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“Many agreements that have been made so far with some difficulty are losing their power,” laments the prayer. “The Kaesong Industrial District Support Foundation has been dissolved, and the tasks of connecting the people's separated families are disappearing.”
Published this year by the National Council of Churches in Korea, the prayer notes that at least 100,000 families remain separated by the barriers between North and South Korea.
“Despite our longing, we have been unable to properly wipe away the tears of the separated families looking for each other from the North and from the South,” the prayer reads. “The violence of division that permeated Korean society has extensively contaminated us and our wounds have grown.”
The prayer notes that the wound of division is far too large. “God, please have pity on all those who have contributed to the division, and forgive us for not being more active toward reunification,” the text reads. “Forgive us for not holding the cross of the nation upright and as we have instead deepened the division.”
The prayer asks for a consistent reunification policy that can be maintained even if the regime changes.
“Let us prepare for the future of the Korean Peninsula with a daily life of peace,” the prayer reads. “Let the power that raised Jesus Christ from death be the source of the breakdown of division.”
The escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula represent a dangerous flashpoint, posing a grave threat for the people of the region and beyond, notes Peter Prove, director of the WCC's Commission of the Churches on International Affairs. "We pray, during this Easter season, that inspiration for dialogue and cooperation - rather than military confrontation – will descend on all political leaders involved in the continued division of the Korean people", said Prove. "We pray that the toxic legacy of conflict can be ended, and that hope for peace renewed.”
