On April 12, Bishop Don Harvey, moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada, informally welcomed St John’s Sudanese Anglican Church into the year-old organization. With 5,000 Sudanese in the Greater Vancouver area, many with an orthodox Anglican background, there seemed to be a clear need to plant a Sudanese Anglican church. The Rev’d Emmanuel Sadarak will pastor the new congregation which meets at Southside Community Church (Robson Park) in Surrey, BC.

The new Sudanese church has been meeting for Evening Prayer in Sadarack’s home for a year. When they reached 35 people the congregation had outgrown his home. On March 1^st they began meeting in a rented church and had 40 at their first service. All services are conducted in both Arabic and English.Almost all the members are under 40 while there are now 20 in the Sunday school (under the age of 18). Many have come to Canada as refugees within the last five years.

Sadarack himself came to Vancouver as a refugee from Sudan five years ago. He attended seminary in Sudan and was ordained and licensed there in 1992 in the Diocese of Lainya. (The Sudanese Episcopal Church is the largest Protestant denomination in Sudan.) He refused to be licensed by Bishop Michael Ingham because the Sudanese community in British Columbia does not recognize the Diocese of New Westminster as authentically Anglican or Christian.

Sadarack and his wife have five children, the oldest of whom is 18. They have regularly attended St. John's Shaughnessy for the last two years. Bishop Harvey has begun the process of having Sadarack’s licence transferred to ANiC and in the meantime has issued Sadarack a temporary ‘Permission to Officiate’ certificate. On May 23 Bishop Harvey will visit Vancouver to celebrate with the new parish in an official service of welcome. Sadarack believes that the new church has lots of potential for growth because there are no Anglican Sudanese churches in the Vancouver area.