Festive Occasion Recognizes Beginning of Assembly Year

Festive Occasion Recognizes Beginning of Assembly Year

On January 30, 2013, a celebration held at Bexco recognized the arrival of the year

when the World Council of Churches 10th General Assembly comes to Busan in October

and November, and the ongoing preparation taking place was lifted up. A large number

of volunteers recruited from local churches of Busan participated in all aspects of

worship leadership, from stewards to welcome and direct, to a mass choir of about 300

singers and a brass-band, several worship teams, sound and visual effects crews, a

liturgical dance group from EWHA University, a sand artist, etc. Approximately 2000

people took part in the worship service which was led by representatives of the Busan

KHC, who introduced themselves and their work so far. The message was given by Rev.

Kim Sam-Hwan, chairperson of the Korea Host Committee.

The second part of the evening was mainly led by people from the standing Korean

Host Committee and featured WCC delegates. Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima, the

Moderator of the WCC Assembly Planning Committee, and Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit,

WCC General Secretary, gave a short message, where they expressed their

appreciation of the progress so far and words of encouragement for the next 10

months.

As a conclusion, three large balloons labeled Life, Peace and Justice, ascended to the

ceiling, trailing flags of the nations whose churches will participate in the General

Assembly, as all were invited to take the hands of their neighbors to depict unity for

our future work.