|
Attending the German Church Kirchentag Celebration
The National Council of Churches in Korea Special Committee on the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation sent 19 participants to Germany from May 28th to June 10th to participate in the German Church’s Kirchentag Day celebration. This was to explore the congruence between the movements of the Kichentag Day and Korean Church culture. Naturally, we began our activities with an interest to the various events of the church, but more so to the plans, operation, and spirituality of the Kirchentag Day events.
Before the Kirchentag Day began some of the members of our group first visited the headquarters of the Kirchentag Day twice so that we could meet the program organizing director, Dr. Kopez and listen to detailed information about finances for the Day. Although Dr. Kopez had a busy time ahead of beginning the Church’s Day, he still spent much time with us and gave us a very detailed introduction on the management and organization of the Church’s Day.
Also, during the event, we twice met the Kirchentag Day General Secretary, Dr. Ellen Ueberschoer, and we were able to ask questions about the Church’s Day and have a lot of time to discuss responses. Dr. Ellen Ueberschoer had many other important jobs to do; nevertheless, she gave our team much attention and helped us in many ways.
Our team visited the Church’s Day headquarters and observed the results of various events, and we held a panel discussion to share our observations. We concluded that the reality of the Korean Church actually makes the possibility hosting an event like the Kirchentag Day quite difficult. We noted that the three biggest problems hindering such a movement are sectarianism, excessive congregationalism, and individual-pastor centric communities. These characteristics are so strong that having a Day for the one Church and similar united movements by the laity are almost impossible. However, we also concluded that, paradoxically, with a Day for the Church and Laity that builds a movement of cultural consensus, the Korean Church would have one way to wean itself of sectarianism, congregationalism, and pastor centrism. Therefore our panel discussion decided that an attempt at a Korean model of a movement for cultural consensus among the laity could be very meaningful.
|
