Uniting Church in SA / Presbyterian Church in the Republic of South Korea Partnership

By Rev Naomi Duke

Posted Sep 17, 2024 in Faith

In Michael Frost’s book ‘Mission is the shape of water,’ he refers to the work of Gina Zurlo, the director of the Centre for the study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He quotes Zurlo saying ‘The typical Christian today globally, is a poor, young uneducated woman in sub-Saharan Africa.’

A statement like that can seem very removed from many of our experiences as Christians in the Uniting Church in South Australia. It almost seems unbelievable; you might already have started Googling to fact check this statement because it doesn’t sit with your current worldview or your lived reality.

Frost continues to quote Zurlo’s research mentioning in the year 1900, only 18% of the world’s Christians lived in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania, while today those Christians make up 67% of the global church with a prediction of 77% by 2050 and 40% of that population living in Africa. Whereas the population of Christians in the United States and Canada continues to decline to a predicted 8% by 2050. I assume this may be even less in Australia.

In the Uniting Church we are raising up new and young leaders who will be leading churches that look and act differently to the churches we were raised in, or came to faith in. There will be a need for leaders to have a global understanding of faith, and how to partner with, and give leadership to people whose experiences have been vastly different from their own. Church communities will be shaped by global experiences and a God who doesn’t look like, sound like, or even agree with ‘me.’

It is important that we give our leaders a well-formed understanding of how Christianity is expressed in not only different presbyteries, denominations and states but also globally. They will need to be prepared to lead a Church that doesn’t see itself as white. I recently had the experience of sharing a story that included an image of ‘Little Bo Peep,’ a character in a nursery rhyme who loses her sheep. Afterwards I was approached by someone asking that I explain the image and this character further, as it had not featured in their childhood songs and stories and neither had they had any experience with sheep.

Although formation and training of leaders continues to grow and develop here in South Australia, we must also look for opportunities for people to learn and grow and broaden their understanding of Christianity around the world. The Uniting Church in South Australia has a long-standing partnership of over 30 years with the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of South Korea (PROK), in Iksan. It was started by the Morialta Presbytery and later moved to the UCASA Synod. Almost every year we have either sent a group to Iksan, or Iksan have sent a group to South Australia. Friendships and trust have developed over those years where teams have had the opportunity to share ministry experiences and discuss some of the hard topics that, without a strong relationship, would never be able to be discussed.

When the partnership team advertised the 2024 trip earlier this year, specifically for emerging young adult leaders aged 18-30 years, we were unsure what interest this might attract. We were however overwhelmed by the response and are now preparing to take 12 young adults, along with 3 long standing members of the partnership plus the Moderator to Iksan, South Korea on Friday 22^nd November.

Participants have received very generous grants from the Uniting Church Fellowship and Mission Support (UCFAMS), along with Wimala and POSSA Presbyteries, as well as local churches. This has made the trip accessible for young adults where they will be immersed in South Korean culture, hear stories of a country affected by war, experience a variety of church contexts in both Seoul and Iksan and discuss some of the shared issues experienced in current ministry situations. Many of the young people on the trip are already actively involved in ministry, both voluntary and paid employment and this experience will be formational in their cross-cultural capacity and developing leadership.

Recently the partnership grieved the passing of Rev Dr Lee Dae Hyun, one of the founding members of the partnership in Iksan and who was instrumental in keeping the partnership alive over so many years. The partnership, with the help of Moderator, Rev Peter Morel and Rev Do Young Kim, were able to send flowers, and letters of condolences to the family and the Iksan mission team.

As the group meets and prepares for the upcoming trip, we invite you to join us in praying for the partnership as we continue to learn and grow together, and for those people who have known and grieve the passing of Rev Dr Lee Dae Hyun.

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