Churches plead for peace across the Pacific
THE National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) issued an urgent appeal for peace to the international community last week. “Peace cannot be achieved through arms,” the statement reads. “[We] strongly oppose a second war in the peninsula and therefore would not tolerate any forms of military actions aggravating the situation.” It calls on North Korea to stop its nuclear tests, and on the US to stop both its military threats and sanctions against the country. In the US, the National Council of Churches of Christ is gathering signatures for an open letter to President Trump, urging him to abandon “bellicose language and name-calling”.
Mother Teresa award announced for released priest
A PRIEST held by Islamic State for 18 months in Yemen, Fr Tom Uzhunnalil (News, 22 September), has been awarded the Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice. “He has been an inspiring example of being a compassionate human being and for continuing to work at the old-age home of Missionaries of Charity in Yemen, in spite of being given an option to leave the country,” said Abraham Mathai, president of Harmony Foundation Mumbai, which bestows the annual award.
Egypt diocese host ecumenical celebration
THE leaders of the Coptic, Catholic, Presbyterian, Greek Orthodox, and Anglican Churches in Egypt attended a celebration, hosted by the diocese in Egypt last month, of four years of the Egyptian Council of Churches. In the past year, a women’s ministry committee has been set up, and a translation of St Mark’s Gospel into Egyptian Sign Language has been completed.
Young aid emissaries attacked in Mexico
ONE person was shot, another was beaten, and a woman was raped when young people carrying earthquake-relief supplies were attacked by an armed group in Oaxaca, Mexico, AP reports. The archdiocese of Mexico reported that unidentified gunmen attacked the group on Tuesday of last week. The administrator of the Papa Francisco Pro Felicitas foundation, Carlos Arvizú, said that the Mexican government was not doing enough to protect people providing aid after last month’s earthquakes.