Persecuted refugee welcomed by inner city parish

A persecuted Sudanese refugee, Amos Mango, arrived in Nottingham from Finland last month to work alongside an inner-city clergywoman in Hyson Green.

This Sunday, 3rd December, Amos calling to the Church will be fulfilled, when he is ordained by the Suffragan Bishop in Europe, the Rt Revd David Hamid, at St Stephen with St Paul’s, Hyson Green.

Amos, who was a teacher of Arabic in a church school in Khartoum, was forced to flee from his native Sudan, where he was persecuted for sharing his faith with others. After finding sanctuary in Egypt, he was given refugee status by the UN and assigned to go to Finland with his wife and four young children.

Amos’s wife has managed to obtain a visa to attend the ordination in Hyson Green, where he is getting a few weeks pastoral experience under the guidance of the Revd Ruth Worsley and a chance to improve his English.

Amos’s and his family arrived in Finland in February 2002 - a country about which he knew nothing except that it was cold. He found other Sudanese Christians there and started the Sudanese Christian Fellowship, which now has eight centres in major towns. There are up to 1000 Sudanese living in Finland, a country where they have been made welcome, and the number of Anglicans is growing, according to Amos. They use the Arabic translation of the Book of Common Prayer, and Amos’s ordination will mean that they will be able to receive Holy Communion – something for which they have been longing.

He will return to Finland after the ordination and prays that one day, he might be able to return to Sudan.

Amos fell foul of the Sudanese authorities in October 2001, when he travelled from place to place to preach to Christian gatherings. He used a Roman Catholic church in one place to screen the Jesus video and to give an evangelistic talk but was accused of trying to convert Muslims. When he defended his activities as legitimate, he was attacked and beaten, and prevented from going to church by being made to report every Sunday at 6am to spend the whole day cleaning the streets and doing other menial jobs.

He said: “It is getting worse and worse for Christians in Sudan – no freedom of preaching, no rights even,” he says. “It is more dangerous than ever, with more people raising their voices against Christianity.  The sufferings in Darfur are hitting the children and the old people most of all. It desperately needs our prayers.”

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