Members of St. Timothy’s, Toronto, prepare a meal at Evangel Hall Mission.
It has been 10 years since the HanCa presbyteries were officially established. Their creation was a bold step taken by the Presbyterian Church, which had the courage to think out of the box and change its traditional understanding of presbytery. The Church was ready to make changes even though the change meant letting go of the old ways of doing church.
The decision to create the HanCa presbyteries was received with differing views and opinions and some consider that this decision still has the possibility of alienating Korean sisters and brothers in their own small ‘ghetto’ and cutting them off from the rest of the Church. This is one of the reasons why some members of the church were opposed to the creation of the HanCa presbyteries. I believe their concerns are valid. But let me share my own observations of the Korean churches in the PCC by comparing the life of the Korean churches before and after the HanCa presbyteries.
I can only speak for the Eastern HanCa presbytery since I do not have enough knowledge about the life of the Western HanCa presbytery. These are some questions I would like to reflect on: What were the Korean sisters and brothers like before this change in our Church? Were they well-adjusted and integrated into this Church? Were they very active in the life of the presbyteries? How has the Korean women leadership changed in the Korean churches?
Before the creation of the HanCa presbyteries, the Korean churches were scattered into different presbyteries without knowing what was going on in those presbyteries, without a strong sense of belonging to this denomination. Most of them neither attended presbytery meetings nor paid any attention to the life of the presbyteries, especially the elders. Not only did they not have interest in other non-Korean churches but they were also not connected with other Korean churches. Many of the second generation English-speaking Korean-Canadian Christians were not aware of the denomination they belonged to. Lack of connection with the local presbyteries and the strong tendency of Korean Christians to focus exclusively on their own local congregations kept the Korean-Canadian Christians within the boundary of each local congregation.
Most Korean congregations did not know the Book of Forms very well and each congregation took care of matters according to the rules and regulations made by that congregation. These rules and regulations reflected the policies of the Presbyterian Church in Korea more than the Presbyterian Church in Canada. When there were conflicts, local presbyteries came in and applied the rules of the Book of Forms, creating tremendous confusion in the Korean churches. The structures of the Presbyterian Church were not equipped to deal with Korean church matters effectively because of the lack of a legal body that had both binding authority and a good understanding of the Korean congregations.
How about women in leadership? In the old way, there were no Korean women elders nor ordained women ministers working in Korean churches. The local presbyteries did not pay much attention to the need of the Korean women leaders in the Korean churches. They did not challenge nor encourage Korean churches to produce more women leadership in the Korean churches.
So the Church took the bold step of moving in a radically different way. Today, the attendance of Korean ministers and elders in the presbytery is more than 80 per cent even though they have to travel much further. The Eastern HanCa presbytery has doubled its membership. Every church is aware of the Book of Forms and the presbytery regularly teaches new elders and ministers this polity.
With the encouragement and advocacy of many members of the Eastern HanCa presbytery, five women elders were elected and several women ministers were ordained and inducted into Korean churches. Currently, the moderator of the Presbytery of Eastern HanCa is a woman minister. Women elders and ministers and also the English-speaking second generation ministers regularly attend presbytery meetings and actively participate in the life of the presbytery.
HanCa presbyteries are still young and they have many obstacles to overcome and many lessons still to learn. However, within the last 10 years, there has been much change in the attitude of the Korean sisters and brothers towards this denomination. Even a past moderator of General Assembly came from this presbytery. We pray that the Korean churches may actively participate in every aspect of this church, doing mission beyond the ministry of their local congregation.
Korean congregations are still a minority in this denomination but the church always needs to listen carefully to the voice of the minority regardless of what group the voice comes from (that is, whether race, ethnicity, gender, disabilities or sexual orientation). That is what our Lord Jesus did. Jesus paid attention to the poor, the sick, the prostitutes and those who were marginalized in the society. The church should never stop listening to those voices. Let us continuously explore and dialogue together so that our church may take a bold step each time it is faced with a challenge, so that our ministry may be effective and relevant in this rapidly changing world.
About In Kee Kim
Rev. In Kee Kim is minister at St. Timothy's, Toronto.
