Beginning Healing of Memories in the Diocese of California

On the frontline between North and South Korea.in the days preceding the G20.

On our way to the airport to begin the journey to Seoul we were told
that there had been shooting across the border between north and south
which had been reciprocated. At the same time there was a resumption of family
reunions who had been separated for sixty years since the end of the Korean war.
Flying on Korean airlines a week later I saw footage of a second round of reunions
with some of the family members in their nineties. Somehow both the reunions and
the shooting framed the visit for me.

I had been invited by Youngnak Presbyterian Church founded by the Revd
Kyung Chik Han together with refugees from the North. It was 10 years since his death..
100 of us from 50 countries came together to reflect on the life and teaching of the Revd Han and speak about the challenges of building communities of reconciliation. The church had partnered with York St John University in the UK to organise the conference

I have to say that the scale of generosity and hospitality of Youngnak Presbyterian Church
knew no bounds. They had spent years preparing for our arrival and showered us
with love and kindness

On our second day there, with my colleague Madoda Gcwadi, we attended
the life profession of two Franciscan brothers in the Anglican Cathedral
I learnt that the Revd Kyung Chik Han himself and his church had a very extensive social and pastoral ministry and that although leader of a church which had in excess of 50,000 members, he had died without a personal bank account and almost no personal possessions.
It lead me to assert that indeed the Revd Kyung Chik Han was the St Francis of Assisi for
Korea.

A living relic of the “cold war”

We were taken to the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea and took
part in a prayer service close to the border. I experienced the service as a lament -
the pain was palpable as the South Korean urged us to join them in their cri de coeur
for reunification. We were told by the soldiers at the border that we should not even lift our arms
or wave lest the North Koreans take it that it was a provocation. Not sure that
I was completely convinced. What was it that the visitors on the other
side of the border were being told.

I wondered what militarisation had already done and was still doing to successive
generations of young people in the North as well as the South. Many in the South have totally demonised the North with no critique of their own society and the presence of many thousands of US troops.

Each evening there was a service with a couple of thousand congregants. On the third evening
I was asked to speak. I shared with them my reflections on the trip to the demilitarised zone and wondered what the many decades of oppression, pain and division had done to the Korean psyche. I asked them what they thought God's dream was for the Korean peninsula and how could they cooperate with God's dream. I suggested that God had not finished his work with Youngnak Church or indeed with the Korean people and that the last 60 years was preparation for what God had in mind for them which may not be quite what they had imagined.


Could they imagine a united society where there young men on neither side of the
border were no longer militarised, where there were no foreign troops and a united Korea had become famous for its peacemaking?

In a piece about forgiveness during my address, I spoke about bicycle theology – I steal your bike – I come back to say sorry but I don't return the bike!.

After the service a young Japanese journalist came up to speak to me:
“We Japanese have many bicycles to return to Korea”.

The war between “Us”and “them”

On our very last morning in Korea we sat at breakfast with a Baptist minister from Kenya. He told us a story about the post election violence.
in his country. When the violence broke out he was driving back to his village
with his two teenage sons in the back. Because he is light in complexion and
not recognised by his own tribesmen as one of them in spite of speaking the language, he was stopped at a road block and taken to a makeshift place of torture and killing. When he got there he saw his own father among the killers which saved his life and that of his children. His father's response to almost witnessing the murder of his son and grandchildren was to pick up his
belongings and return home.

I left Korea inspired by the faithfulness and prayerfulness of the people of God, conscious of the pain so many carry and the vocation of all of us to become wounded healers