateral creation of dioceses in the province and instead sought redress from the High Court in Juba.
On 21 August, Akurdid, who returned to Bor on 30 July, wrote a scathing response to Primate Justin Badi in which he accused the latter of losing vision and hampering the growth of the church.
“I feel (sic) sorry for you when you were addressing the people of South Sudan on 16 August in Juba on your arrival from the Lambeth Conference,” he wrote. “Instead of telling the Episcopalians the message you brought from the Lambeth Conference you began to preach about my defrocking and my retirement, be specific. You defrocked me because of Canonical disobedience. Any person who hampers the growth of the church is a devil and he must be disobeyed at all cost.”
Akurdid accused Dr. Badi of losing the vision of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan.
“How can you say that there will be no creation of new dioceses for 10 years? Which means that the church you are heading is going to be a dead church? How can we work with a son of Lucifer?” he asked. “You went as far as to fellowship together with gays and lesbians, people who cannot produce children of God by abandoning Genesis 1:27-28.”
However, during an exclusive interview with Radio Tamazuj Tuesday, Primate Badi said he and the ECSS had no problem with Akurdid.
“We have no problem with Akurdit and he is our elder from Jonglei State and we have no problem with him going there. From the perspective of the church, Akurdit was stopped because of breaching the laws of the church. Secondly, he clocked the retirement age,” he explained. “So, when the church stopped him, he became angry and took the church to court and the case was dragging without results. We have no problem with him and know him as our elder and if he was remorseful for his wrongs, we would have returned him to the fold as one of our retired Bishops.”
“The propaganda he is engaging in is fraught with lies and we are not involved with it because the church does not work with lies,” he added.
Asked about Akurdid’s claim that he was allowed by the ECSS and President Salva Kiir to go back to Jonglei State for three months to unite the church before retiring, Dr. Badi rubbished it as a lie.
“There is no truth in that and it has never happened that the president has appointed a church leader in the history of South Sudan,” he said. “The church appointed Moses Anur as the Archbishop of the Jonglei Internal Province and Bishop of Bor but some people were mobilized on the ground to reject him and he was chased away using firearms.
Dr. Badi said that Akurdid’s claim that the people rejected his replacement (Anur) is also not true.
“Maybe it is Satan who has entered Akurdid’s heart and he is now abusing the church and imposing himself. This will not change anything,” the Primate said. “The solution will come when Akurdid embraces the spirit of the Lord and steps down but if Satan is still in his heart, there will be no solution and he will fight God and God’s church until Jesus comes back.
Asked if the church can allow Akurdid to serve for the 3 months he desires, Badi said it would be against the ECSS’ constitution.
“This is a constitutional matter that cannot be tampered with. If we make an exception and allow him to serve for three months, it means we have destroyed the church because it will set a wrong precedent and anyone to cause problems,” he said.
On if Bishop Anur was on the ground in Jonglei, he said, “Bishop Anur is the substantive Archbishop in Jonglei but is not on the ground because Akurdiot and his elements threatened to shoot and kill him so he is administering from Juba because he was attacked in Bor but by God’s grace survived the bullets.”
“My message to the faithful is that Jesus said that if you follow the truth, it will set you free and I want the faithful to follow God’s truth,” he said. “In the church, there is no fighting or jostling for positions. In Jonglei, we even have a Bishop who retired when he reached the retirement age. The same thing happened in Malakal. So when one clocks the retirement age, they leave. That is the system of the church. When one makes a mistake, you pray to God for forgiveness and come back to the fold.”