My flight to Busan
(South Korea) for seemed to be full of delegates to the World Council of
Churches. Many languages and cultures and modes of dress, and many people
struck up animated conversations while waiting for the transfer to the hotels. I
had a good chat with Rev Willie from Cook Islands. He spoke about the gathering
of Cook Island church members, held in Melbourne this year for the first time.
He said there are many thousands of people from the Cook Islands now living in
Australia and New Zealand, many of whom who have not connected with churches in
their adopted countries. Rev Willie was previously a General Secretary of the
church in the Cook Islands, but now travels quite a lot visiting his dispersed
church members and encouraging them in their life and faith.
The people on my
flight were just a taste of things to come, with 5000 or so people from around
the world expected to attend the WCC meeting (including 90% of WCC’s 345 member
churches) exploring the 2013 theme: ‘God of life, lead us to justice and
peace’.
While I flew, 120 delegates from 16 nations aged between 19 and 77 took the “Peace Train”, travelling together from Berlin (as a symbol of a reunified Germany) to Busan - diverse cultures committed to the common welfare of each other. The group travelled 20 days across Europe and Asia. Their objective: to send out a signal against the division of Korea - and for peace in the country which has been split for 63 years. The project is part of a peace initiative of the National Council of Churches in Korea which aims to raise awareness of the East Asian country’s continuing division and to campaign for its reunification.
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