Members of South Sudan’s government and armed opposition attended a Christmas church service together on Friday at All Saints Cathedral in the capital Juba.
Government foreign affairs minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin, education minister Riek Gai, and cabinet minister Elia Lomuro prayed alongside SPLM-In Opposition representatives Oyet Nathaniel and Richard Mula. Elder Abel Alier and author Taban Lo-Liyong were also in attendance.
At the service, Anglican archbishop Daniel Deng Bul called on the people of South Sudan to welcome the SPLM-IO members with love and sincerity.
“We welcome our brother from the SPLM IO who have come; we have to welcome them all because they are part of us,” Deng said. “We are a family, a family can quarrel and a family can sit down again.”
“It is better to live in peace with one another than to live in conflict and pain and sorrow,” he continued. “We often hope that there should have been the absence of hostility, the absence of mental stress or anxiety. But in South Sudan and Sudan that is not the case. We live in fear and despair. We struggle to find peace, indeed we really need peace.”
Deng urged the warring parties to respect the peace agreement they signed to move South Sudan forward. He also called for forgiveness.
“For many years we have been prisoners of our own ethnic violence and war. We have been hurt and are bitter. We need to forgive one another. We need to swallow our bitterness, pride and hopelessness for the sake of our nation,” the archbishop said.
Meanwhile, advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury Reverend Canon Previous Omuku who is visiting South Sudan called on South Sudanese communities to reject messages from politicians aimed at dividing local populations.