The meaning of the WCC Assembly for the churches in Korea
(한국 교회에 대한 WCC 총회의 의미)
일 시: 2013년 11월 30일
장 소: Stuttgart-Germany (독일 슈트트가르트)
행 사: EMS Mission Council Meeting
When the decision was made to hold the WCC 10thGeneral Assembly in Korea, the churches were very excited and gratified. There were two particular reasons.
First,ChristianityisverynewtoKorea. It was not until 1884 that the Gospel was first preached here in Korea by Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries.
We therefore, the member churches of WCC and NCCK were glad to welcome our parent churches to this land – churches which have great maturity and experience in faithful living. So, we looked forward to learning many things about how the churches in the Middle East and in Europe developed in the faith and faithfulness in the face of both opposition and persecution, and in prosperity.
At the same time, we were anxious to share the strengths and gifts of the Korean Church. When we first heard the Gospel, the Christian faith was eagerly welcomed and has been strongly planted in this land. The missionaries’ gifts of modern medicine, education and equality of women helped Korea as it opened to the western world. Koreans found strength in Jesus Christ for the issues that faced us during the 20th Century – the occupation of our country by Japan, the Great Pacific War and what followed it, the Korean War and the division of our country, and then the struggle for democracy against the military dictatorships. During all this, we held firm to the promises of the Bible and through it all, we also received much support from our foreign partners.
And so, we were eager to show the Christian world the special aspects of Korean Christianity, our history and our worship life. We did this through the opening ceremony, through the evening prayer at Bexco which was hosted by different Korean churches, and through the weekend program.
There are particular issues we need to deal with as Koreans and Christians. The major one for PROK and for NCCK as a whole, although not for all Christians in Korea, is the division of the country into North and South. We seek ways of working to develop both North and South Korea, so that all Koreans will have equally abundance of living. We wanted, again through the weekend program when participants went to Imjingak, to lead people to understand our sorrow. There are Christians in North Korea, represented by the KCF, The Korea Christian Council, but they were not able to attend the General Assembly in Busan, to our great sorrow and shame. Then of course, the Madang displays opened many opportunities to share the work of the Korean Churches with the world.
Let me tell you a bit about the planning process. The churches formed a Joint Korea Host Committee which took charge of the local arrangements, with representatives from all the NCCK churches, and each church also had its Preparation Committee. PROK, for instance, held workshops for its presbyteries early in the process, to explain the work of WCC, and later held workshops to explain what would be happening at Busan, and enable members of the Presbyteries to attend on a day basis.
We also, after the list came from Geneva of the people attending the weekend program, had to prepare our own list of people who would attend PROK churches in Seoul, so that the host churches could prepare for their foreign guests. In these various ways, many, many Koreans were exposed to the ecumenical work and were able to meet Christians from other parts of the world. Because Korea is still a fairly closed society, many of us, even in the cities, are not used to seeing foreign faces and costumes. To have the opportunity to see and hear people from different nations, has been a great gift of WCC.
Another feature of the Busan Assembly was the constant protest we met in the vicinity of Bexco. This points to the reality of the church in Korea, that as a whole we are divided into two main branches, those of NCCK and those of the KCC, the Korea Christian Council. The KCC holds a great prejudice against the World Council of Churches. This led to a major issue in the planning process. Last January, the General Secretary of the NCCK, Rev. Kim Young Ju, held talks with the KCC, to see if there was a way to ease their anxieties. They actually came to the signing of a statement between 4 people - the head of the KCC, the head of WEA (the World Evangelical Association), Rev. Kim Young Ju and Rev. Kim Sam Hwan, the chair of the Korea Host Committee, which laid out 4 principles: holding the Bible as inerrant; proclaiming the freedom of proscelytism; rejection of homosexuality; and rejection of Communism. These are the 4 points on which the KCC claims its opposition to WCC.
After the signing of this statement, and the announcement that KCC would cooperate with NCCK in the hosting of WCC, there was quite a crisis within the NCCK churches and NCCK staff. The NCCK churches wholeheartedly rejected the statement. It was actually an excellent opportunity for us member churches to realize what we stood for – again, speaking for the PROK, our history is that Rev. Kim Jae Joon and the founders of PROK were accused of heresy in 1953 for holding a critical historical analysis of the Bible. At a workshop against the “Jan. 13 statement”, PROK scholars were able to elaborate the PROK Biblical understanding, and the same happened for the other principles of the statement. The interesting thing is that the churches of KCC were just as incensed that this statement had been signed in their names. So the churches agreed to disagree, and as was seen at Busan, these Christians hold their beliefs firmly. This was the reason the Korea Host Committee was so insistent that all people who entered Bexco have proper name tags, and the Korean church staff who prepared for day visitors had such a big job.
The hosting of WCC has been a great experience for the Churches of Korea and a great spiritual gift.
[이 게시물은 관리자님에 의해 2016-11-03 21:36:25 총무 칼럼에서 이동 됨]
