(Editor's Note: St. Augustine Books by-the-Sea, books & gifts store donate all its profits to charitable outreach both here and abroad. Recently, $1,000 was sent to "Hope With Sudan." In this issue of Ebb & Flow, is a reprint of an article on Sudan from the ENS and a piece from The Rev. Jerry Drino, Director of Hope With Sudan, and finally, a thank you note, essentially to all of you who shop at the books & gifts store)

(Episcopal News Service) Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has expressed "great sorrow" at the latest widespread violence inflicted on Sudanese communities by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and has called on U.S.–based Episcopalians to take action through advocacy and prayer.

The recent atrocities by the LRA, a Ugandan rebel organization, are the latest in a 22-year-long terrorist campaign that has reigned after high-level peace talks have failed to broker a permanent ceasefire.

In a January 29 statement, the Presiding Bishop asks Episcopalians to do four things: learn more about the crisis and educate others; email the White House and urge President Barack Obama to work with international leaders to bring an end to the LRA's activity; contribute to Episcopal Relief and Development, whose programs in the region help to provide humanitarian aid; and "pray frequently for the people of central and eastern Africa who are or have been victims of the LRA."

The Ugandan government has been engaged in negotiations with the LRA since August, 2006 when a landmark truce was signed following peace talks in the south Sudanese capital, Juba. The government and the rebels signed a ceasefire in January, 2008 that stopped short to an all-out peace agreement.

The recent LRA attacks – which Jefferts Schori notes usually involve "killings, child abductions, executions by decapitation and other unspeakable crimes" – had first targeted several parishes and villages in the Sudanese dioceses of Mundri and Ezo. Recent reports indicate that the violence appears to be spreading across southern Sudan to Torit, Kajokeji, Lainya, Yei, Yambio, Ibba, Maridi, and Lui.

"For more than twenty-two years, the Lord's Resistance Army … has terrorized people in the region. After many years of conflict in Northern Uganda, where the Anglican Church and others bore heroic and unremitting witness for peace in the face of upheaval, the LRA in recent years has expanded its attacks into other countries in the region with increasing frequency," said Jefferts Schori.

"This month's LRA attacks on Episcopalians and others in the Sudan, a place where fighting between north and south continues to threaten an already fragile peace, are the latest signal to the world that stronger international action is necessary in order to stop the LRA's reign of violence in the region and to bring the perpetrators to justice."