|
This is what the Lord says: “Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.” (Jeremiah 22:3)
The annual NCCK joint Human Rights Worship and Award Presentation was held on Dec. 8. The 2015 Award was given to the Committee for Preserving the Memory of the Sewol Ferry and its victims. Kim Seong Wok, the mother of Kim Cho Won, one of the 250 students of Danwon High School who perished in the sinking of the Ferry, spoke in response, describing the work of the Committee and their aims. It is very necessary to preserve the memory of this tragedy so that a change is made to safety and transport regulations, preventing a reoccurrence of such an event again.
There were presentations by representatives of groups with whom the NCCK Human Rights Centre had been involved in campaigns during 2015. These were the victims of landmines, the irregular workers, Government Representative Lee Seok Ki, unjustly imprisoned for treason, and Rev. Kim Seong Yoon, wrongfully accused and imprisoned as a spy.
The Scripture read at the service was Matthew 25:42-46 – the challenge to those who have been neglecting the acts of mercy. “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” He will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” The mandate of the Human Rights Centre is to encourage Korean Christians to act ‘for the least of these’.
|
