Tokyo, 31 August (ENI)–The National Council of Churches in Korea has welcomed the release of 19 Korean Christians who were kidnapped in Afghanistan and held by the Taliban for more than 40 days.
‘We hope that the event [the kidnapping] will be a start of enabling us to do more effective and safer services and missions,’ said the Rev. Kwon Oh-sung, general secretary of the national church council in South Korea.
‘For that purpose, after the victims of the abduction return safely, we will make efforts in various ways such as holding a major debate,’ Kwon said in a statement.
In a 31 August message to Kwon, World Council of Churches general secretary the Rev. Samuel Kobia expressed ‘gratitude to God and admiration for those who contributed to their liberation from captivity’.
The Koreans were released after Seoul said it was withdrawing its 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, as scheduled, and would stop missionary work by Koreans there.
Kwon said it was ‘natural’ that churches in Korea would respect the government ruling.
The 19 kidnapped Koreans were preparing to fly out of the Afghan capital on 31 August. The Taliban killed two male hostages in July. Two other female hostages were released in mid-August and allowed to return home.
All 23 had been dispatched as volunteer members of a Christian group for medical service and mission from their local congregation near Seoul named Saemmul Church, of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, a member denomination of the Korean church council.
In a statement welcoming the release of the Koreans, the World Evangelical Alliance reported the group’s home church as saying that the Christians were in Afghanistan to offer free medical services and not for evangelism.
The WEA’s international director, the Rev. Geoff Tunnicliffe, said he was planning to meet Korean Christian leaders ‘to discuss the significant implications of the South Korean government’s ban on Christian workers going to Afghanistan’.
The WEA head added, ‘We recognise there is much current debate on the future of Korean missionary work in dangerous or complex situations.’
