Esther Suter

Esther Suter牧師による朝鮮半島の平和条約に関する講演の日本語版です。1953年の朝鮮戦争休戦協定から70年を迎えた2023年に、休戦状態を正式な平和条約へ移行するために何が必要かを考察します。南北分断は安全保障上の問題であるだけでなく、離散家族や世代間の記憶に関わる人間的課題でもあり、教会による平和運動や署名活動は、固定化された「敵」のイメージを問い直すための社会教育でもあると論じます。

韓国キリスト教教会協議会、北朝鮮の朝鮮基督教連盟、世界教会協議会などによる交流、2018年の板門店宣言、その後の米朝外交を振り返りながら、平和条約と核軍縮を不可分の課題として扱います。一方的な非核化要求だけでは、相手が軍事的・核的脅威を感じ続ける限り持続的解決は難しいとして、対話、緊張緩和、信頼醸成、地域全体の核軍縮を進める必要性を訴えます。

Rev. Dr. Esther Suter marks the seventieth anniversary of the 1953 Korean Armistice by asking what would be required to replace the continuing state of armistice with a genuine peace treaty. She describes the division of the Korean Peninsula as both an international security problem and a human one, with families separated across North and South and generations increasingly distant from direct memories of the Korean War. Church-led peace campaigns, she argues, are therefore not only attempts to collect signatures but forms of public education intended to challenge inherited enemy images and build a broader culture of reconciliation.

Suter reviews ecumenical and diplomatic initiatives involving the National Council of Churches in Korea, the Korean Christian Federation in the North and the World Council of Churches, including the 2018 Panmunjom Declaration and subsequent US-North Korean diplomacy. She links a peace treaty to the wider question of nuclear disarmament and regional security, warning that demands for unilateral denuclearization are unlikely to succeed where states continue to perceive nuclear or military threats. The presentation advocates sustained dialogue, de-escalation, confidence building and movement toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula within the broader global struggle against nuclear weapons.

Esther Suter牧師によるInternational Association of Liberal Religious Women（IALRW）の紹介の日本語版です。IALRWは1910年のIARFベルリン世界大会で女性の課題が初めて大会議題として取り上げられたことを背景に生まれ、1913年のパリ世界大会で正式に組織されました。SuterはHelen HerfordやMartha Everettなど初期の指導者に触れ、第一次世界大戦やその他の困難な時期を越えて組織が存続してきた歴史を紹介します。

講演は、参政権など大きな成果を得た後も、なぜ女性の組織が必要なのかを問い直します。ジェンダーに基づく暴力、土地・財産権、賃金平等など、女性の人権をめぐる課題は今も残っています。同時にIALRWの特徴は、単なる権利擁護団体ではなく、異なる宗教伝統に属するリベラルな女性たちが友情を築き、平和と正義に取り組む場であることだとSuterは説明します。

Rev. Dr. Esther Suter introduces the International Association of Liberal Religious Women (IALRW) through its history and continuing purpose. The organization emerged from the 1910 IARF World Congress in Berlin, where women’s concerns first entered the Congress agenda, and was formally organized at the 1913 Congress in Paris. Suter recalls early leaders including Helen Herford and Martha Everett, whose long presidency helped sustain the association through the First World War and other difficult periods, and connects this history with her own involvement in IALRW and the International Alliance of Women.

The presentation asks why women’s organizations remain necessary after major achievements such as suffrage. Suter points to continuing issues including gender-based violence, land and property rights, pay equity and other human-rights concerns highlighted during the UN Decade for Women. She also distinguishes IALRW from a conventional advocacy organization: its particular vocation is to create friendship among open-minded women from different religious traditions who share commitments to peace and justice. That emphasis on relationship, religious encounter and liberal religious identity, she argues, gives the organization a continuing role alongside broader women’s-rights movements.

This question - How Do We Become Human(e) - has been growing in importance as so much changes in the world: in culture, politics, mentality, relationships… Together with the participants, Esther will explore it, inspired by the thought of Fritz Buri.

Fritz Buri (1907-1995) was a liberal Protestant Pastor, Professor of Systematic Theology and disciple of Schweitzer and Jaspers. His theology and background were connected with the IARF, “Freies Christentum” and Unitarianism. He bridged various backgrounds, also in interfaith dialogue, especially with Zen-Buddhism and Confucianism. His philosophical approach to Jaspers and to existentialist philosophy influenced his reflexions on Symbol and Self and he described the symbol of a universal cosmic Christ in “The Buddha-Christ as the Lord of the True Self. The Religious Philosophy of the Kyoto School and Christianity”.

Esther published her doctoral thesis about the understanding of existence in the theology of her former teacher, Buri, in May 2025, and is working on an English translation. She is the main representative of the IARF at the UN in Geneva, and serves as the president of the International Association of Liberal Religious Women (IALRW, 1910).

In this presentation, Esther Sutter, President of the International Association of Liberal Religious Women (IALRW), provides a comprehensive overview of the organization's 115-year history and its recent 2024 conference in Sarawak, Malaysia. Centered on the theme "The Power of Dialogue and Partnership," the conference highlighted successful interfaith collaboration among Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Taoist, and indigenous communities. Sutter details key discussions on pressing global issues, including the intersection of indigenous spirituality and climate action, peacebuilding, and the role of education in advancing women's rights. The talk culminates in the presentation of the "Sarawak Declaration," a commitment to fostering justice and environmental stewardship, and connects these grassroots efforts to the IALRW’s ongoing advocacy work at the United Nations, particularly within the Commission on the Status of Women.