hankyoreh

Rev. Lee Hong-jung, director of general affairs at the National Council of Churches in Korea.

An “inter-Korean prayer for Korean Peninsula peace and reunification” previously published by South and North Korean churches every year ahead of the National Liberation Day holiday on Aug. 15 is in danger of not happening for the first time this year amid an ongoing souring of inter-Korean relations.

On Aug. 4, the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) issued a prayer for the South Korean side alone. Its general affairs director Rev. Lee Hong-jung explained, “We submitted a draft of this year’s joint prayer to the Korean Christian Federation (KCF) in North Korea, but they have not been in contact with us yet.”

“There have been occasions in the past where we’ve been contacted a day ahead of National Liberation Day, so we’re still waiting for the reply,” he added.

Since 1989, the NCCK and the KCF have published a joint National Liberation Day prayer and held joint prayer services ahead of the holiday. The format for the joint prayer has been for the South Korean side to submit a draft to the KCF by written correspondence, with both sides agreeing on the content of the announced version. At its assembly in 2013, the World Council of Churches (WCC) resolved to designate the Sunday before Aug. 15 of each year as the “Sunday of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula,” with churches around the world taking part.

But if no reply is received from KCF before Aug. 15, it will be the first time in 31 years that no joint prayer is announced. Even during the Park Geun-hye administration -- a time of more hardline policies toward North Korea than those of the current government -- a joint prayer was released with content agreed upon by the two sides. South and North Korean churches have also issued joint prayers each year at Easter, but with no agreement reached since last year, South Korean churches have been forced into the position of distributing prayers on their own.

In its individually submitted joint prayer text, the NCCK noted that the “whole world has been sharply constrained by the novel coronavirus pandemic.”

“Just as we pray for our [Korean] people to fully enjoy the emotions of liberation, we hope that the entire world will quickly be free from its imprisonment by the pandemic,” it said.

By Cho Hyun, religion correspondent

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