남인도교회 임원회의 총무 인사의 말

관리자 2013-02-27 (수) 11:04 13년전 1600

배태진 총무는 2013년 2월 21일 남인도교회(Church of South India, CSI) 총회에 방문해 아래 내용의 인사말을 전하고 선교협력 감사패를 전달하였습니다.

Hallelujah! Amen!

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I bring you greetings from the PROK – the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea – your partners in God’s service and mission.

Just imagine for a moment you are walking through a dense forest. What is taking place beneath your feet, beneath the ground? You cannot see or hear it, but scientists know that when the roots of trees come into contact with one another, a substance is released producing a fungus. This fungus links the roots of different trees – even trees of different species. When one tree has access to water, and another to nutrients, and another to sunlight, the fungus takes these life-giving elements from the tree that has received them to other trees in the forest that that are in need. Thus the trees have the ability to share with one another so that all their lives are preserved and enriched.

The Creator of the world gave this miraculous system so that all in the forest would benefit, so that partnership would take place. In the same way Christians are called to share blessings and resources with each other

One aspect of partnership is referred to by Paul in Romans chapter 1 verses 11 and 12. Writing from Corinth to the church in Rome, he says “I want very much to see you, in order to share a spiritual blessing with you to make you strong. What I mean is that both you and I will be helped at the same time, you by my faith and I by yours.” Paul longs for the mutual strengthening that comes when Christians of different nations fellowship together.

I am reminded of something that General Secretary, Mr. M.M. Philip, shared when he attended the PROK General Assembly in 2011. His vision was of Korean and Indian churches being in a position of spiritual leadership in the Christian world. As the Western countries, on which we have long depended for mission support, lose their Christian base, and the churches decline in influence and missionary zeal, so he saw that we Asian churches have the opportunity to take a position in God’s work, a work of passion for the Gospel and of bold proclamation in the face of all that works against the Gospel’s aims. We are mutually interdependent in carrying out the Mission of God. The work we do, we must remind ourselves continually, is not OUR mission, either to Korea, to India or to the world, but it is God’s mission, God’s will for the world, what we call the Missio Dei, and we must continually line ourselves up with God’s ideals. So we encourage each other in faith and mission by sharing with each other our stories of faith, our testimonies, and by worshipping together, in Spirit and in Truth.

This fall the World Council of Churches 10^th General Assembly will take place in Busan, Korea. We in PROK look forward to the opportunity to greet our partners who come to this wonderful event, to share with people of many nations in the Ecumenical conversations, the Madangs, the plenaries and the worship. I call on you to pray for God’s precious will to be fulfilled in the WCC 10^th General Assembly, as we are led by the God of Life into the ways of Justice and Peace.

As the theme of the Assembly is God of Life, Lead Us to Justice and Peace, the Korea churches call on partners around the world to address some of the agonies of Korea. The ongoing division of our country into North and South is one such situation, and this year is the 60^th anniversary of the end of the Korea War, which did not end with a peace treaty, but only a cease-fire, so that the North and South of Korea are still technically at war. This needs to change. The starvation of people in the North is a situation that also fills us with agony. So in PROK we long for and work for the ending of hostilities and misunderstandings and for the unification of the Korean Peninsula once more. We call on your prayers and support in these issues.

In closing, I thank you for your hospitality in these days, and for your warmth in receiving our Mission Co-workers to serve among you. I look forward to a long and fruitful partnership between PROK and Church of South India, in the love and service of Jesus. May God be with you.

As a sign of this ongoing and lifegiving partnership, I would like to make a presentation of this gift from our General Assembly office to yours.

[이 게시물은 관리자님에 의해 2016-11-03 21:36:25 총무 칼럼에서 이동 됨]

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