Christians around the globe are being urged to pray for Sudan as the southern Sudanese on Sunday began a seven-day referendum to vote whether to remain united with the North or become independent.
This referendum marks the end point of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that itself brought to an end 50 years of bloody civil war between the predominantly Muslim North and the mainly Christian and animist South.
Southern Sudanese are widely expected to vote for independence from the North, which they say treats them as second-class citizens.
On Friday, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, said Jan. 9 was an “immensely important day for Sudan.”
He called upon people around the world to stand with the Sudanese people “to ensure that the referendum takes place peacefully and that the process and the results are fully respected.”
The Church Mission Society which is based in the U.K. called on churches to devote time during Sunday worship to pray for Sudan and the referendum, while Anglican churches in Salisbury and the Diocese of Connor in Ireland put up prayer walls and resources on their websites to encourage people to pray for African nation.
In Australia, Dr. Julianne Stewart, programs director of the Anglican Board of Mission in Australia, said, "We are asking all Anglicans in Australia to pray for peace in Sudan. Whatever the outcome of the referendum, our hope is that the millions of people who have suffered amidst the conflict of the past few decades will come to know lasting peace."
The World Evangelical Alliance has urged its members worldwide to pray for a “free, fair and safe” referendum.
“While many seem confident that separation of the South will be the outcome of the January referendum, the hope for a peaceful acceptance by all parties seems much less probable,” they said.