Mission life: THE KUKMIN DAILY

“Let’s make a Christian fund for reunification with 1% of each church’s annual budget”

2015-11-17 17:00

Major Korean ecumenical organizations have agreed that the Korean church should take on the role of reconciler for reunification through humanitarian support for North Korea, embracing North Korean defectors, and creating a Christian reunification fund.

At the Korea Evangelical Fellowship (KEF)’s monthly meeting (photo) held on November 13 at Chongkyo Church in Jongno-gu, Seoul, the heads of the Christian Council of Korea (CCK), the Communion of Churches in Korea (CCIK), and the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) came together to talk about how to bring about reconciliation, peace, and reunification of the South and the North. It was a rare opportunity for the three organizations to get together at one place to discuss reunification. Now attention is focused on whether their decision will bring the Korean churches together overall.

Rev. Lee Young-hoon (speaker in photo), CCK executive director, pointed to the necessity to create a fund for reunification, to develop a Christian prayer movement, and to implement social welfare mission of a humanitarian nature. Lee said, “If the 55,000 churches of Korea save 1% of their budgets for reunification, the fund will be enough to handle a possibly sudden reunification, and it can be used to rebuild the base of social welfare in North Korea, for example, collapsed churches, schools, and hospitals… For the true integrity of the Korean people, we need to understand North Korean society correctly. And for this, the church should carry out research and education about North Korea.”

Rev. Yang Byeong-hui, executive director of CCIK, said, “Just as Jacob and Esau met and reconciled, the people of South Korea and North Korea need to meet often… The Korean church first needs to do what North Koreans can feel directly, such as sending them medical supplies or building bread and noodle factories in the North.” Yang noted, “70% of non-governmental organizations are church-related… The Korean church should use them to initiate South-North exchanges. Humanitarian relief support through religious agencies will lead to a breakthrough for North Korea to accept Christianity without resistance.” He added, “The churches should arrange for reunification offerings.”

Rev. Kim Young-ju, NCCK general secretary, commented, “During the past 70 years of national division, the distrust between South and North has built up continuously, and the two peoples have been educated in different ideologies and thinking.” He said it would be overly optimistic to think that mutual help and collaboration between South and North can solve all the problems. But he emphasized, “Indeed, the reunification issue is the core problem around which the Korean churches must gather and work together closely… We need to solve this problem by sharing information and ideas while dealing with our conflicts. We need peace education to learn how to live shoulder to shoulder.”

In his summary of the discussion, Rev. Park Jong-wha of Kyungdong Church called upon the Korean church to play a role for peace in Northeast Asia. Park said, “We need to end the division and conflicts among us, and unite. The church to be built in North Korea after reunification must be a ‘united church’ overcoming all church denominations… The South Korean church must build solidarity with the North Korean church as well as with the churches of Northeast Asia.” He suggested, “For peace in Northeast Asia, the Korean church should set up as its mission strategy the ‘mission of reconciliation.’”

Peace Corea Director Heo Mun-yeong and Soongsil University President Han Heon-su also spoke, giving suggestions for reunification based on the Gospel.

Article and photo by reporter A-young Kim (cello08@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)


Click here for the original article in Korean

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