Korean New Year

We were being made aware today that it is Chinese New year, that is to say that it is the beginning of the Lunar Year. This fact is noted not just by the Chinese but by people throughout the east and beyond, including Koreans.

Since the beginning of the year a Yangmoory Church congregation has been meeting in our church on Sunday afternoons for Korean services. Although we are a Baptist church we are Reformed in our theology and as the church is committed to the Westminster Standards we were very happy to have them work alongside us like this. Today was an opportunity to join them as they welcomed in the new year. As a special kindness to us much of the afternoon was conducted in English, which we appreciated.

From 2-3 pm there was a service. Pastor Horace Shon preached appropriately from 2 Cor 5:16-19 on The new resolutions of the new man. The hymns (words and tunes) were conservative as we like them. (We sang one hymn to God save the Queen, which I guess is an American thing).

After the service there was a celebration as various departments and individuals presented items of song and dance. (I'd never seen Korean dance before - very graceful). It was a short but happy programme. We ended with an adapted version of the traditional Korean song Arirang arirang. I managed to say 'Happy new year' in Korean (after a fashion) which was appreciated.

We were then ushered into the back room for a truly magnificent spread of mostly Korean foods (Kimchi, spring rolls, beef bogoli, noodles, rice balls, etc). What a happy time.

I was glad that a number of our congregation were able to join the Korean friends. The church was packed. I am getting to know one or two, including two LTS students. I spoke to a young lady who is studying flower arranging and another who is one a leading Yo!Sushi chef. They do 117 varieties of sushi I learned. (Gim-bahp Koreans call it).

Being a pastor in London brings many benefits. One of them is to see how many people, of different nationalities God is calling to himself in these days. Pastor Horace Shon and his team are godly people. It is a blessing to know them. I'd recommend Horace's blog to you but it is all in Korean.

[Brief Wikipedia article here. Pics - Greetings (out of date I think) Pastor Horace]