Brilliant Korea beckons

Chye Ann Soh with the Bishop of Seoul and singers at the celebration in Korea[Photo: ©Chye Ann Soh/CMS ]

A new venture in mission in north-east Asia has begun with the opening of a CMS mission centre in Seoul, Korea.

Set up at the invitation of the Anglican Church of Korea, the centre will be a catalyst for new forms of mission work in Korea, Japan and China.

At the official opening on 7 June, the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Korea welcomed the new partnership with CMS and said he was excited by the possibilities it brought.

Journalists from both Christian and secular newspapers and TV stations covered the event and interviewed CMS Regional Director Chye Ann Soh.

Speaking after the service, he said that he believed this “memorable and historic occasion” marked “a new beginning in the ongoing story of mission in north-east Asia”.

A celebratory communion service was presided over by Archbishop Andrew Shin, Korea’s Anglican Primate. The Bishop of Seoul, the Rt Rev Francis Park, gave the sermon.

“It’s a small beginning but a good start,” says Chye Ann Soh. “The Anglican Church in Korea has a background and spirituality that is very different from the CMS tradition. But it has embraced CMS warmly and wholeheartedly as it feels that we can enrich its spirituality and bring about a new mission consciousness and practice.”

Korea is a hotbed of missionary activity. The Church in Korea is the biggest Protestant Church in Asia. “They send out more missionaries per head than anyone else in the world.”

In this atmosphere, the relatively small Anglican Church of Korea is asking itself questions about becoming more effective in evangelism and church growth. This is part of the reason it has invited CMS to come, says Chye Ann, “to ask questions and together find answers”.

To this end, CMS’s new base in Korea is being seen as ‘a mission centre’, not an administrative office.

“We hope that people will come for discussion, lectures and debate, and a chance to share and explore ideas and develop programmes.”

Despite its size, the Anglican Church of Korea has developed a very successful social action programme - the House of Sharing. This network of centres, caring for the disabled, homeless and other marginalised people, has made an impact disproportionate to the numbers of people involved and caught the attention of government and society.

Chye Ann says this experience can benefit other churches, which have concentrated on pure evangelism. “Other churches are interested to understand mission in a more holistic way. CMS can bring the two together, and the House of Sharing can be a model for any society, particularly China and Japan.”

One of the main objectives of the new centre is to help the Japanese Anglican Church to boost its mission. “Western Christian mission has never taken root there,” says Chye Ann. “And what is the alternative to Western mission? Asian mission!”

The Japanese Church is currently not producing priests. To meet the need, young Koreans have started to go to Japan. One of the first major events at the new CMS centre is an eight-week training course for these new mission workers.

Given the historic tensions between the countries, this will be undertaken sensitively, says Chye Ann, but could model real reconciliation.

The course coincides with the return from North Korea of a proposed peace delegation, in which CMS has been invited to take part. The visit is currently being negotiated for this September and will be made up of church leaders from the six nations that have been involved in political talks on re-unification - China, Japan, Russia, the US and North and South Korea. Chye Ann will represent CMS.

On the return of the delegation, the centre will host a five-day ‘peace forum’, open to the public. It is one way in which the centre will play its part in preparing the Church in Korea for the eventual re-unification of the country, which in time will have a major effect on the mission scene.