A prayer by Second-generation Korean migrant and young UCA leader Joy Han

Hana-nim*, Holy One,

We praise you for your promise of renewal throughout the cosmos.

We thank you for Christ’s reconciling work

and recommit ourselves to the ministry of reconciliation.

We lament the historical and ongoing violence and trauma that

divide people from one another.

As a people for whom Christ’s gift and will is unity,

we lift up before you the Korean community, 

both in the homeland and the diaspora,

who are hurting from more than 70 years of partition.

We especially lift up before you the people of North Korea,

a people estranged from the rest of the world,

as they struggle against the pandemic.

We grieve alongside those who are mourning,

and we share the anguish of the many –

North Korean refugees, families separated by the war –

who are anxious for their loved ones across the border.

We yearn for your comfort, healing and hope

for all who are sick and suffering.

Grant an extra measure of your strength and sustenance

to the people of North Korea

and to all those who would come to their aid,

bringing them vaccines, other medical supplies

and basic food supplies as well.

We cry out against the inaction

that entrenches inequality;

We cry out against the vested interests

that entrench systemic violence.

We cry, come, Holy Spirit.

Come, Holy Spirit, bring your liberation and Gwang-bok^

to the Korean peninsula and to the whole cosmos.

Move us to live out your unity in witness to the world.

In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. J. Han, (6 June 2022: Sydney). 

^{* Christians who speaks Korean all around the world may call Heavenly Father Hana-nim}

^{^ The National Liberation of Korea is called gwang-bok. The word “gwang-bok” means “restoration of light”.}