Lambeth Peace Project hopes to tell Korea's story to Anglicans
Episcopal News Service, Canterbury. July 21, 2008 [072108-01]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The main venue of the 2008 Lambeth Spouses Conference at the University of Kent was filled on the evening of July 20 with the sound of peace.
The sponsors of the Lambeth Peace Project hope that the July 20 "Singing for Peace in Our Land" concert began to raise awareness of the need for peace on the Korean peninsula and in all of northeast Asia.
The 42-member Mothers' Union choir from the Anglican Diocese of Seoul sang Korean folk songs and hymns to a standing-room-only crowd of Lambeth Conference bishops, spouses and guests. This was only the choir's second concert outside South Korea.
Anglican Province of Korea primate the Most Rev. Francis Kyung Jo Park, along with Diocese of Basan Bishop Solomon Jongmo Yoon, Diocese of Daejeon Bishop Michael Hi Yeon Kwon, Diocese of Seoul Bishop Coadjutor Paul Keun-Sang Kim and Sister Catherine Oh, shook hands with audience members as they arrived.
During the concert's intermission, the audience heard Park and others summarize last year's Towards Peace in Korea (TOPIK) Conference and describe the province's peace efforts by way of a video shown on the hall's large screen. Park said in the video that his province would like, among other things, to increase its efforts to feed the many hungry people of North Korea, begin a peace-education project for the Korean peninsula and reclaim the Anglican churches in North Korea.
The Rev. Joachim Kim, the organizer of both TOPIK and the Lambeth Peace Project, said he and others hope to form networks within the Anglican Communion that will support Korean peace and reunification efforts. During the Peace Project's Lambeth events "we will share our work, our thinking, our vision with other Anglican families." Kim added that the hope is that the conference will make a statement about the need for peace on the Korean peninsula and northeast Asia.
Kim noted that many Anglican provinces have good connections with the governments of the countries in which they minister. Those working for peace in Korea and northeast Asia need the help of many of those countries, he said.
The concert was the first of three Korea-related events during the conference. The bishops of the province celebrated the Lambeth Conference's morning Eucharist July 21 and preached on the theme of peace in Korea and northeast Asia. The Seoul choir sang during the service.
It was "a special time for us to pray and share God's word together about peace in Korea," a news release said.
Then on July 22, Park and others will lead one of the afternoon's self-select sessions to examine the results of the TOPIK Conference and "seek to explore ways for continued cooperation and partnership with the worldwide Anglican Communion in developing a joint successor program to continue the work of the TOPIK conference," the news release said.