Overture 35

On Establishing a Committee or Task Force to Conduct a Feasibility Study for Creating a Non-Geographic Korean American Synod—From the Presbytery of Midwest Hanmi.

The Midwest Hanmi Presbytery respectfully overtures the 217th General Assembly (2006) to direct its moderator to appoint a committee (or a task force) to conduct a feasibility study for creating a non-geographic Korean American Synod and report the result to the 218th General Assembly (2008).

Rationale

The overseas mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been most successful in Korea for more than 120 years, and Korean American Presbyterians are a vital and integral part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The number of Korean American Presbyterian congregations has grown from only a few to four hundred during the past thirty years, and the National Korean Presbyterian Council (NKPC) has a bold vision to further increase the number of congregations to five hundred by the year 2010.

The Korean American constituency focuses vigorously on evangelism, through which the churches continue to strive for growth in number and quality (in conjunction with the 208th General Assembly (1996) resolution that racial ethnic membership be increased 20 percent by the year 2010), and the Korean American constituency plays a pivotal role in church growth through new church development and redevelopment.

The Korean American constituency engages purposefully in enabling, educating, and strengthening the development and nurturing of clergy and lay leadership through resource materials and educational training opportunities to empower the emerging generations so that young people will be able to effectively serve the church with vision, creativity, and evangelistic enthusiasm for the spiritual renewal of both local churches and the denomination as able mission partners.

In response to the cultural uniqueness, difficulty of language, emerging needs, and potential growth of the Korean Presbyterian congregations, four Hanmi (Korean American) presbyteries were organized by the approval of the General Assembly within these Synods: Hanmi Presbytery in the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii (1984); Midwest Hanmi Presbytery in the Synod of Lincoln Trails (1994); Eastern Korean Presbytery in the Synod of Northeast (1997); and Atlantic Korean American Presbytery in the Synod of Mid Atlantic (1997).

The 209th General Assembly (1997) resolved to organize the Coordinating Committee for Korean-American Presbyteries for the propose of coordinating, consulting, networking, sharing, and communicating the ministries and mission of the Korean American presbyteries.

The Korean American presbyteries are in need of mutual encouragement and learning of the process and management of the presbytery as a vital middle governing body in relation to the local congregations and the higher governing bodies.

The National Korean Presbyterian Council (NKPC) has recently launched a mission project called 3 Million (3M) campaign to support the four mission priorities of the General Assembly Council and to participate in the Mission Initiative Joining Hearts and Hands (MIJHH).

Korean American Presbyterian congregations are seeking better ways to participate in the life of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by forming a synod level governing body to strengthen mission strategy, leadership development, and church connection.