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In a sermon at the Trinity Church in Oslo, Norway on 9 December, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit reflected on peacemakers: those who create trust and foster good relations, those who try to bring out the best in us, those who attempt to solve conflicts.

In a global campaign “A Light of Peace”, the World Council of Churches (WCC) invites people across the globe to unite in the prayers for the Korean Peninsula and for a world free from nuclear weapons.

Amid continuing tension and conflict on the Korean Peninsula that threatens peace and the security of the Korean people, the World Council of Churches (WCC) called its member churches to participate in “A Light of Peace” campaign during Advent.

Trinity Church in Oslo, Norway, will host a prayers for peace ecumenical service on 9 December, the same weekend the city will host the awards ceremony for the Nobel Prize.

The Korean Peninsula needs “A light of peace” as tensions there escalate again, and on Sunday 3 December the World Council of Churches (WCC) launches a campaign for a north Asian region and a world free of nuclear weapons. It is the first Sunday of Advent when Christians begin a period of sacrifice in preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Sit beside Bishop Mary Ann Swenson for five minutes, and you see that she is constantly nurturing people to learn more about each other, walk together, and become more unified, no matter their differences.

The WCC Executive Committee met in Amman, Jordan from 17-23 November to approve the 2018 plan and budget and prepare for renewal of the WCC strategic plan. The Executive Committee also discerned the way forward for the WCC’s involvement in Palestine and Israel by learning more about the particular situation in Jordan and the Middle East, then discussing the challenges of the churches and the WCC response. The Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem, All Palestine and Jordan, Theophilos III, welcomed the group.

While celebrating new steps taken towards global elimination of nuclear weapons, the WCC Executive Committee also fears the cycle of confrontation on the Korean peninsula might slide into nuclear warfare.

The WCC Executive Committee, during its meeting in Amman, issued a “Statement on Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and on 2017 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.”

How sustainable is a stability based on fear? As advocates posed the question this week, they acknowledged unprecedented support for a nuclear weapons ban, support that has been grow-ing among religious leaders, state officials and a world growing weary of living in fear.

In a global campaign, the WCC invites people across the globe to extend “A Light of Peace” for the Korean Peninsula and for a world free from nuclear weapons.

A ground-breaking pontifical critique of nuclear weapons affirms the new treaty to ban nuclear weapons. “The threat of use [of nuclear weapons], as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned,” Pope Francis told 400 clergy, diplomats, campaigners and Nobel laureates gathered in the Vatican on 10-11 November.