Seoul Bishop Jang-hwan Elijah Kim and Los Angeles Bishop John Harvey Taylor.
The Episcopal Church’s Korean Convocation – a body of clergy and lay leaders from congregations across the United States and abroad – met June 22-27 at St. Paul’s Commons, Los Angeles, and welcomed the Rt. Rev. Jang-hwan Elijah Kim, bishop of Seoul in the Anglican Church of Korea. The meeting also honored the Rev. Canon Aidan Koh as he retires from his position as chaplain at L.A.’s St. James School, where he has served since 1991 and is believed to be the longest-tenured school chaplain churchwide.
Bishop John Harvey Taylor welcomed the convocation to Echo Park and exchanged gifts with Bishop Kim. Bishop Taylor also paid tribute to “four heroes” of local Korean ministry, the Rev. John Kim of St. James’ in the City, Wilshire Center; the Rev. Thomas Lee, priest-in-charge of St. Anselm’s, Garden Grove; and the Rev. Matthew Ahn, retired priest and former longtime vicar of St. Nicholas’, Los Angeles; together with Koh.
Members of the Korean Convocation gather with performers after the closing service.
The convocation discussed the challenges of involving second-generation members in ministry, and Bishop Taylor noted that other church communities in the diocese are facing the same issue. In some Spanish-speaking churches, he said, families have deep roots in the Anglican church in their country of origin, but in the United States, the second generation in these families are sometimes moving to other church traditions.
Bishop Taylor also pointed to injustices and dangers created for ethnic communities by the current national climate of racial profiling and injustice, placing millions of innocent people at risk.
In a service concluding the convocation meeting, Bishop Kim preached a sermon and thanked Koh for his long service, saying that while this specific ministry was coming for an end to Koh, the call to ministry and to service never ends. He said that he was sure Koh’s ministry would take a new form. The service included piano, violin, and traditional Korean drumming, performed by students from St. James School. A dinner in Koh’s honor followed the service.
The Rev. Canon Aidan Koh was honored at the meeting for his service as chaplain at St. James School.
While in Los Angeles, convocation members also visited St. James’ in the City Episcopal Church, where an active congregation worships in Korean each Sunday. Visitors learned more about the parish’s plan to install, on the church’s renovated façade, a statue of well known Korean Bishop Sungsoo Simon Kim. His likeness will join statues of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bishop Barbara Harris, and St. James the Great.
Watch the drumming performance here.