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Deep concern over the precarious situation people on the Korean peninsula are facing was expressed by the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in a letter to WCC member churches in South Korea.

Church ecumenical officers play a key role in the advancement of ecumenism at a time when resources are scarce and inward-looking tendencies thrive.

In a keynote speech on the theme of the 13 th General Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) "Called to Prophesy, Reconcile and Heal", the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) said: " There is no true prophecy that does not speak both the critical truth and contribute to the building up of a vision, a dream of the new life in common."

By Celia Deane-Drummond (*)

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has urged the United States of America and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to hold bilateral talks within the context of resumed Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.

Twenty years ago in East Germany, "Christian hope and perseverance contributed significantly to the fall of the Berlin Wall", said World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia. Commenting on the 20th anniversary of the event that brought to an end the "cold war era", Kobia stressed: the people who "gathered in the churches and became the nucleus for the movement of change […] taught us that Christian faith can inspire a resistance movement against fatalism and despair - a lesson which is as important today as it was twenty years ago".

Nearly 140 leaders from the world's churches, North and South Koreans among them, have called for the formation of an inter-Korean confederation even before complete reunification of Korea can take place. Agreement was reached at the close of a three-day meeting in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong where the Christian leaders expressed unrelenting hope for peace and reconciliation among Koreans, despite the stark realities of the ongoing division of the Korean peninsula.

If there were an easy path toward the reunification of Korea, it might have been discovered during the past 25 years or at least since the Cold War ended in the late 1980s. But it hasn't been found yet.

In a momentary foretaste of Korean reunification, two Korean pastors - one from the north, one from the south - bridged more than 60 years of separation in jointly presiding over a celebration of the Eucharist during a worship service commemorating more than 25 years of work toward bringing peace and reconciliation to the divided Korean peninsula. The “Tozanso Process”, which brings together Christians from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north and the Republic of Korea in the south, as well as representatives of partner churches from other nations, was initiated by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1984.

In a recent meeting with a delegation from the World Council of Churches (WCC) visiting Pyongyang, North Korean president Kim Yong-nam said a significant impetus to solving the nuclear weapons stand-off in the region would be for North Korea and the U.S. to meet “face-to-face with each other”.

Using a reference from I Corinthians 12, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary the Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia told nearly 200 church members at Bong Soo Church in Pyongyang, North Korea that the "Church is one body in Christ".