Christian groups in South Korea have denounced an invitation to former US president George W. Bush to address a major prayer meeting organized by major Protestant churches.

The 22 groups, including the Korea Christian Faculty Association, Christian Ethics Movement of Korea, Christian Alliance for Church Reform, issued a joint statement on June 21 welcoming the peace prayer meeting but describing the invitation as "absurd".

President Bush waged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and maintained an antagonistic policy against North Korea, the group said.

"Inviting him as a messenger of peace shows the organizers’ lack of historical consciousness," they lamented.

The groups also insisted that Christian peace is based on reconciliation and love, not on weapons and suppression of the enemy.

Up to 70,000 Protestants were expected to attend the June 22 prayer meeting hosted at a Seoul stadium by conservative churches including the Full Gospel Church.

The meeting, which addresses the theme “Beyond division, towards peace”, commemorates the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War on June 25, 1950. The war ended on July 27, 1953, finally dividing the Korean peninsula into North and South Koreas.

Bush is slated to speak on the peaceful reunification of the two Koreas and on freedom.

Meanwhile, the National Clergy Conference for Justice and Peace issued a statement on June 14 criticizing the invitation to the “jingoistic Bush” as “crazy.”

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