산 믿음—Living Faith

This past June, General Assembly accepted 骯 圖擠 (the Korean version of Living Faith) as one of the subordinate standards of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

Translations allow us to reflect on the Canadian mosaic. They do not help us unite actively. After all, crossing those linguistic and cultural boundaries can only be done by those who are fluent, or done very awkwardly and sparsely only when special efforts are made. At best, we will be guests whenever we join each other’s faith communities—which are defined by each one’s own culture and language—and will only be able to share theological expressions through translations.

The whole church accepted that we (the entire membership of the PCC) are confessing our faith in Korean as confidently as we already do in English and French. We are saying that 骯 圖擠 is more than a translation (therefore, something we will only understand when translated to us in the language that we choose to speak) and that it is our normative confession. We are now bound by 骯 圖擠 as much as we are by Living Faith. We are declaring that we witness to the way that God builds us up for the future by bringing together many culturally, historically and linguistically diverse Christians in unity.

The unity in diversity in Christ expressed through the act of adding 
骯 圖擠 as a subordinate standard is a precedent-setting event among all Christians. I know of no other Christian denomination that has come to the point of embracing a confessional statement as their own in a language that is so foreign to the majority.

At this point it is important to note that our work is not finished as we make 骯 圖擠 our subordinate standard. Much work is left to be done as we move toward confessing faith with languages of the First Nations in Canada as well as those who came from different linguistic backgrounds.

A small but important point that must be mentioned: 骯 圖擠 in its current form is Korean as spoken in Canada. This Korean is subtly different than Korean being used in Korea or elsewhere. It is uniquely Canadian Korean. We have done our best to preserve this Canadian character of Korean. Those who have worked on the document have been faithful in reflecting the usage of Korean by Canadian Presbyterians. By adopting 骯 圖擠, then, the PCC is confessing faith in Korean that is current.

Accepting that 骯 圖擠 is our standard and authoritative confession in the same way when we confess faith in Living Faith and Foi Vivante is to give credence to God’s reign in which peoples from everywhere are united in Christ Jesus in a new way.