{"id":17240,"date":"2021-07-30T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=17240"},"modified":"2021-07-30T17:05:26","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T17:05:26","slug":"global-mission-staff-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2021\/global-mission-staff-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Mission staff released from custody in South Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Eric Miller<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Athanasus Ungang, Church of the Brethren Global Mission staff in South Sudan, was released from prison this week after a detention lasting more than three weeks. He and other church leaders and colleagues had been held for questioning following the murder of a church leader in May, although he was not a suspect in the case and the authorities did not press formal charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although Ungang has been released, his passport has not been returned to him, so he is currently unable to leave the country. He is a citizen of the United States and holds a US passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Peace Center that Ungang overseas in Torit was robbed while he was in detention. Five people have been arrested in relation to that robbery, all reported to be members of the Moti community and neighbors of the center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ungang is very grateful for the prayers and support of the church during his detention. Prayer continues to be needed for him, the work of the church in South Sudan, and for the members of the Moti community that hosts the Peace Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8212; Eric Miller and Ruoxia Li are co-executive directors of Global Mission for the Church of the Brethren.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/map-of-south-sudan.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7652\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/map-of-south-sudan.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/map-of-south-sudan-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption><em>Torit, the location of the Church of the Brethren Peace Center, is the capital city of South Sudan&#8217;s state of Eastern Equatoria. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Find more Church of the Brethren news:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__list wp-block-latest-posts is-layout-flow wp-block-latest-posts-is-layout-flow\"><li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/discernment-and-calling-an-appeal\/\">Discernment and calling: An appeal for nominations for the Annual Conference ballot<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/disenman-ak-apel-yon-apel\/\">Dis\u00e8nman ak ap\u00e8l: Yon ap\u00e8l pou nominasyon pou bilten v\u00f2t Konferans Any\u00e8l la<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/discernimiento-y-vocacion-convocatoria\/\">Discernimiento y vocaci\u00f3n: Convocatoria para la presentaci\u00f3n de candidaturas para la votaci\u00f3n de la Conferencia Anual.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/help-shape-intergenerational-resources\/\">Help shape resources for intergenerational ministry: An invitation from Brethren Press<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/ayude-a-dar-forma-a-los-recursos\/\">Ayude a dar forma a los recursos para el ministerio intergeneracional: Una invitaci\u00f3n de Brethren Press.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Athanasus Ungang, Church of the Brethren Global Mission staff in South Sudan, was released from prison this week after a detention lasting more than three weeks. He and other church leaders and colleagues had been held for questioning following the murder of a church leader in May, although he was not a suspect in the case and the authorities did not press formal charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[3,399],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-17240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-church-of-the-brethren","tag-south-sudan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17241,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17240\/revisions\/17241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17240"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=17240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}