News from South East Asia
Diocesan Press Service. August 9, 1965 [XXXIV-1]
Ralph S. Dean, Executive Officer, Anglican Communion
Fifteen countries visited and 17 airlines used - that is the extent of my travels so far. My last article spoke of a visit to Ghana from whence I went to Lagos in Nigeria to confer with the Archbishops of the five Provinces in Africa who were having their annual meeting. An eventful meeting it was too, for it saw the first steps in inter-provincial planning and as such needs an article to itself when I have time to reflect on it. Suffice it to say that after a week in Lagos thanks to the speed of jet travel, I was able to dash back to London for the weekend and on the Monday set out for Korea - my first visit to that fascinating, bewildering, and paradoxical country.
Here the bishops of the Council of the Church of South East Asia were to meet and I with them. What a vast area was represented by my fellow-bishops! Borneo, Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaya. Taiwan as well as Korea itself were all represented. Nor was it pan- Anglican, for a welcomed member was Bishop Vincente Dayagbil from the Philippine Independent Church with which most, if not all, the provinces of the Anglican Communion are in full communion. The stresses and strains, the pains and perils, the oppositions and the opportunities of that inflammatory part of the world found their way into every discussion. The church must not live in a-vacuum and historically it cannot. It was very plain that the bishops of South East Asia were vividly aware of this. How far should nationalism be determinative in selecting church leaders ? How is the church to act in an ever shifting political situation ? At what point could or should the Christian Church oppose political trends? Not easy questions these! Not easy questions anywhere and perhaps most difficult of all in that part of the world's surface where war clouds drift threateningly across the skies, their direction and their likely influence forever changing. The whole church in South East Asia needs our prayers most urgently as it seeks to bear its witness in that vast and confused maelstrom where such a high percentage of the whole human race lives - or rather, in many cases, exists.
The whole concept of '"Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ" may have very special implications for us in that part of the world, and we do well to remember. Perhaps it should be noted that it is from that area and adjacent ones that most criticism of MRI as being a piece of Anglican Confessionalism has come. To visit there is certainly to see the point. Whatever the difficulties of inter-church relations, there can be little doubt that the cause of Christ cannot be furthered in South East Asia by one church alone, and certainly not by a church in isolation from other churches. My mind and heart were full of reflections of this sort as we left the bishops' meeting - held in the delightful resort centre called Walker Hill and known all over the world.
The meeting over, we assembled in the Cathedral in Seoul where history was to be made. For years there has only been one Anglican Diocesan Bishop in Korea, though no-one must ever forget the work of the Assistant Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Arthur Chadwell, now retired, but giving point to a remark that for bishops to be retired is to be fitted with a new set of tires, for he is far from idle.
The Bishop in Korea has been the Rt. Rev. John Daly who had previously presided over the Dioceses of Gambia and the Rio Pongas, and of Accra, before going to Korea. No words of praise can be too great for him and his leadership in the post-war years in war-torn Korea. Now, however, the first Korean Anglican Bishop was to be consecrated. He was the Ven. Paul Lee, a young Korean greatly loved and obviously blessed with the gifts of leadership which the Church in Korea needs. The pride of the Korean Anglicans in the bishop of their choice was plain to see. Another instance of the transcendence of the church's faith over race and colour was being enacted before our very eyes.
The service of Consecration was moving beyond words. Bishop Daly, acting under the mandate of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was the chief consecrator and American, Chinese, English, Filipino and part-Canadian hands were laid on Paul. Thus this "godly and well learned man" was made not only the Bishop of Seoul, but a Bishop in the Church of God in a service in which so many constituent parts of the Church of God had a share. "The Holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee" - the words sprang unbidden from many a lip.
I mentioned the Bishop of Seoul. This was another step forward in the history of the Anglican Church in Korea. For Paul Lee was to become the Bishop of Seoul, and John Daly, now no longer the Anglican Bishop in Korea, was to become the Bishop of Taejon and as such would take a subordinate place to Paul Lee.
In the afternoon, at the service of enthronement of Paul as Bishop of Seoul, this took place. History was being made without a doubt. Next day the first National Senate of the Anglican Church in Korea took place, and Paul Lee presided. What a weight now rests on his shoulders! I pledged to him and the Bishop of Taejon your prayers. Don't fail them!
Note to editors - XXXIV -2 is Bishop Dean's column for June - but both are good and are therefore included. J. C.