Jerry Pillay opens international ecumenical conference for peace

In brief

Jerry Pillay, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, opened an international ecumenical conference for peace on September 9. The meeting, which runs until September 13, is organized by the World Council of Churches, the Christian Conference of Asia, and the National Council of Churches of Korea.

During his opening remarks, Pillay noted that war, poverty, displacement, environmental destruction, and fear continue to destroy lives globally. He addressed the pain in the Korean peninsula, stating that decades of division have separated families, fragmented communities, and left generations marked by the memory of conflict. Pillay suggested that the historical wounds remaining in Korea reflect the ongoing suffering found in many current global conflicts.