HomeNewsNorth Korea opens doors to church conference

North Korea opens doors to church conference

Published on

spot_img

The Anglican Church of Korea reports that the Communist government in Pyongyang has given its permission for the Korea Conference of Religions for Peace (KCRP) to hold an interfaith gathering in North Korea in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of the peninsula’s independence from Japan. The Rev. Kim Kwang-jun, a priest of the Anglican Diocese of Seoul who has been tapped by the KCRP to organize the meeting reported North Korea’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Foreign Ministry had given its approval for the gathering, tentatively scheduled for late August/early September in Pyongyang, Fr. Kim said the Ministry of Interior had yet to give its permission, but he was confident that they would soon come round. The KCRP represents seven of South Korea’s major religious groups and organises ecumenical and interreligious meetings worldwide. “We’ve finished sharing our ideas with the Choson Conference of Religions, a group representing the five major religious groups in North Korea,” Fr Kim said. The free practice of Christianity is unlawful in North Korea, and Christians are actively persecuted by the government, the US State Department reports. Defectors report that a large number of the country’s estimated 150,000 political prisoners have been jailed for their faith.

 

Latest articles

Pray, Speak, Act: A Word from Bishop White Following the IRS Decision to Permit Church Endorsement of Political Candidates

People of God in Southern Ohio, “…Then he said unto them, ‘Give therefore to the...

Anglican Church of Kenya statement on the “State of the Nation”

ACK statement on the state of the nation 2025.07.11Download

Deepening Crisis in the Anglican Diocese of Highveld

The Anglican Diocese of Highveld is facing an unprecedented crisis under the leadership of...

Pastoral letter to the diocese of Oklahoma urging priests not to bring politics into the pulpit

Since 1954, the Johnson Amendment in the tax code has said that churches risk...

Has Living in Love and Faith come to an end? An open letter to the Archbishop of York

Dear Stephen I read with interest your address to York Diocesan Synod on 5th July, and...

More like this

Pray, Speak, Act: A Word from Bishop White Following the IRS Decision to Permit Church Endorsement of Political Candidates

People of God in Southern Ohio, “…Then he said unto them, ‘Give therefore to the...

Anglican Church of Kenya statement on the “State of the Nation”

ACK statement on the state of the nation 2025.07.11Download

Deepening Crisis in the Anglican Diocese of Highveld

The Anglican Diocese of Highveld is facing an unprecedented crisis under the leadership of...