05535
Oct. 5, 2005

Common ground

Bitterly divided Korean congregation
works toward ceasefire in turf battle

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE — Lawyers representing two factions of a bitterly divided, 2,700-member Korean congregation in Torrance, CA, are trying to negotiate an agreement to share the church building while a civil court decides which group is entitled to the property.

     “I am overjoyed that these conversations are finally happening,” said the Rev. Syngman Rhee, a former General Assembly moderator who is working informally — as “pulpit supply” — with the loyalist faction of First Presbyterian Church of Torrance. “Some kind of peace is needed.”

     Rhee was appointed by the group that now governs the congregation, an administrative commission formed by Hanmi Presbytery and the Synod of Southern California. The commission has talked about giving the former General Assembly moderator a larger, more formal role, as the First church’s “designated” or “stated supply” pastor.

     The congregation split last spring after it tried to call the Rev. Song Kyu Pak as pastor.

     Because Pak was the subject of an administrative inquiry in Olympia Presbytery, where he had been pastor of Joong-Ang Presbyterian Church, in Tacoma, WA, Olympia could not release him to accept the Torrance call. For the same reason, Hanmi Presbytery could not receive him as a member.

     On April 24, Pak announced that he had renounced the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and a majority of the Torrance church voted to leave the denomination and affiliate with the Korean Presbyterian Church in America (KPCA).

     The breakaway faction seized control of the church’s property. Since the first Sunday in May, the loyalist group has worshipped in a nearby park or high school, while insisting that they have a right to use the church facilities.

     So far, the courts have supported the loyalists. On June 6, a judge issued a preliminary ruling that the property is owned by the PC(USA) and that both factions have “every right” to use it until a final ruling is issued next June. The court ordered the two groups to work out a compromise.

     Such a deal has proved elusive. The relationship between the two factions has become increasingly acrimonious.

     On Sunday, June 26, a skirmish broke out in the sanctuary after a group of loyalists — accompanied by the current moderator of the General Assembly, Rick Ufford-Chase, and officials of Hanmi Presbytery and the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii — showed up between services, asserting its right to use “its home church” for its own worship.

     There was some pushing and shoving, a brief tug-of-war over the microphone, an exchange of harsh words. Ufford-Chase, who does not speak Korean, wasn’t sure what was going on. “I give thanks to God that no one lost his or her temper to the point of resorting to physical violence,” he wrote later.

     The loyalists drove across town to a high school, where Ufford-Chase preached a sermon on hospitality and reconciliation.

     The moderator wrote later on his Web site that that Sunday was “absolutely the most uncomfortable and difficult day I have experienced during my term as moderator.”

     That was the last time any of the loyalists set foot inside First church — until last Sunday, World Communion Sunday, when the loyalists met for worship in the fellowship hall while the dissidents continued using the sanctuary. Rhee and Pak had negotiated an agreement.

     “We wanted to use the sanctuary,” Rhee said, “but for the sanctity of worship, we went to the fellowship hall so we would not disrupt the dissidents’ worship.”

     “Everything was beautiful Sunday,” Rhee told the Presbyterian News Service in an Oct. 4 interview. “Some were disappointed that we (the loyalists) could not use the sanctuary, but Rev. Pak and I agreed that we wanted no chaos.”

     Some of the loyalists wanted to stay in the fellowship hall after the service, but Rhee persuaded them to leave. “They had not been back in their church for five months, and wanted to stay,” he said, “but my spirit has always been one of peace and reconciliation.”

     Later that day, Rhee and a few of the loyalists attended Pak’s installation as pastor of the now-KPCA congregation. During the service, Pak said he felt “honor and gratitude” that Rhee was in attendance, and credited him for keeping the peace that morning. The congregation responded with warm applause for Rhee.

     But all was still not well.

     When they learned about how the dissident congregation had welcomed Rhee, some loyalists “were irate, and began to wildly spread the opinion that I am not on their side,” the former moderator said, adding: “You know, being a peacemaker and reconciler can be a very difficult thing.”

     Rhee said the dissidents finally seem willing to take part in negotiations over the use of the church building.

     The civil court judge has refused to intervene. “He keeps saying, ‘You work it out between yourselves,’” Rhee said. “But there has been no negotiation until now.”

     On Oct. 6, representatives of both factions will meet for the first time to try to work out an agreement that would enable the loyalist group to resume worshipping in the sanctuary.

     “We are doing all we can,” Rhee said. “The time has come for pushing the loyalists out of the building to stop. We have been patient long enough.”

     The Torrance split is unusually acrimonious, but not uncommon among Korean Presbyterians, Rhee said: “There is a history of coming and going between the KPCA and the PC(USA). It’s very unfortunate, but unfortunately true.”

     The KPCA and the PC(USA) are in full communion.

     Next Sunday, the loyalists — who call themselves First Presbyterian Church of Torrance — will meet as a congregation to elect new elders. Rhee hopes the administrative commission will soon reestablish the session.

     Meanwhile, the dissident group is also known as the First Presbyterian Church of Torrance. It has removed the PC(USA) logo from its signs.

     Rhee, who is on leave from a teaching position at Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, VA, must decide how deeply he wants to be involved.