Dear friends of the Ecumenical Forum for Peace, Reunification and Development Cooperation on the Korean peninsula,
I am very pleased to share with you the NCCK"s recent Pyungyang visit.
Since 2003 when churches in the North and the South have started to sit together at Mt. Keum-Kang as prayer meeting for peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula, it is the first time to have this joint prayer meeting in Pyungyang. 99 people from the South and around 300 members of Bongsoo Church in the North have been moved by having Communion Service. During worship service, we were, with deep appreciation, thinking of the first opportunity for christians of the North and the South to meet together and to have Communion Service in Glion in Switzerland with the help of the WCC and other overseas partner churches in 1986.
In this prayer meeting under the title of
Expressing our heartfelt thanks to you for your continuous solidarity in our journey toward peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula, I would like you to give your concern on uneasy political situation these days regarding North Korea nuclear issue, and to pray for bringing reconciliation and peace on the Korean peninsula with the new leadership of Berak Obama.
In Pyungyang, we could have a few meetings to proceed what we have agreed in Nanjing last May. In year 2009 there will be several ecumenical visits to Pyungyang from overseas partner churches and church organizations. And the 25th anniversary celebration of Tozanso consultation will be taking place in Hongkong on November 2009. I will inform you more details about this event later when outlines of programmes are prepared.
The Joint Statement of the prayer meeting and a few of photo are enclosed.
May God"s blessing and peace be with you.
With warm regard.
Heawon Chae
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The Joint Statement of PyungYang Prayer meeting for the Implementation of the June 15 Statement and Peace and Reunification.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."(Matthew 5:9)
We, christians in the South and the North, have prayed for people suffering with national division and have made every effort for peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula. We firmly believe that our effort for and exercise of national cooperation on the basis of solid belief in God would be to overcome national division. We, especially, have supported the June 15 Joint Statement and the October 4 Statement which are a landmark of "independence, peace, and reunification" and made positively our every effort for its implementation. Today, however, in which we concern about that the South-North cooperation for reconciliation and mutual life-affirming has been shrinking and the South-North political relationship is getting blocked, we declare our commitments as follows at
1. We, churches in the South and in the North, will make our every effort with our wisdom and ability for its implementation of the June 15 Statement with our explicit position of "through our national cooperation". We are sisters and brothers who should think of the other first as an inseparable national community. We will do our best for peace and reunification which is our long-yearning hope "through our national cooperation".
2. We, churches in the South and the North, will do our best to establish peace system in the Korean peninsula. We believe that to prevent war and to achieve peace is an important matter to decide our national destiny as well as a mission task which God called us christians to take responsibility. We will make our every effort to accomplish peace system in this land and to build peace and mutual progress in the North East Asia as well as further in the world.
3. We, churches in the South and the North, will participate in humanitarian assistance and development cooperation in the North, and promote mutual exchange and cooperation which will contribute to national solidarity and common prosperity. And We confess that any kinds of intention to foster divisional system of mistrust and antagonism as our sin, and we are sure that to live for national reconciliation and peace and reunification in this land is to follow what God asks us to act for love, reconciliation and unity.
We again express our commitment to living as peace maker, thanking God for making us fill with its blessing and deep inspiration through this joint prayer meeting.
November 4th, 2008
The National Council of Churches in Korea
The Central Committee of Korean Christian Federation
6. 15 공동선언 이행과 평화통일을 위한 평양 기도회 공동 선언문
‘평화를 위하여 일하는 자는 복이 있다. 그들은 하느님의 아들이 될 것이다.“(마태복음 5:9)
우리는 분열로 고난을 겪는 우리 민족을 위해 기도하며, 평화와 통일을 위해 그동안 부단히 애써왔다. 굳건한 신앙을 바탕으로 민족 공조의 실천이 분단을 극복하는 길임을 믿어 의심치 않는다. 특히 우리 교회는 자주. 평화, 통일의 이정표인 6.15 공동선언과 10.4 선언을 적극 지지하며 그 이행을 위해 노력해왔다. 그러나 최근 화해와 협력이 오히려 위축되고 남북관계가 경색국면에 있음을 심히 우려하면서 우리는 봉수교회에서 역사적으로 개최하는 제 5차 <6.15 공동 선언 이행과 평화통일을 위한 공동 기도회>가 평화와 통일, 공영의 새로운 전환이 될 수 있기를 하나님께 기도하면서 다음과 같이 선언한다.
1. 우리 교회는 ‘우리 민족끼리’ 서로 협력하여 6.15 공동선언과 10.4 선언이 실질적으로 이행될 수 있도록 상호 간의 지혜와 역량들을 모아 더욱 노력할 것이다. 우리는 갈라져 살 수 없는 유기체로서, 상대방의 이익을 먼저 생각해야 한다. 우리는 민족의 숙원인 나라의 평화통일을 위한 민족 공조에 적극 협력해나갈 것이다.
2. 우리 교회는 이 땅의 평화체제 구축을 위하여 적극 노력할 것이다. 이 땅에서 전쟁을 막고 평화를 이끌어 내는 것이 우리 민족의 운명을 결정짓는 중대한 일이며, 하느님의 명령이자 우리 그리스도인들이 감당해야 할 선교적 사명으로 확신한다. 우리는 이 땅에서의 평화체제 구축을 통하여 동북아 및 세계평화를 이루어가고 상호발전을 위해 적극 노력할 것이다.
3. 우리 교회는 인도주의적 협력에 동참하여 우리 사이의 교류와 협력을 더욱 발전시키고 민족 대단합과 공동번영에 기여할 것이다. 또한 불신과 대결을 조장하는 분단체제 고착을 죄로 고백하고, 민족의 화해와 이 땅에서의 평화 통일을 성취함이 사랑과 화해, 일치를 바라시는 하느님의 뜻을 따라 사는 길임을 확신한다.
우리는 하나님께 공동기도회에 은혜와 감동을 주심에 감사하며 하나님의 평화 일꾼으로 살아가기를 재차 다짐한다.
2008년 11월 4일
한국기독교교회협의회 조선그리스도교련맹 중앙위원회
