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Syngman Rhee Endorsed as 3rd Candidate for GA Moderator


From PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>
Date 07 Dec 1999 20:09:42

7-December-1999 
99410 
 
    Syngman Rhee Endorsed as 3rd Candidate for GA Moderator 
 
Two Koreans, one African-American now in the race 
 
by Jerry Van Marter 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Rev. Syngman Rhee, a native of Korea whose family was 
torn apart by the Korean War and who has worked tirelessly for many years 
for Korean reunification, was unanimously endorsed on Dec. 7 by Atlantic 
Korean-American Presbytery as the third candidate for moderator of the 
212th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
 
    He joins another Korean, Elder Youngil Cho, of Raleigh, N.C. (New Hope 
Presbytery), and an African-American pastor, the Rev. John L. Herndon III, 
of Huntsville, Ala. (North Alabama Presbytery), as candidates for the 
Assembly's top elected post. 
 
    The election will take place next June 24 in Long Beach, Calif., the 
site of the 2000 Assembly. 
 
    Rhee, a native of Pyongyang - now the capital of North Korea - fled to 
the south with his younger brother in 1950 after his father, a Christian 
minister, was killed by communists. An older brother died during the U.N. 
bombing of North Korea. Rhee served in the South Korean army before 
emigrating to the United States in 1956. It was not until 1986 that he was 
able to return to North Korea to visit his sisters and mother, from whom he 
had been separated since 1950. 
 
    Rhee graduated from Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia and from 
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He worked as a pastor in 
Louisville, then served as campus minister and professor of sociology at 
the University of Louisville for 13 years before joining the national staff 
of the former United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 
1973. 
 
    In 1998, Rhee retired as associate director for the Worldwide 
Ministries Division of the PC(USA) to become a visiting professor of 
mission and evangelism and director of the Asian American Ministry and 
Mission Center at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va. 
 
    Rhee is married to Haesun Rhee, a medical doctor and who also is a 
native of Korea. They have three grown children - Anna, Mina and Peter. 

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