wfn.org | Asian-American Episcopalians bond with their homelands

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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Kathryn McCormick
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212/922-5383

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99-118

Asian-American Episcopalians build ties with their homelands

by Kathryn McCormick

     (ENS) It might have been the conversations about kids, or 
what the growth of McDonald's franchises had done to 
neighborhoods, or the quirkiness of congregations. Whatever the 
topic, talk flowed easily, almost without regard for the wide 
ocean and the cultural distance that separate the people in the 
dioceses of Korea and the group of Korean-Americans who visited 
them late last spring.

     "We found we shared quite a few issues," recalled Allen 
Shin, until recently assistant director of Asiamerica ministries 
in the Episcopal Church, as he reflected on his part in an 
ambitious program that connected nearly 200 Asian-American 
Episcopalians with counterparts in their "home" countries.

     The 1999 Asian Consultation was made to establish 
relationships, and by most accounts, it succeeded.

     The idea for it, according to Winston Ching, director of the 
congregational ministries cluster at the Episcopal Church Center 
and also director of Asiamerica ministries, came last year as the 
church's Asian congregations held their 25th annual consultation, 
an education program.  

     "We received an invitation from the archbishop of Hong Kong 
to visit his province," he said.  "The planning committee thought 
about it and decided that it may not by appropriate for everybody 
to  meet in Hong Kong--Asians in the church are from the 
Philippines, Japan, Korea, China--so the committee devised this 
scheme where half the time would be spent in the home countries 
by each of the constituent groups. The final plenary sessions 
were in Hong Kong, where groups could report back, look at the 
Anglican contribution in the various homelands, some of the 
issues we face in common and the partnerships we could develop."

A natural step

     The visits to the homelands were a natural step, Ching said, 
because Asian congregations often are isolated within their own 
dioceses, where they are often the only Chinese, Korean or 
Filipino parish. Many parishioners are immigrants whose first 
language is not English, which makes many diocesan programs 
unavailable or unsuitable for these congregations. Often clergy 
are recruited from overseas. The consultation, in fact, was 
developed to communicate some of the things that should be going 
on in the dioceses, Ching said.

     Approximately 200 people took part in the visits, Ching 
said, each ready  to talk about the Episcopal Church and at the 
same time eager to take in different aspects of their home 
countries. Those who had emigrated from Asian countries reunited 
with family and friends, while those who were first-, second-, 
third- or fourth-generation Americans learned more about their 
ethnic origins, he explained.

     All were charged with exploring the churches and church 
issues in their homelands, Ching said.

     "The idea was to develop a relationship with the church in a 
specific country," said Shin, who was part of the delegation that 
went to Korea. They met with their hosts and immediately 
identified areas such as liturgical development and stewardship 
for further exploration.

     "The Anglican Church of Korea recently became an independent 
province," said Shin, "and they're in the process of developing 
their  own  prayer book and their own liturgy and trying to see 
that it reflects Korean culture as much  as possible." This 
resonated with the U.S. group which feels, and wants, to maintain 
strong cultural ties to their heritage.

     The church in Korea recently ordained its first woman 
deacon, he said. And, while from the American side of the 
discussions that seemed to be a positive step, it clearly was a 
point of debate across the Korean church.

     Both groups shared their thoughts about youth, Generation X 
and, yes, the ubiquity of McDonald's.

Pulling together

     It also was "the first time that Korean Anglicans here 
talked seriously about issues that pertain to ministry outside 
their church buildings," Shin observed. "We found that we could 
pull together on energy and resources."

     For example, he explained, "Most of the Korean congregations 
here are mostly Korean-speaking and they minister to the 
immigrant generation, which  means that they really need Korean-
language material. We don't have enough resources to develop a 
lot of materials ourselves, but the Anglican Church of Korea has 
a lot of resources we could easily use."

     The Korean church, which was formed about 100 years ago as a 
mission of the Church of England, is interested in a growing 
relationship with the Episcopal Church, Shin said, because the 
Episcopal Church seems to them to be a better model of church 
growth. He pointed out the the Diocese of Seoul and the Diocese 
of New York recently formed a partnership. "Also," he said, 
"there are more Korean Anglican congregations in the U.S. than in 
England. In England there is only one; here there are 14."

     Work is underway now to establish exchange programs for 
young adults and for clergy so that Korean--Americans and Koreans 
in Korea can see how each group "does church." The Province of 
Korea took the first step by sending a small group to the Asian-
American Episcopal Youth Conference held in August in California.

     The process of discussion and discovery was echoed across 
Asia.

     Filipinos from the U.S. went to the Philippines, Ching said, 
and the Chinese met in Taiwan, which is diocese of the Episcopal 
Church. "The Chinese are from everywhere in Asia," he said, "some 
from Hong Kong, some from Malaysia, some from Taiwan. We accepted 
an invitation from the Diocese of Taiwan to gather there."

     Japanese went "home" to Japan and Southeast Asians, who 
could not meet in their home countries of Vietnam, Cambodia or 
Laos, met in Hong Kong, with a 24-hour mini-visit to nearby 
China, where leaders of the China Christian Council described 
life under communist rule similar to those Southeast Asian 
governments.

New connections

     "What they learned," said Ching, "was that in order to 
develop churches in their own countries, they will have to know 
how to work with a communist government."

     All the U.S. groups later gathered in Hong Kong to share 
what they had learned and to look at the ministries conducted by 
that province. 

     "Hong Kong gave a tour of seven ministries, from housing to 
social services," Ching said, "to give us an idea of what is 
possible besides the traditional view of church as a New England-
style building that's used just one day a week." 

     Ching said that the entire experience was so exciting, 
creating new connections and awareness among all those who went, 
that there has been some talk of doing this kind of trip every 
five years. To help prepare for that, Ching said, he has been 
busy lately setting up a chat room on the Asiamerican Ministries 
web site so that Anglicans here and there will be able to easily 
stay in touch.

--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Office of News 
and Information of the Episcopal Church.