Reunification in Germany and Korea
Today (October 3) is the anniversary of the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990. Praying for a similar result in Korea, leaders from the United Methodist and Korean Methodist churches recently met in Seoul to discuss their hopes for reunification. One of the speakers, retired German bishop Rosemarie Wenner, compared the situation in Korea to the situation in Germany. “History can take unexpected turns,” she said. “Expect miracles, prepare for miracles." Bishop Wenner is a friendly acquaintance from my last tour in Germany where we attended the same wonderful church in Wiesloch. The article doesn’t carry the bishop’s full remarks, but it would be useful to remember how reunification happened in Germany. There are helpful parallels. The allied powers took responsibility for temporary governance of Germany after World War II and Stalin imposed a Soviet-style communist government on its zone of occupation. The Soviet zone evolved into the German Democratic R...