1991 Opening Address to the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra, NZ by Chung Hyun Kyung
With humble heart and body, let us listen to the cries of creation and the cries of the Spirit within it:
Come. The spirit of Hagar, Egyptian, black slave woman exploited and abandoned…
Come. The spirit of Uriah, loyal soldier sent and killed in the battlefield…
Come. The spirit of Jephthah’s daughter, the victim of her father’s faith…
Come. The spirit of male babies killed by the soldiers of King Herod…
Come. The spirit of indigenous people of the earth, victims of genocide…
Come. The spirit of Jewish people killed in the gas chambers…
Come. The spirit of people killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki…
Come. The spirit of Korean women in the Japanese “prostitution army…”
Come. The spirit of the Amazon rain forest now being murdered every day…
Come. The spirit of earth, air, and water, raped… exploited by human greed for money…
Come. The Spirit of the Liberator, our brother Jesus, tortured and killed on the cross…
Dear sisters and brothers, with the energy of the Holy Spirit let us tear apart all walls of division and the “culture of death” that separate us. And let us participate in the Holy Spirit’s political economy of life, fighting for our life on this earth in solidarity with all living beings, and building communities for justice, peace, and the integrity of creation. Wild wind of the Holy Spirit, blow to us. Let us welcome her, letting ourselves go in her wild rhythm of life. Come, Holy Spirit, Renew the Whole Creation. Amen!
Read as the first reading for Judith Liro's sermon on November 6, 2011
