Far East News: August 19, 1957

New Patterns

Climaxing 75 years of some of the most fruitful work in the history of modern missions, the Korea Mission of the Northern Presbyterian Church will dissolve itself as an administrative body in 1959 or 1960. The agreement was worked out between the Presbyterian Church in Korea, the Mission and the Board of Foreign Missions (Presbyterian U.S.A.), and adopted by the Mission at its annual meeting this summer. The “mission” as such will be gone but the missionary will be as indispensable as ever.

This “euthanasia of the mission,” as it has been called, opens a new pattern of integrated missionary approach to the uncompleted task of winning Korea for Christ. Missionary and Korean colleagues alike will be under the direction of the Korean church’s judicatories.

Mission leaders pointed out that the dissolution of the mission will be no emergency or revolutionary step, but rather the accomplishment of the goal set by the missionary pioneers who acknowledged that the mission they organized was like a scaffolding which should be removed as the building—the church—rose to completion.

Today, two out of every three of Korea’s 1,288,000 Protestants are Presbyterian, and over half a million of these belong to the Presbyterian Church in Korea. (Two smaller bodies, the Koryu Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in the R.O.K., are not affected by the agreement.) The church has been self-governing and independent of the mission since its organization in 1907, and the work of the missionaries within the presbyteries has been directed by the presbyteries. Since 1945 the schools and institutions of the mission have been under boards of directors controlled by the church. Since 1956 the work budget has been in the hands of a joint church-mission conference.

The new agreement simply adds two further steps to what has already been accomplished in the transfer of authority from the foreign mission to the younger church. The mission will disappear and the assignment of missionaries and the preparation even of special budgets will now be made by the Korean church through its proposed Department of Cooperative Work, which, however, will include missionary representation. American personnel will be organized as a Missionary Fellowship to oversee matters of missionary health, furloughs, language study and residence. Direct liaison between the Korean church and the Northern Presbyterian Church will be maintained through the latter’s field representative, Dr. Edward N. Adams.

Fears that the dissolution of the mission means the end of the missionary, and that church control of foreign aid means abandonment of the Korea Mission’s historic “Nevius policy” of self-support, self-propagation and self-government in the younger church, were met by a statement of three governing principles. The first, “the principle of the giving of life,” underlines the continuing importance of the missionary. “In the relationship between churches in different lands,” it states, “the most important element is the giving of life.… The giving of funds is secondary. The reversal of this order can be fraught with spiritual danger to both the giving and the receiving church.”

The second, “the principle of stewardship,” emphasizes self-support. “A Christian church must support financially its own governing body, its own officers, offices and ecclesiastical activities to remain a spiritual, vital and independent church. Only after this is done can a church receive aid for its institutions and projects from sister churches without danger to its own moral integrity and independence of action.”

The third, “the principle of administration of aid,” outlines the balance in partnership which characterizes missions in the day of the rise of the younger churches. “A sovereign, independent church has the right to decide for itself when aid from sister churches is no longer needed. As long as that aid is continued, however, personnel from the sister church shall participate on the church committee which assigns work and disposes funds provided by that sister church.”

The two other missions which are working in cooperation with the Presbyterian Church in Korea—the Southern Presbyterian and the Australian Presbyterian—are taking somewhat similar but less radical steps toward closer integration with the Korean church.

—S.H.M.

Army Promotion

General Sun Yup Paik, a hero of the Korean War and commanding officer of the First R. O. K. Army, accepted Christ and was baptized last year by Dr. Kyung Chik Han of Seoul’s Yong Nak Presbyterian Church. He was promoted recently to the post of Army Chief of Staff.

Vatican Ambassador

The first Philippine ambassador to the Vatican has recently been appointed by President P. Garcia.

For several years Catholic groups have been urging such a selection. They found the late President Magsaysay sympathetic to their idea and the creation of the Vatican embassy was approved by Congress last year. Due to strong opposition the law was not acted upon until this year.

Dr. Jose Ma. Delgado, medical practitioner and prominent Catholic lay leader, was named for the post. His appointment was hailed in Catholic circles and many believe that his designation may soon lead to the appointment of a Filipino cardinal. Reports from Rome for the past two years give speculation to the probability that the Pope might name a cardinal from the East. If the pontiff names a Filipino cardinal, it may be Msgr. Rufino J. Santos, Archbishop of Manila.

Protestant leaders in the Philippines view the Vatican appointment as another indication of the strength of the Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines.

—E.C.

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