On this Shrove Tuesday, crowds began gathering at daybreak in anticipation of the arrival of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of Sudan, Dr. Joseph Marona. Among the thousands were hundreds of women and children, clergy from all over the country, government officials, Southerners and Northerners, and Christians from the Episcopal, Presbyterian and Catholic churches in town.

Two years ago, this cathedral was nothing but a vision in the mind and heart of Bishop Deng, who knew that if a cathedral were to be built in this place, this borderland between North and South, then Christianity would have a foothold here.

Now, that vision is St. Matthew's, a stunning and massive cathedral, which was built with funding mainly from the people of the Diocese of Virginia in the U.S. at a cost of nearly $175,000.

Construction was begun only 10 months before the dedication, shortly after the peace treaty was signed and just before it went into effect.

The U.S. contingent was led by Bishop Francis C. Gray, recently retired assisting bishop of the Diocese of Virginia and the main fund-raiser for the cathedral. He brought with him five others from Virginia: from Christ Church, Alexandria, came Russ Randle, Nancy Knapp and the Rev. Pierce Klemmt, rector. The Rev. Anne West came from St. Paul's, Alexandria, representing its rector, the Rev. Oran Warder. The Rev. Andrew Merrow, rector of St. Mary's, Arlington, Va., rounded out the Virginia delegation. From St. Michael's, in Barrington, Ill., came the Rev. Al Johnson, rector; Jackie Kraus and Laurie Michaels, all of whom also represented the Diocese of Chicago with its long-standing covenant agreement between it and the Diocese of Renk.

On the morning of Feb. 28, after arriving by U.N. helicopter, Archbishops Williams and Marona, along with Bishop Deng, made their way to the cathedral.

While the choir sang hymns in the church, the bishops, clergy and lay leaders processed three times around the cathedral, stopping at each corner of the building to have it anointed and blessed by the archbishops, Bishop Gray and Bishop Deng.

Each bishop left his handprint in holy oil upon the cement of the facade.

The service, which including the traditional blessing of the baptismal font, lectern, pulpit and altar, as well as the asperging of the people with baptismal water, vibrated with energy throughout. The choirs - youth and adult - danced and clapped as they praised God and at one point literally could not be stopped from their singing.

What happened on Shrove Tuesday wasn't just another opening of a new church.

It was much more than that. The civil war that devastated this country was largely religious and ethnic.

Many Southerners had been forced to convert to Islam or face persecution during that war; 2 million people died and more than twice that number fled their homes, some having not yet gone back again.

So this celebration wasn't just about bricks and mortar, even though the construction of this cathedral was a monumental achievement all on its own.

No, this celebration was centered on the people's faith in Jesus Christ, and on God's blessings bestowed upon those who have endured so much with so little for so long.

It was a celebration centered on the joining of the people of the Diocese of Renk, in the middle of Sudan, where Christianity and Islam meet face to face, with the people of the Diocese of Virginia, who financed the building of the cathedral.

It was a celebration of the joining of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, a conservative church in Africa, with the Episcopal Church of the United States, a fairly progressive church in the so-called First World.

It was a celebration of two bishops - Daniel Deng Bul of Renk, who had a vision for a cathedral in the middle of almost nowhere, and Frank Gray, just retired assisting bishop of Virginia - who two years ago decided to make that vision a reality, no matter how impossible that seemed.

And finally, this celebration served an open declaration to the world: We are Christians, and we are here to stay.

The Cathedral of St. Matthew was filled with laughter and ululating and songs and prayers on Shrove Tuesday, and not just because the bricks and mortar were in place in time.

--The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley is an Episcopal priest serving as an appointed missionary in the Episcopal Diocese of Renk, Sudan.