By Lloyd Mackey

A Victoria congregation of 100 Korean-rooted Christians, just two years in the building, is developing a relationship with the congregation with which it shares its facilities.

Grace Presbyterian Church meets each Sunday afternoon in Knox Presbyterian Church. Knox is a 116 year old congregation congregation which has been worshipping on Richmond Road, just south of Camosun College, for the past 47 years.

Grace is a separate church from Knox and, as well, belongs to a different ‘presbytery’ – in denominational parlance, the next level from the congregation in the structure of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

Grace pastor Jonathon Cho.

While, to the casual observer, the presbytery arrangement may sound like so much bureaucracy, it is more of a reflection of the Canadian Presbyterian reality.

In recent years, with growing Korean immigration, new and vigorous Presbyterian congregations have been formed. One, in Toronto, has close to 1,000 regular worshippers.

In due course, these churches wanted to link up with fellow Presbyterians which came mainly from Scottish and Irish roots 100 years ago or more. But they – and the Canadian church leaders – recognized that the spiritual, administrative and cultural melding would require careful massaging and relationship-building.

Jonathan Cho is the minister of Grace Church. He studied for the ministry in Korea, then pastored a 200 member church in Seoul, the capital city where some of the largest Presbyterian and Pentecostal churches in the world are located.

Continue article >>

Moving to Edmonton a decade ago, Cho worked bi-vocationally. A stint as an associate in a Vancouver-area Korean Presbyterian congregation followed, before the family moved to Victoria two years ago.

Cho says the growth of the church and its rapport with Knox have been encouraging. And the separate presbytery arrangement is a “strengthening” situation.

Cho preaches almost entirely in the Korean language, but Grace “hopes to work toward becoming more bilingual” as the church grows and younger English-speaking Koreans become involved.

There is a growing student element in the church, drawing on Korean young people at nearby Camosun College and the University of Victoria.

Fellowship at Grace Presbyterian Church in Victoria.

Indeed, Eun Hee, Cho’s wife, is preparing to be a factor in the church’s ability to reach out. She is taking early childhood education courses at Camosun, in order to be involved in child care. The possibilities are for Grace to develop such a centre or work with Knox to do so.

For Knox minister Laura Kavanagh, who moved from Edmonton with her husband a few years ago, the presence of Grace Church is a chance for Knox to see its attractive facilities used more widely in community service.

Grace’s Korean roots show most distinctly, perhaps, “in our Tuesday and Thursday early morning prayer meetings,” says Cho.  

These events are common in Presbyterian churches in Korea, and he sees them as significant to the spiritual vitality of the Victoria congregation.

November 2007