KNCC. 15. - 25 Juni 2020

Jim Winkler, General Secretary and President of the National Council of Churches

Prayer for Peace and the End of the War

Gracious and Most Holy God,
We praise your name and we come before you as seekers of peace. For too long, we have experienced war and hatred and division. We ask for your help in bringing
an end to the 70 years of war that have plagued the Korean Peninsula We know it is not your will that we live through endless war.

O God, we know the solution to peace rests not only with governments but with your people and so we have prayed, preached, demonstrated, campaigned, lobbied, and organized for peace these many years. This terrible war must end. We implore you, we beseech you, to aid us in this sacred quest.

Although we are tired and weary following more than seven decades of conflict and tension, our desire for peace will never flag and we refuse to succumb to hopelessness. But you know dear Lord how much pain and grief have resulted from all this war—the lives lost, the bitterness, the name-calling, the reputations besmirched, the families divided, the mental anguish endured.

As we live through the global pandemic it seems as if nearly unbearable pressures and burdens have been lain upon us. But we cannot simply set aside the cause of peace. In fact, now is the time for nations to set aside their enmities in pursuit of the health of the entire planet and all its inhabitants so we today are more determined than ever to strive for a peace treaty.