Member Church News: Peace, hunger Appeal, persecutions and others

New South Korean president receives WCC delegation to discuss churches’ role in peace initiatives for Korean peninsula. Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse, general secretary of World Council of Churches (WCC) led a delegation that met with the President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae-in.

Attack on Christian pilgrims in Egypt kills 35: In Cairo, terrorists attacked Christians last Friday in Egypt’s western desert as the country is experiencing an ‘escalation of violence’

More people face famine today than at any time in modern history. We are called to respond to the needs of our sisters and brothers in a compassionate and timely manner. All eligible donations to the United Church’s Extreme Hunger Appeal made from March 17 to June 30 will be matched, dollar for dollar, by the Canadian government.

Be an Esther or a Mordecai: Asif Mall, who works to stop the persecution of Christians worldwide, received a frantic call in 2011 from someone informing him that a group of extremist Muslims planned to go on a rampage the next day after Friday prayers. “But no amount of aid or money can bring back loved ones who are gone. What we try to do is, as we did that time in Pakistan, to preempt persecution.”

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba urges youth to hear the cries of others and the earth. “Reformation is ‘GPS’ for next 500 years”

The United Protestant Church of France recently held its national synod. The synod elected Rev. Emmanuelle Seyboldt as president of the national council, the first time a woman has served in this role.

At the Lille gathering, the church also passed a new statement of faith.

The Most Rev. Paul S. Sarker, moderator of the Church of Bangladesh and Bishop of the Dhaka Diocese, visited the Presbyterian Center recently to celebrate the first 25 years of formal partnership between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Church of Bangladesh (CoB). The visit also provided an opportunity to discern God’s direction for the future of the partnership.