Dare to believe peace is coming, Tveit tells Korean congregations

“Peace is something radical, something that has to be told – and has to be believed, so that it may become possible,” said the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in sermons on Sunday to several congregations including one of young people in Seoul, Republic of Korea on 27 January 2013.

Speaking on a text from Psalm 85, “God will speak peace to his people”, Tveit challenged the congregations to believe the promise of peace and to become peacemakers in a region that for 60 years has been divided by the De-Militarised Zone between South and North Korea.

“The Korean people have been longing for a final peace to be settled, a peace that can bring life together, make life together in peace on this peninsula possible again”, Tveit said. He added that the peoples of Israel and Palestine, and of Syria, have similar concerns and hopes.

The general secretary looked forward to the 10th Assembly of the WCC which is to be held this autumn in Busan, Republic of Korea with the theme “God of life, lead us to justice and peace”.

“God will make peace with his people”, Tveit concluded, but he also asked, “Do we listen?”

Sermon of the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in Seoul, Korea, on January 27, 2013