Common Easter Prayer of the Churches of South and North Korea
April 2007
O Lord, who overcame death and rose to life!
"I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
We praise our risen Lord who,
in the end,
overcame the cross,
left behind the empty tomb,
and rose, clothed in white.
Our risen Lord,
whose tears in Gethsemane made spring flowers bloom,
whose pain on Golgotha brought light to the darkness,
who transformed the anguish outside the tomb to joy,
is the eternal Hope of all humankind.
Now,
we who are weary of the long darkness of division,
we who, bearing the cross, have wandered in this land as in a wilderness,
we who have walked the thorn-infested road until the new dawn,
here,
today,
across every valley through the length of our land,
churches of north and south gathering as one,
Christians of south and north uniting warm hearts,
praise God for Easter's new morning.
O God,
that we may become living witnesses of the resurrection,
let our hands, bloodied by hammering the nail of hatred
and thrusting the spear of condemnation,
become hands that bind the wounds, hands that reach out in reconciliation.
On the road of suffering,
help us to regain our voices of comfort, our steps of peace.
And, finally,
help us to realize that we can transform the history of death.
Then,
as the cross and resurrection are one,
as the Daedong River in the north and the Han River in the south meet in one sea,
from Halla Mountain in the south to Baekdu Mountain in the north,
from Kaesong in the west to the Keumgang Mountains in the east,
may our incomplete liberation become perfect reunification.
And, further,
may our Lord's Easter greeting, "Peace be with you," (John 20:19,21,16)
reach beyond our land to Asia and all the world
and unite us all
in peace, joyful shouts, laughter, the embrace of friendship.
And may the uncertain days of the global village become, rather,
the Third Day of hope.
We pray in the name of the risen Jesus Christ who guides our land to become one country, a new creation.
This Common Prayer was jointly written by the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) and the Korean Christian Federation (KCF).
