Bishop Nhial of Sudan Visits BDS
The Rt. Rev. Abraham Nhial, Bishop of the new Diocese of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan in Aweil, Northern Bahr-el-gazal State, visited the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale October 18-20 to meet with students and to discuss the growing church in South Sudan.
On October 18, Bishop Nhial met with students in the Anglican Theology and History II class, which is studying the worldwide Anglican communion. In front of CBS’s “60 Minutes” cameras, Bishop Nhial described the civil war in Sudan in the 1980s that sent him and thousands of other Lost Boys into exile in Ethiopia and Kenya until some, like him, were relocated to the United States. (An earlier “60 Minutes” installment about Abraham Nhial and other Sudanese Lost Boys can be seen at http://vimeo.com/26288723. Bishop Nhial appears seven minutes into the segment.)
In the class, Bishop Nhial discussed his decision to leave the United States, where he was relocated and educated. He answered a call to return to the new state of South Sudan as a very young bishop of the new Diocese in Aweil, one of the northernmost areas of South Sudan.
Bishop Nhial presided over a healing service at BDS’s Wednesday Community Eucharist on Oct. 19. In addition, he also made a lunchtime presentation to all of Yale Divinity School, describing more of his experiences in Sudan as well as the rapid growth of Christianity in South Sudan since the civil war there. He also signed copies of his book, Lost Boy No More: A True Story of Survival and Salvation.
Jesse Zink, BDS ’12 used a grant from the Evangelical Education Society of the Episcopal Church to Bishop Nhial in South Sudan this past summer and witnessed the birth of the world’s newest nation and the Episcopal Church there. Dean Britton also visited Sudan in March of 2010, travelling to Juba as part of the growing relationship between Berkeley Divinity School and Bishop Gwynne Theological College.