Bishop Henry Riak: We will begin our service with a song about peace presented by the Murle of Boma County.

Adoc Lotiti: Alleluia, we thank our God, and our Lord Jesus Christ for taking us up to this time as we discuss concerns of peace & reconciliation. Our song says God with us here in Wunlit, and everywhere in Sudan, and across all of Sudan.

Rev: (Prays) We thank you for bringing us to Wunlit, and for your presence with us in this place. We have suffered greatly in S Sudan and we can only entrust ourselves to you. (Song in Murle follows sung by two pastors). Our song says that we in S Sudan is in great confusion and we have suffered so much. We ask the neighbouring countries, Ethiopia, Kenya & Eritria to pay for the Sudanese.

BHR: Let us now begin our service with prayer. We thank you for this morning in which you have brought us together. Come and inspire us all that we may be filled with your Spirit, and especially our Preacher, Dr. Bill Lowrey. Bless us with your understanding and wisdom, we praise in Christ's name. Amen. We will now share in a general confession, each of us in our languages (absolution offered by the bishop, followed by the Lord's Prayer, each in his or her own vernacular language). We will now hear a song in Dinka. It says, "Angels of God". We ask one person to come to the microphone to lead (young boy with a strong voice begins, with a song from the RC Church. "The angels of God have come to the earth upon all people. We pray you, O Christ. We pray to you o God, Let the sons of Adam be forgiven. God our Lord, help u, to leave our sins. . . . Have mercy upon us, and forgive our sins. Receive our prayer" Explanation: The first Adam fell into sin, and the second group of humanity fell, but Noah remained alive. We who are present are children of Noah, but we must be genuine children of God). We will now have our first reading in Dinka.

Rev. Martin Maker Anhim: Pastor from Yirol; reading in Dinka, Numbers 20:14-21; 21:4-9 (p 74 in Lek Theer; the bronze serpent of Moses the wilderness). I am from Wau Diocese and came out of Wau with the attacks of Matip in 19.

Simon Saboth Nhial: Catchiest in the RC Church; reading in Nuer: Romans 5:1-11). I am a catchiest of the Youth in the Presbyterian Church.

BHC: We will now hear a beautiful song for peace from the Nuer.

James Gatjung Jal: This song is from Martin Luther when he made the revolution in the church in Germany. Let the Nuer stand and sing No. 191 in hymnbook (translated from English, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God").

Rev Matthew Mathiang: Reading from Matthew 5:9-16. "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the sons of God . . . you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? . . . You are the light of the world . . . "

Bishop HC: I would like to introduce my pastors from the ECS Diocese of Wau who have cycled from Thiet. I ask Santino Manut to give us their names.

Rev. Santino Manut Acuil: We greet you who have attended this meeting for peace in the name of the Trinity. It is great to have come and be with you. We have come from the Diocese of Wau. I have come with the following pastors: Pastors John Angwe Deng, Ayei Deng (shouts greeting), Abraham Mayom Aru, Gabriel Garang Wal, Joseph Malong Deng. Our pastors bring the greetings of the Christians of our churches in Tonj, with thanksgiving for this Peace Conference. We support your efforts. We are also delighted to meet our Bishop who has come from Nairobi.

Bishop HC: I would like to meet these pastors after the service that they might know us, and you might know us. I also announce that at 3:00 we will gather for a confirmation service here in this building. I hand over the platform to Rev. Matthew.

Rev. Matthew: I have two announcements. When all the Christian services and the sacrifices are finished, Commander Selfa Kiir would like all of us to gather for a photograph with him. Secondly, is that the Co-ordinating Council we have elected will meet at 5:00 this evening. The addition which I would like to request from Nuer is that all chiefs should wear their chiefly uniforms. The people of Western Upper Nile are requested to submit the names of those they have selected to serve on the Co-ordinating Council. I now invite the Rev. Bill Lowrey to give the sermon.

Rev. Bill Lowrey: Continuing with the announcements before my sermon: I have been given two lists by the Bul, and also two have come from Yirol County, so I would ask that you work out those differences so that we have only one list from each area (the two lists that have given will be returned to the groups). If someone can see me after our worship service, I will give you those lists.

Now I come to you not as the Facilitator of the Conference, but as one of the Pastors. I am grateful for the invitation to come and be your preacher today. I bring you greetings from the NSCC. In addition to that, there are thousands of Christians from around the world who are praying for you, and I bring you greetings from those thousands, who stand with you in solidarity. I solute you as peacemakers from Bahr el Ghazal and from Western Upper Nile. And I have chose for my text today, my text in which Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God." It is proper for us to ask, however, who really are the peacemakers. These words of Jesus are the only time in the NT in which this term "peacemaker" is used (applause). In the OT the same word is used in the book of Proverbs. In that passage it says, the one who boldly stands against evil is the one who makes peace. So if you want to be a peacemaker you cannot sit quietly in the face of evil. Many peacemaker must first stir up controversy, conflict, and difficulty before peace will come. Some of you, when you return home, will find there are people who are against peace, and you cannot remain silent among them if you are a peacemaker. There are people who have become comfortable with fighting because they have become wealthy keeping the booty of war for themselves. If you want to be a peacemaker you must go home, and make those people very uncomfortable. So, what is this peace we are trying to make? It is a peace that seeks for the well-being of the whole community, not just the well-being of a few. You must struggle for justice for children in your community. You must struggle for justice for the women in your community. You must struggle for justice for the weakest people in your community, and those who have been damaged by war. You do not bring justice if you turn those who have been oppressed into the new oppressors in your community. You must build a peace where every man, woman and child benefits from the peace that you bring. And Jesus says that, when you become that kind of peacemaker, you will be called the children of God. You understand better than we in the West how important it is to give someone a name. So when you give someone a name you give it because they have already become through the quality of their lives the meaning of that name. So when God gives you the name, "child of God" it is because you have already become a child of God. When you do the work of peace and you reconcile people with God and people with people, and people with creation, you have become the children of God. And what shall you expect when you become these peacemakeres in your place? Some people will hate you and persecute you. Some will stand against you so strongly that you will want to keep silent. But you cannot keep silent. Jesus says, "You are to be the salt and the light in the world." When there is no peace it is like having food that has no salt. When you do the work of peace, you become the salt so that the community knows the taste of peace. When there is no peace it is like the darkness of the darkest night when nobody can see their way. When you do the work of peace you present light in the midst of darkness and people can find their way forward in the midst of peace (applause). So I say with Jesus to you, "Blessed are the peacemakers for blessed are you as the children of God."

Now, finally, I want to talk with you just a moment about the meaning of covenant, and the sealing of covenant we are doing here at Wunlit today. All through the Bible it speaks of how we live in covenant with each other and with God. To be in covenant means to make commitments to one another and commitments to God. For there to be power in the Covenant there must be power from God. This kind of Covenant did not begin with Jesus, but was happening for many, many years before Jesus came. God made Covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and lived in covenant with Moses, and the people of Israel. And the prophets knew what it meant to live in covenant as the People of God. Each time that a covenant was established an animal would be sacrificed, and the blood would flow. It takes the shedding of blood to reveal the cost of confirming the covenant. But the power of the sacrifice was not found in the animal that was sacrificed, by itself. Each time the animal was sacrificed it was pointing to the day when the perfect sacrifice would come. The perfect sacrifice was Jesus Christ, so that every animal sacrifice pointed toward the sacrifice of Christ who would come to fulfil the purpose of God. The Jewish people who raised sheep in their culture referred to Him as "the Lamb of God". In this culture we might want to refer to Christ as the Bull of God. In my culture we did not have these sacrifices, and so it was difficult for us to understand the meaning of Christ's sacrifice, as that which made possible our relationship with God. In your culture you have seen these sacrifices since you were a small child, but you might ask as a Christian, "what does this mean for me?" I encourage you to lean from the people of the Old Testament so that you know how to interpret these things you see in your own culture. The people of the Old Testament looked forward to the day when the Messiah, the Christ, would come as the perfect sacrifice. Now we today as Christians are able to look back to the day when Jesus was the perfect sacrifice and we are able to understand how we are in Covenant with God and with one anther through his sacrifice. So when you see a bull sacrificed by the people here, let this point you in your own mind and your own heart toward Jesus Christ who is the sacrifice which has brought you into covenant with God. From your culture you are able to see picture of the sacrifice, pictures of the covenant, in the sacrifice of bulls. But as a Christians you are able to say, those sacrifices are not the power for you, but it points toward the sacrifice that is offered once and always for you. So when you have signed the Wunlit Dinka-Nuer Covenant, you are crying out to God, "let us be peacemakers, give us your power as peacemakers, the power of Christ that we might do your work. My sisters and brothers, Dinka and Nuer, go from this place in the power of God as peacemakers in your land (applause). Alleluia and Amen.

Bp HC: Thank you Dr. Lowrey for your wonderful sermon. You have reminded us about our traditional ways of worship. And how this has been removed by the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. May all who believe in Jesus Christ have eternal peace in his heart. So all of us who are sitting here are believers in Jesus Christ. So now are going to stand up and confirm our faith in the Apostles' Creed. Let us confirm our faith (it is said simultaneously in the various vernaculars). Let us pray, and I call upon one Nuer to pray for us, and Mama Mary Abuk, and Abuna John Akuma are invited to pray. Let us be seated.

James Nguin: Prays in Nuer.

Mary Abuk: Let us sing the song that says, "We take the burden from our necks." Lord hear our prayer. Forgive our sins. None of does good on the earth. Lord, we at Wunlit,

we thank you, Yakoba. You have accompanied us through many years of suffering, but in hour hearts we have been stubborn. Our children, we bring before you. God of life, by your mercy bless our people, and our brothers, the Nuer, Lord, there is nothing possible but through you. In the past we have been in conflict. We thank you, O God, because of the great confusion of Sudan, even across in Eastern Upper Nile, we cry out to you. We are in confusion, women have been abducted. Hear us, O merciful God, this is your peace you have brought to us. God give us hope, give us courage, to go forward. Our God, we cry to you, Lord, take us out of our confusion. We call upon you and glorify you. You are our ancestor. You are our creator. We complete our work today. Let us go forward from our meetings, back to our homes as people of truth. Let us speak the truth as you have shown it to us. You have prepared us for the work before us. We praise you and give you glory.

Pastor John Akumu: Let us continue in prayer. Our heavenly Father, Lord, indeed we come to you. Lord hear our prayers Lord, we pray for our mothers and our fathers, our sisters and brothers. We confess the sins of our people, that, Lord, you will forgive us, and that the peace we are looking for will come. We have heard your word. It is not only that we must hear, but it is up to us now to put what we have heard into practice. Lord, may you change our hearts. Humble us. Create us. Make us the people you want us to be so that we rejoice when that peace comes in our midst, when we live without any fear or suspicion among us, but when we live in harmony and unity. It is not easy. We need you to be with us, to change our hearts, change our minds, help us to love you with all our hearts, all our minds all our souls, and with all our strength. By doing this you will give us that peace through love. Bless us and bless your words. Bless these people who are here, especially our leaders, right to the top and up to the bottom. Bless us your servants, the church leaders, that we may be able to speak the truth, so that the truth we speak will set us free. Many times we shy from speaking the truth. We don't tell the truth. We are selfish and want only the glory for ourselves. We confess our shortcomings. May you cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thank you for all these days we have been here. Now help us as we take your message to Galatia, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. We thank and praise you. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bp HC: Thank you for your prayers. Now I call the names of those who will collect our offering: Deborah Ayuen, Rebekah Awan Bul, Elizabeth Aluong, Sarah Awol, and . . . Pandoli. These are our collectors, some in here and some under the tree.

BL: Let us pray. Almighty God, we thank you for these gifts that have been presented from all the people. These gifts are a sign of the commitment of their entire lives. We pray for every person here, those who have signed the Covenant, and those who have committed themselves to fulfil it. We pray that the commitment of their lives and money might bring peace and blessing to this land. We pray that your peace might spread through our homes, through our entire country, and we give thanks for all your people, who, working through your power, have helped to bring it to fulfilment. We give you thanks. Amen.

Bp HC: I have to tell you that Bill Lowrey has been a friend to me when I was in prison. He came to see me in prison and was a great help to me, and to other prisoners, preaching the word of God before the prisoners. Also, I thank one of our sisters who was here for human rights who came to see me in prison, Jamera Rone. And I also thank the Bishop David Smith of Bradford in prison who came to visit me in prison. And the Archbishop of Canterbury sent his pastors to visit me in prison. And your prayers have also contributed to my release. It was a human being trying to see if I am dead in prison or suffering in prison. For this I thank God very much: during my entire period in prison, I was never sick. Because of your prayers. Than you for praying for me. I would like Pastor Simon to say a very slight thing and then we will close in prayer (time is finished). So I have to close with a blessing of God. (MM: let us stand up). The peace of God that passes all understanding . . . Amen.