wfn.org | JUBILEE PARTICIPANTS SEND BANNER TO KOREA

[PCUSA_NEWS@ecunet.org]

18-Aug-95

95283       JUBILEE PARTICIPANTS SEND BANNER TO KOREA 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.--All day long, Presbyterian Peacemaking Jubilee 
participants walked up to two long banners and carefully traced their hand 
prints -- one on each banner. 
 
     And on the evening of Aug. 12 -- the opening day of the Jubilee here 
-- the two banners, now with some 1,100 hand prints on each, were handed 
over to the Rev. Syngman Rhee as he prepared to depart for North and South 
Korea. 
 
     The banners express the hope of the Presbyterians gathered here and 
countless others throughout the world for the peaceful reunification of 
Korea. 
 
     "These peace banners mean so much because we know how much 
reunification means to the people of Korea," Rhee said.  He noted that in 
this year, when jubilee participants and others celebrated the 50th 
anniversary of the United Nations, the world also witnesses the 50th 
anniversary of the partition of Korea following World War II. 
 
     Rhee, associate director of the Worldwide Ministries Division in 
Louisville and a native of Korea, moved the crowd with his personal story 
of his family, divided and unable to communicate with each other for many 
years.  Rhee's father died at the hands of those who took over North Korea. 
 
     "With these banners, we become messengers of reconciliation -- to 
communicate our prayers for peace tot hose who cannot even communicate with 
each other over 150 miles (the distance between Seoul in south Korea and 
the North Korean capital of Pyonyang)," Rhee said. 
 
     The presentation of the banners followed a program of singing, dancing 
and speaking by the Korean Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn and its pastor, 
the Rev. Choong Shik Ahn. 
 
     After the program, jubilee participants piled out of the gymnasium of 
Hofstra University, where the Jubilee is being held, into an adjoining 
parking lot for refreshments and a time of fellowship and conversation. 
 
 

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