From the Nuba Mountains of Sudan to the suburbs of Perth, the story of Mekyal Keira: the Diocese of the Southern Cross’ first clergy ordination

Posted on December 11, 2025 
Filed under Diocese of the Southern Cross, People

“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. …”

– Read it all, thanks to John Sandeman at The Other Cheek.

Gafcon photo.