On May 22, a very important event took place.  After more than 10 years of discussion and cooperation with the Korean Catholic Church, an official accord was signed establishing the Faith and Order Council of Korean Churches, which will bring together the Korean Orthodox Church, the Korean Catholic Church, represented by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea, and the Protestant Churches, represented by the National Council of Churches of Korea.   The statement of the day reviewed some of the highlights of historic events of the churches.The Catholic Church has been in Korea for 230 years, the Protestant, for 130 years.  Their cooperation stems from 1966, when a team of scholars made a new joint translation of the Bible.  From 1968 the churches have shared Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and in 1977, they began holding a joint ecumenical Easter worship.  In 2002, talks were begun to establish a Faith and Order Council.   A thanksgiving worship was held at the Seoul Anglican Cathedral on May 22, followed by the first meeting of the new Council.  The Gospel was read from John 17:13-21, and Kim Young Ju, NCCK General Secretary gave a reflection on the words, “that all these people may become one”.  Greetings came from the Korean Government Ministry of Religion and Culture, from the Vatican, brought by the Most Rev. Osvaldo Padilla, and from the WCC, brought by Dr. Bae Hyun Ju, the Korean member of the WCC Central Committee.   At the official approval of the Faith and Order Council, the representatives of the churches signed the charter, Metropolitan Ambrosios of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Orthodox Metropolis of Korea, Archbishop Kim Hee Joong of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea, and Rev. Dr. Kim Young Ju of NCCK, with the representatives of NCCK member churches.