Readjusting in Seoul

A Letter from Kurt Esslinger and Hyeyoung Lee, serving in Korea

Spring 2023

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Dear friends,

Hyeyoung and I finished up our interpretation assignment in the United States at the end of January. We have now returned to Korea and our ministry here, but it’s been a slightly bumpy return. Kurt keeps missing, or almost missing his bus stops and transfers, so there have been several jumps out of seats and rushing to the bus exit! We had also only been living in our current apartment for six months before beginning our stay in the U.S., so it has taken us a few weeks to remember where everything is. However, we did not have too much time to dwell on the location of our cheese grater or wooly socks.

Kurt and colleague Rev. Nam give a presentation about the KPA campaign.

Two weeks after arriving, I was thrust into an Ecumenical Consultation between the Korean Church and the German Church. The National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) hosted the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD) for a consultation over a long weekend. I was able to translate some of the Korean presentations into English, so I learned for myself some of the contexts of these consultations. Before the consultation this year, leadership in the German Church had been discussing the German people’s reaction to growing numbers of refugee populations arriving in Germany, not only from ongoing wars in the Middle East, Yemen and Syria but also the most recent war in Ukraine. At the same time, South Korea has been opening up to immigrant worker communities much more than they have before. Korea has also seen a negative reaction to these communities, including from Korean Christians who tend to dwell on the fear of immigrant groups as the unknown other. Recently, Christians in these two countries have found common ground in wanting to overcome the fear, and the rejection of refugee groups, and have, instead, begun to build a community of support.

The second issue the two churches sought to address together was the ongoing Korean War and related division of the peninsula along with divisions within South Korean society. The German delegation spoke from the perspective of having accomplished a reunification of East and West Germany in 1989, while still working on reconciliation. The Korean delegation shared the details of the ongoing situation of conflict in Korea, and the frustration of being unable to break free from the domination by the global powers struggling to ensure their own interest over the Korean Peninsula, including the U.S. The NCCK asked me to accompany the German delegation on a tour of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) so that they could get a sense of the physical division of the peninsula as well as to offer the perspective of our Korean partners when it differed from the government and tour company’s version of history.

The two delegations committed themselves to continued solidarity in ending the Korean War, and to strategizing ways to build support among members of the United Nations for a Korean-led peace process. The German Church also pledged to continue supporting the NCCK’s efforts for building awareness and understanding of North Korea, both in Korea and in Europe. In addition, the German Church agreed to continue supporting the meetings between the NCCK and the Korean Christian Federation (KCF) that have been placed on pause due to the pandemic and deteriorating political situation between South Korea, North Korea and the U.S.

In the meantime, Hyeyoung is also reconnecting with partners that help her to host Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) who might be coming next year. She is meeting with the Korea YAV site’s host denomination, the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK) to plan ways to connect not only future YAVs but also other international ecumenical co-workers living and working in the Seoul area. As part of this effort, she is organizing a meeting with Christian Korean young adults who are interested in the ecumenical movement, especially those who participated in the WCC Assembly last year. She will be meeting with them to create a space for sharing each other’s ideas and thoughts about what ecumenism is and discuss ecumenical agendas that we can work on together as a group.

She has also stepped back into the Korea Association of Women Theologians where she had served as a committee chair before we visited the U.S. for six months. She will be working and connecting with other Christian women to raise awareness of issues related to women and minorities in Korea. She has also been involved in organizing many different study trips for overseas partners. Since many study trips and visits to Korea were postponed during COVID and this year is the 70^th anniversary of the Korean War being paused, many interested groups from overseas are planning on visiting Korea. Hyeyoung is helping to plan schedules and programs for many of these groups as we get ready for their visits later this year.

Again we give thanks to all the communities that hosted us on our visit to the U.S. last year. We also appreciate all those communities we could not visit but still reiterated their support for us and for the Korea Peace Appeal campaign. All the prayers and all the messages of support lift our hearts as we continue on with this work. This will be a significant year for us and for the Korean Peninsula. We will make ourselves available as much as possible as a resource for understanding the situation and the ongoing conflict in Korea. If your community would like to learn more or go deeper into the situation let us know and we may be able to offer a Zoom meeting or series! Thank you again for your support!

Kurt and Hyeyoung