April 2009: Remarkable Blessings

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”(Matthew 5:9)
In a country of division and strife, the churches of South and North Korea meet together regularly each year to pray and plan joint mission priorities. This in itself is remarkable, but the growing confidence and strength in their shared faith and vigilant attention to human rights is gaining influence on governmental practices and humanitarian treatment.

April 2009 Bulletin Insert Format [PDF]
Abril 2009 en español

 

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”  (Matthew 5:9)

In a country of division and strife, the churches of South and North Korea meet together regularly each year to pray and plan joint mission priorities. This in itself is remarkable, but the growing confidence and strength in their shared faith and vigilant attention to human rights is gaining influence on governmental practices and humanitarian treatment.

Last year the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) and the Korea Christian Federation (KCF) in the North agreed to use a common prayer in all of the churches of South and North Korea on Easter Sunday. They ask all of us to join in their prayer journey for healing and reconciliation. The prayer reads in part:

O God, Lord of our history as well as of our nation!
Today we praise you, Lord, who have risen as Eternal Life
through the struggle for righteousness, between lies and truth, at the fork of the path of dying or living….

O Lord, who is still alive and is with us!
As the one day of resurrection has brought a new day continuing through all eternity, and
as you accomplish the salvation of all humankind and all creation through the risen One,
Free us from the reality of war and conflict and from the world of antagonism and jealousy through your mercy and grace. …

O Lord!
Help us, churches of North and South, sisters and brothers of North and South, to achieve resurrection itself with one accord.
Help us to enjoy a life of peace through our belief and action.
Help us to be reborn as one nation wearing white clothes, a new nation of white and cleanness.
Help us to build a kingdom of peace serving our neighbors, to open a new day of reunification standing firmly as light for the world.

Amen