Like the Holy Land, Sudan is known as a battleground; between the Arab north and the African south, between the Government of Sudan in Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Juba, between Muslim and Christian. Yet throughout more than 30 years of a civil war, in which millions have died and many more have been orphaned and made homeless, the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) has held north and south together.

The greatest privilege of the diocese of Salisbury is our partnership with the Church in the Sudan. I spent the start of Lent with them as they gathered to choose a new archbishop. It was a remarkable contrast to the last election, in 2000, where tribal factions were evident. On that occasion, one bishop, who was also a government minister, had gathered tribal elders under a tree, opening a suitcase to reveal stacks of new banknotes.

This time it was quite different. In the retreat beforehand I had taken symbols of leadership from the account of Jesus's Passion in St John's Gospel. They listened intently as we rehearsed the universal truths.

Leaders must first be baptised disciples, learning and growing with those for whom they have responsibility: if we stop growing up, we die, and that's a challenge to us all each Lent and Easter. Then bishops must be listeners and servants of all, and go on being good deacons - washing one another's feet as we attend to people's needs. Bishops must be bridge-builders - the ancient title pontifex means just that, and with many bridges down in southern Sudan, it is easy to grasp the importance of joining things up, of reconciling, of communications. In his prayer to the Father in John 17, Jesus reveals just how important this relationship was at the heart of his ministry: it is because they model this essential quality of interdependence that bishops are a focus of unity. They must be good shepherds of the flock; but that does not just mean keeping people safe inside the sheepfold and feeding them on baby food: it means leading them out to pastures new, so that they can grow to maturity, as Jesus made clear to Peter. They must be leaders in the apostolic mission of the Church: it is so tempting to draw people into the tomb, to stay with the dreams of what might have been; but the risen Christ is outside, in the real world, calling us, by name, to use our gifts to engage in bringing the new creation to birth rather than propping up the old.

In the event, they made a fine job of the election. No one initially won the two thirds of the votes required, and the two candidates with fewer gladly withdrew from the contest. Anyway, they thought that Bishop Daniel would do it really well and they wanted to work with him. And the applause rang out, for this graciousness as well as for Daniel's election.

Bishop Daniel, confirmed as the next archbishop, spoke of the significance of the ECS's witness to unity in the face of north-south division in that troubled country. Conflict lies only just below the surface, and the Church is called to be an agent of reconciliation, a place for all tribes, races and nations. Without unity among ourselves, our witness to the transforming power of the Gospel is fatally undermined. This was the message that the country - as well as the Church - needed to hear.

So often the Church gets dragged back into the tomb of its anxieties and failures, and bogged down in the memories of the past. But the Easter experience of the first Disciples was that the new life drew them out of the tomb, out of the prison of their own past and personal desires in order to get a life. The manner in which our partners conducted this process was a powerful sign of the new creation at work, and we are lucky to be able to welcome all our Sudanese bishops into the diocese before the Lambeth Conference this summer. That is resurrection for you.

The Right Rev Dr David Stancliffe is Bishop of Salisbury