Marc R. Nikkel (1950–2000) was an American Episcopal priest, artist, author, teacher, missionary to the Sudan, and advocate for the Dinka ("Jieng") people of South Sudan.
Biography
Marc Nikkel was born to Mennonite parents in Reedley, California; he studied at the California State University School for the Visual Arts (and anthropology) before joining his sister in mission work in Nigeria and then studying at Fuller Theological Seminary
[Dictionary of African Christian Biography, ''Nikkel, Mark (A)'']
/ref> before becoming an Anglican.
In 1981, Nikkel began teaching at Bishop Gwynne College in Mundri
Mundri is a village in Kaithal tehsil of Kaithal district of Haryana in India.[General Theological Seminary
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church (GTS) is an Episcopal seminary in New York City. Founded in 1817, GTS is the oldest seminary of the Episcopal Church and the longest continuously operating Seminary in the Anglican Communi ...]
of the Episcopal Church in Chelsea, New York, being ordained to the diaconate by the Bishop of Southwestern Virginia and to the priesthood on his return to the Sudan.[ Dictionary of African Christian Biography, ''Nikkel, Mark (B)'']
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Nikkel was kidnapped by the Sudanese Liberation Army in July 1987 along with several other Americans. He was later released in northern Kenya
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. He then left Africa to begin doctoral studies at the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World
The Centre for the Study of World Christianity (CSWC) is a research centre based in New College, the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. It was founded in the University of Aberdeen by Andrew F. Walls as the Centre for the Study ...
in Edinburgh, Scotland where he collected, translated and analyzed hundreds of Jieng Christian songs.
After completing his doctoral work, Nikkel served as an advisor to several Sudanese Anglican dioceses, working in partnership with the Church Missionary Society of England and the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. His primary work was in theological education among the Dinka people of the Nile basin in South Sudan.
In Kenya, Marc Nikkel also co-founded Kakuma Refugee Camp with Bishop Nathanael Garang of Bor Diocese, South Sudan. There at Kakuma, Marc Nikkel named the young Dinka survivors "the Lost Boys."
Marc Nikkel was diagnosed with cancer in 1998, and died in California on September 3, 2000.
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Selected bibliography
* ''The Outcast, the Stranger and the Enemy in Dinka Tradition contrasted with Attitudes of Contemporary Dinka Christians'' (unpublished Master's thesis, General Theological Seminary, 1988)
* ''Dinka Christianity: The Origins and Development of Christianity among the Dinka of Sudan, with Special Reference to the Songs of Dinka Christians''
* ''Why Haven't You Left? Letters from the Sudan'', edited by Grant LeMarquand
References
External links
The Crosses of Dinka Christians
from Fox Video Production and Post, P.O.B. 681027, Franklin, TN 37068, USA.
Editorial reflection on Marc Nikkel
from Anglicans Online
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...
JStor website
''A Tribute to Marc Nikkel, Missionary to the Sudan (1950-2000)'', article by Grant LeMarquand, published by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church in ‘Anglican and Episcopal History’, Vol. 71, No. 2, Essays on the Anglican Church in the Sudan (June 2002), pp. 241-246
American Anglican missionaries
1950 births
2000 deaths
Converts to Anglicanism from Mennonitism
California State University alumni
American missionary educators
Anglican missionaries in Sudan
Anglican missionaries in Kenya
American expatriates in Sudan
American expatriates in Kenya
Kidnapped American people
Kidnappings in Sudan
1987 crimes in Sudan
20th-century American Episcopalians
Deaths from cancer in California
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