PCK Celebrates Centennial
The Presbyterian Church of Korea received congratulations from the World Communion of Reformed Churches as it celebrated its 100th anniversary.
WCRC General Secretary Setri Nyomi was in Seoul to bring greetings to one of the largest Presbyterian churches in the world and one of four WCRC member churches in Korea.
In his remarks, the Ghanaian theologian praised the church for its support of theological institutions, universities and congregations and urged its members to be friends of the poor and marginalized in Korea and throughout the world.
The first Korean Presbyterian minister founded a church in Hwanghae province in 1884. The PCK General Assembly was established in 1912.
The WCRC represents 80 million Christians in 108 countries. Its members include the Presbyterian Church in Canada. ¦ —ENI
Japanese Play Based on Luther
Japan’s classic Noh theater is meeting the Protestant Reformation as a Japanese Lutheran scholar is developing a play featuring the 16th – century German reformer Martin Luther.
Toshifumi Uemura, a professor at Japan Lutheran College in Tokyo, said he intends to stage his play, called Luther, in 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. An art form dating from the 14th century, Noh drama usually features heroic themes, stylized acting and masks, music and slow, grandiose gestures.
“I composed the poetry and prose [of the Noh play] by aiming principally at letting the Bible speak, as in Handel’s Messiah,” Uemura said. “And in the second half, I used a portion of a Lutheran hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” ¦ —ENI
Christians in the Middle East ‘Fraught with Fear’
Life for Christians in the Middle East has “never been worse” and their future is endangered according to the general secretary of the Beirut-based Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches.
Rosangela Jarjour spoke at the seventh General Assembly of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe in September.
“We don’t want to become refugees, but to live in peace and with full citizens’ rights and duties in our own land,” she said.
Everyday life for Christians, who in the past were able to lead quite secure lives, is now fraught with fear, said Jarjour, who is from Homs, Syria, currently the site of battles between rebel and government forces.
Christians are now finding that they are no longer allowed to practice their religion and their civil rights to freedom and free speech “are constantly violated, whilst previously secular matters are consumed by Islam,” she said.
More than 50,000 Christians have fled Egypt alone since the onset of the revolution there. Her own family has been forced to leave Homs.
“Christians have lost their homes, livelihoods and churches and been the victims of widespread looting, destruction and arson,” Jarjour reported, showing delegates images of destroyed churches in Syria.
The Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches represents about two million Protestants from 17 Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican churches.
¦ —ENI
