Peace center planned for bomb-hit Peshawar diocese

Posted Feb 13, 2014

[From the Diocese of Peshawar with additional reporting by ACNS] Korean Christians are planning to build a peace center in the memory of the martyrs of the All Saints’ Church Peshawar.

The project was revealed in the Diocese of Peshawar’s newsletter The Frontier News in which the planned center would boast “a multi-storey building with a conference hall, an up-to-date library” and other facilities. The peace center will, it said, “be open for all without discrimination of cost and creed.”

The announcement came during a visit on Jan. 15 of Korean Church partners that was facilitated by the Rev. Matthew Jeon, the bishop’s commissary for the Far East. The delegation included Dr. Myoung Hyuk Kim, chairman of the Korean Evangelical Fellowship and former president of Hapdong Theological Seminary, Korea, and the Rev. Dong-Hwi Lee, senior pastor and founder of the Tin Church, a well-known church in Korea.

This initiative, primarily a goodwill visit, also had another purpose: to show solidarity with the Christian community of Peshawar in the wake of the twin suicide bombings in September last year that killed 117 people, seriously wounded 162 seriously and left 48 children without one or both parents.

Peshawar Bishop Humphrey Peters, his clergy, and diocesan staff welcomed the guests and briefed them about diocesan efforts to treat and rehabilitate the twin suicide bomb victims and their families.

A special prayer service to commemorate the martyrs of All Saints’ Church was held one evening with many people attending the worship. The congregation prayed for the departed souls and their families. In their message for the Peshawar’s Christian community and for the families of the deceased, the Korean visitors said, “Christians should keep their morale high, and faith strong in the Lord. Crisis brings us near to God. All these signs of times indicate that Jesus is coming soon, and we must be prepared.”

Later, a dinner party was hosted by the diocese in the honor of the guests. Peters thanked the visitors for their love and concern for the Christian community of Peshawar. The visitors reciprocated by thanking the bishop and his team for their warm welcome hospitality.


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