Last month, Mekyal Keira was ordained as a deacon in the Diocese of the Southern Cross, and commissioned as pastor of the Kush church in Perth. The Diocese of the Southern Cross is a theologically conservative Anglican body that operates in progressive dioceses in Australia.
The Kush church is an English-Arabic speaking church that meets on Sundays at noon, at 160 Dampier Avenue, Kallaroo, a suburb of Perth. It is one of eight churches in the Diocese of the Southern Cross.
I am Mekyal Keira. When I was 11 years old, I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ in the Nuba Mountains through missionaries from Australia. In 1978, war broke out in the region between the Islamic government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). The main reason was the Christian minority living in the area.
In 1989, I migrated to Khartoum with my family. That same year, I was baptised in the Church of the Saviour, Omdurman, by the Rt. Rev’d Bishop Botros Kowa, and later that same year, I was confirmed by the Rt. Rev’d Bishop Paul Tia Shukai. I served in the Diocese of Khartoum until 1997, when I joined the Al-Gereif West Theological School. Then, in 2001, I migrated to Egypt, where I continued serving in the Diocese of Egypt at St. Michael and All Angels Parish in Roxy under the care of Bishop Mouneer Anis Hanna.
In 2006, I migrated to Australia and began serving in Yokine Church. Due to a lack of clear vision, I left that church and began praying with my family at home for about three months, seeking a place where my wife and children could grow spiritually. One day, I visited the Parish of the Holy Cross with my family, and Fr. (or “Abuna” as we called him) Rob Healy, welcomed me with a spirit of love.
From that moment, I knew that this was a place of God and was pleased to encourage the Nuba faithful in Perth to join us. I served there from 2008 and joined Perth Bible College, where I studied until 2012. After the Rev’d Rob was assigned a new role with BCA, which meant his term as rector had come to an end, a new liberal Priest was appointed. I then left the parish and attended St. Peter’s, under the Rev’d Neil Walthew, until 2024.
Since moving to Australia, I have witnessed significant changes within the Anglican Church. Over the years, liberal and revisionist movements have progressively spread, bringing teachings and practices that do not uphold the biblical convictions and values that once shaped the Anglican Church I knew upon my arrival. This slow drift from the historic faith has deeply concerned me, especially for the spiritual future of my children and the children of the Sudanese Anglican community in Western Australia who long to remain steadfast in the gospel of Christ.
I was a candidate for ordination within the diocese, but as I continued to see the direction the church was taking, I could not in good conscience proceed under a system that had drifted from the authority of Scripture and the historic Anglican faith.
I count it a great privilege to be an Anglican Christian, a faith brought to Sudan through the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in the late 19th century. Through their work, countless men and women of faith were raised up to shepherd the church and guard the faith entrusted to them. I refuse to compromise this unchanging faith for the shifting influences of the modern age. It would be a great abandonment to forget the biblical teachings passed down to me through the Church Missionary Society and through the many clergy and faithful laity of the Sudanese Anglican Church who guarded and lived this faith before me. To depart from these foundations and be in a diocese that accepts and promotes these ‘revisionist teachings’ would feel as though I were abandoning their witness and sacrifice.
For this reason, I give thanks to the Rt. Rev’d Bishop Glenn Davies, the Rev. Peter Smith, and all the GAFCON leadership, who have opened the door for me and my congregation to proclaim Christ faithfully and to hold fast to “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.”
Image: Mekyal Keira’s ordination with Bishop Glen Davies. Image Credit: Gafcon Australia