The Bishop of Daejeon, Moses Nak Jun Yoo, has been elected as Primate of the Anglican Church of Korea. Bishop Moses was elected at the Province’s General Assembly to succeed Bishop Onesimus Park, the Bishop of Busan, whose term of office had come to an end. Bishop Moses will serve as Primate for the next two years. The General Assembly also appointed a new General Secretary, Peter Jun Gi Choi. In a message to the Anglican Communion Office, the proivince asked “for your continuing prayer for the new leadership and churches of the Anglican Church of Korea”.
In his inaugural address, Bishop Moses spoke about Jesus calming a storm, and described the Anglican Church as being a ship heading towards God. “We must fill the ship of the Anglican Church with the oil of the Gospel, and sail through loving collaboration,” he said. “Through us, we must become tools of evangelisation that enable us to live in God in us.
“Evangelisation is possible only in the Spirit of God. When we preach the gospel in the Spirit of God, live in righteousness in the Spirit of God, live in the Spirit of God in the Spirit of God, and resist the in-humanisation in the Spirit of God, a smooth sailing will unfold.
“This communion in the Spirit of God is a communion, and this is the premise that other things become possible,” he said. “If we try to reflect on it, we will be the first priority. If the premise is weak, or if it falls out, we will be shaken by the ship, and the anxiety has made our identity blurred.
“The first thing we should do in the Korean Anglican ship is to live a spiritual fellowship in God. In order to become a Christian church that lives a communal life that communicates in the spirit of God, we must first engrave God’s Word in our hearts. The power to keep the Word comes from prayer. We must internalise the Word and pray daily for others on this basis.”
- On Sunday (12 August) the Anglican Church of Korea will join other churches in both the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North) and the Republic of Korea (South) for the annual Sunday of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula. The WCC invites Churches around the world to join in this prayer and has details and resources here.