Search results

August 2020 will mark 75 years since the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - attacks which devastated those cities and killed or injured several hundred thousands of people. Many more suffered for years afterwards, from having been exposed to the deadly radiation released into the air and water on those days.

Churches throughout the world are calling for a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War that started 70 years ago today.

At a Peace Convocation on 20 June, people holding blue umbrellas as a symbol of unity prayed, walked and called for peace together. The convocation, coordinated by the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, commemorated 70 years since the start of the Korean War. Held at the White Horse Hill Memorial in Cholwon, the observance took place on one of the most ferocious battlefields of the Korean War.

As members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) fellowship and national councils of churches gathered online on 22 June, they pledged to walk beside their sisters and brothers on the Korean Peninsula in their quest for peace.

A Joint Ecumenical Peace Message for the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War was publicly delivered on 22 June during a live-streamed event. Co-sponsored by churches and councils of churches around the world, especially from countries that participated in the Korean War, the message describes the Korean War as an “appallingly destructive conflict” after which no peace treaty was ever concluded.

A Joint Ecumenical Peace Message for the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War will be presented at the online event “Ecumenical efforts for peace on the Korean War’s 70th Anniversary,” hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) at 13.00 CEST on 22 June.

Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, World Council of Churches (WCC) interim general secretary, expressed both alarm and dismay at the destruction of the joint liaison office in Kaesong - opened in 2018 to facilitate communication and cooperation between the two Koreas - and renewed threats of military action on the Korean Peninsula.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) condemned violence, racism and police brutality in the US, following the death of George Floyd, a black man who was unarmed, at the hands of a police officer.

In remarks at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the May 18 Democratic Uprising, World Council of Churches director for International Affairs Peter Prove reflected on “The Prospective Future of the Korean Peninsula After Peaceful Reunification.”

The National Council of Churches (USA) has joined with other humanitarian and human rights organizations in writing the US Congress to urge that obstacles keeping nongovernmental organizations from addressing the “devastating potential for COVID-19’s spread” within the nation of North Korea be removed.

For many decades, the World Council of Churches (WCC) has worked to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula. From bringing people from both sides of the divided country together, to building an international ecumenical network to support them, the WCC has a history of formulating and promoting a vision for peace.

In a joint letter to US president Donald Trump, the World Council of Churches, ACT Alliance, and National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA have urged the US to lift crippling sanctions against Iran that are greatly impeding response in that nation to COVID-19.

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) global fellowship embarks on prayers for peace on the Korean Peninsula from 1 March to 15 August, the world is ready for an era of permanent peace, said Rev. Dr Hong-Jung Lee, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea.

Pacific islands experience lasting impacts of the 50 years of nuclear testing and the region has become a global hotspot of climate change, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) learned in its meeting this week in Brisbane, Australia.

At the the 57th session of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of Churches on International Affairs in Brisbane, Australia, Bishop Philip Huggins thoughtfully summed up why this year is a crucial one for the planet.

Impacts of the climate change and the lingering health and environmental effects of nuclear testing on the countries in the Pacific region are among the issues to be discussed at the meeting of the WCC’s Commission of Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), convened from 19 to 21 February in Brisbane, Australia.

With the announcement on 6 February of a Global Prayer Campaign for peace on the Korean Peninsula, World Council of Churches (WCC) leaders and partners looked back at 30-plus years of history and forward to events planned for 2020.

Erich Weingartner, who previously helped lead the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, has also represented CanKor, a Canadian interactive resource on North Korea. From the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, he was also founding head of the Food Aid Liaison Unit of the World Food Programme.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) co-convened a workshop on 28 January to plan faith-based support for the 25-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action, a comprehensive international instrument for addressing the full range of issues faced by women globally.

In a pastoral letter to Australian churches, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit acknowledged that the catastrophic fires in many parts of Australia have darkened the horizon in a time when much of the world is celebrating.