NIC VOICE
News Update
12-30-2004 – Northern Illinois Conference
Welcomes Bishop Jung
This news update is a compilation of articles and
commentaries by and about Bishop Jung, most of which have
not been included in previous
NIC VOICE
news updates.
NIC VOICE
News Update
12-30-2004 – Northern Illinois Conference
Welcomes Bishop Jung
NIC VOICE
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the United Methodist Church.
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Other news of interest across the UMC included in
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********************************************************
The following is a compilation of articles and commentaries
by and about Bishop Jung, most of which have not been
included in previous
NIC VOICE
news updates.
********************************************************
Bishop Jung to lead Northern Illinois
(July 23)
Bishop Hee-Soo Jung, first of three bishops elected at the
North Central Jurisdictional Conference held July 14-17 in
Davenport, Iowa, will be the new episcopal head of the
Northern Illinois Conference (NIC), beginning Sept. 1. He
succeeds Bishop C. Joseph Sprague, who is retiring after
eight years as the religious leader for the 125,000 United
Methodists in the NIC.
Bishop Jung is committed to spirituality, justice,
evangelism (July 30)
Jung said he is committed to working toward inclusiveness in
the Church. “I believe the Kingdom of God calls for racial
equality, gender equality and sexual orientation equality,”
he said. “Inclusiveness is the gift of God.”
Jung said he believes the greatest challenge confronting the
Church today is “accepting others and embracing others.”
“Embracing the different is God’s call to us,” he said.
Bishop Jung said he thinks it’s very simple: “God challenges
us to radical hospitality. That is the only way we can see
God.”
Recommended Reading:
Commentary:
Social Rhetoric vs. Supernatural God by Wayne
Mayfield
(posted August 18)
Upon reading the July 30, 2004 published words of Bishop
Jung [see above] I became appalled by his complete lack of
definitions, terms, and the abuse of issues. So, perhaps we
should examine the intellect first of Bishop Jung and his
misuse of terminology.
Read More
Recommended Reading: The
Pastor's Paragraphs
Rev. Greg Dell, Broadway UMC, Chicago, IL
Broadway UMC –
August 2004 Newsletter
Any one of the three of them would be an excited and
exciting pastoral match for Broadway Church. At least that
was my assessment of the three newly elected bishops in the
North Central Jurisdiction [NCJ] of the United Methodist
Church. And the bishop assigned to our area -- one of those
three -- certainly would not be "least among the matches"!
The three new bishops who will be serving Annual Conferences
in the NCJ are: Sally Dyck, Hee-Soo Jung, and Deborah Lieder
Kiesey. Among the 15 declared and supported candidates they
were the three who, from before the first ballot was cast,
were endorsed and strongly supported by a coalition of
progressive folks committed to a fully inclusive church.
All three stated their disagreement with the UM position on
sexual orientation. All three are committed to challenging
racism and bigotry of every kind. They each have a deep and
open faith that has led them to ministries of social
justice.
On Saturday morning at the conclusion of the service
consecrating the new bishops, the proposed assignments for
all the bishops were announced and voted upon. Our bishop
for at least the next four years will be Hee-Soo Jung.
Beginning September 1 he will succeed our current bishop, C.
Joseph Sprague, who will retire on that date.
Over the last several years I've had a number of
opportunities to speak with Hee-Soo and his wife, Im. They
are great people. Hee-Soo has been a strong supporter of
the kind of ministry that we have come to find so
life-giving here at Broadway.
For once the news from our denomination is not so dismal!
But we have "miles to go" and a lot to sort out. By God's
grace we'll get there together!
Grace and peace,
Greg
Wisconsin clergyman will become the first Korean leader of
the United Methodist congregations of northern Illinois
By Manya A. Brachear
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
Published September 1, 2004
Now Korean Methodists who immigrated to the United States
say they hope to repay a lifelong debt by reinvigorating the
American church with the same fervor its missionaries gave
them years ago.
They have found one symbol of that hope in Rev. Hee-Soo
Jung, of Appleton, Wis., who on Wednesday begins his term as
the first Korean bishop to lead 125,000 United Methodists in
northern Illinois. Many Koreans in the church believe Jung's
election will help unify liberals and conservatives and
revive a missionary spirit that will unite all ethnicities.
"I always believed in the passionate spirituality of the
Korean community and at the same time its passion for
mission and outreach," Jung said Tuesday. "At the same time,
as a young church on American soil it has a lot of potential
to strengthen for the future. Our main denomination is kind
of aging, but young immigrant churches are fresh in many
ways."
Of the 400 churches represented by the Northern Illinois
Conference, more than 20 are Korean congregations that share
the traditions and piety that appealed to Jung as a convert
in South Korea. Jung, 49, was baptized into the Korean
Methodist Church when he was 16.
<snip>
"As time goes by, it's clear to us the most important thing
is to spread the good news in whatever language is most
convenient," said Kang Yong Yang, an elder at the Flossmoor
church.
In 2000, the U.S. church launched the Korean American
National Plan, a strategy to reach out to new immigrants as
well as sustain subsequent generations and develop leaders.
Jung serves on the council in charge of implementing the
plan.
Jung said the "silent exodus" of young people is not an
issue exclusive to the Korean church but touches the entire
United Methodist denomination. It can be solved, he said, by
empowering them.
Read
More
Recommended Reading:
The
Bishop’s Covenant Service
Broadway UMC
–
October 2004 Newsletter
As many of us are aware, the Chicago area has a new Bishop,
effective September 1 of this year. Following the retirement
of Bishop C. Joseph Sprague, Hee-Soo Jung has been assigned
to be the Bishop of our area for at least the next four
years. Bishop Jung is a “baby bishop”; that is, a bishop
who is serving a first assignment after the Episcopal
elections of July of this year.
A worship service
celebrating his commitment to the full diversity of the
church and all the ministries that express that commitment
is planned for Sunday, October 3 at 4:00p.m. at First United
Methodist Church, Elgin. During that service, we
will make covenant with our bishop for his ministry to and
with us. We are planning on taking a group from Broadway to
attend the service. If you are interested, contact Pastor
Dell right away!
Bishop Jung will preach at Special Session worship scheduled
for Nov. 6 at Elgin First
(Sept.10)
Northern Illinois welcomes Bishop Jung
(Oct. 15)
Jung expressed frustration with arguments within the church
about whether we should emphasize evangelism or social
justice. “Can we emphasize how important it is to accept
Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior while at the same time
emphasizing how important it is to work for justice in
seeking to join God in building the beloved community?” he
asked.
Jung said an emphasis on piety without social justice “has
enabled people to believe that they are leading godly lives
while exterminating native peoples, using slaves to work the
land, and worshiping the money and capital produced for such
a process. This separation has made a mockery of the
biblical faith and has often been revealed for what it is:
an attempt to reap the material rewards of injustice while
congratulating ourselves for living lives worthy of our
callings.”
Jung celebrated the NIC’s diversity saying it “is at the
heart of Northern Illinois Conference’s being a remarkable
place.”
The bishop said we are meant to live in a diverse community,
“meant to join hands around the table in the household of
God” even though we come from different places, different
economic levels, different countries, the city and rural
communities.
“Our diversity is woven into one tapestry in the love of
Jesus Christ,” Jung said. “We are young woven with old,
black with white, Asians and Hispanics, Natives and African,
male and female, gay and lesbian with straight. We are
employed woven with unemployed, poor with comfortable,
strong with broken, Ko-nglish with Span-glish. Our life
together is a proclamation that people are more than just
race, gender, economic class and sexual orientation. We all
find dignity at our Christ’s church no matter the category
in which society places us.”
Read More
Directory of Bishop Jung’s Commentaries (followed by brief
excerpts):
What does it mean to be with Christ?
(December 24)
No specific qualifications, abilities
Jesus chose those whom he wanted with no specific
qualifications, no lists of special abilities, training or
degrees. Jesus called those whom he wanted and they followed
him.
Many Scriptural passages remind us that Jesus is still
calling those whom he wants regardless of gender, age,
racial background, social status, sexual orientation or
accent. The only requirement is the willingness to follow
him. The willingness to put one’s life in God’s hands, to
take that step, is the only requirement
Advent and The Way
(December 10)
There is, perhaps, no other place in the Bible that makes a
more direct connection between compassionate behavior and
salvation! Nothing is asked of either party as to what they
believed. None of that seems to matter. They were not
quizzed on their Christological orthodoxy, on their stance
on abortion or human sexuality, even on the nature of their
belief in Jesus.
“Have you or have you not lived lives of compassion?” is the
only question asked in this terrifying parable.
The lesson of this parable for Advent is clear: The way to
prepare for the coming of Christ is to live a life of
compassion.
Whether we are preparing for the celebration of Christmas in
2004, a final “second coming” of Christ at the end of time,
or repeated appearances of the Christ in our midst, the way
is the same.
Followers of the Way
It is the Way of Christ. It is the Way of Compassion. No
wonder that in the early days following the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus, those who believed and followed were
called followers of The Way.
The commitment to live compassionately with family, friends
and strangers and to work for a more compassionate world is
our true vocation. It is that to which God is calling us,
regardless of our situation, occupation or social status.
Materialism affects us all
(December 3)
If we could love God with all our heart, soul, strength and
mind, this might change the way we see ourselves and the
world. If we could really see the cosmos as something that
works together rather than something that tears apart,
perhaps we could be a bit more accepting of ourselves as
part of this cosmos. Perhaps we would feel less angry,
frustrated, impotent and ashamed. If we do that, perhaps we
could embrace others in all their individual glory, warts
and all, even as we embrace ourselves.
If we, not enslaved by materialism, could love God,
ourselves and others, maybe we would all be more alive.
Maybe our social systems would be replaced by supportive
relationships between humans.
A Jewish friend told me of the Hebrew concept of Tikum Olum,
which means “repairing the world.” According to this
concept, we have the responsibility to do good things. We
don’t have to complete the task, but we have the
responsibility to begin.
I'm
getting to know you
(November 19)
My role is not “to be everything to everybody,” but to help
the conference discern and claim its ministry. Setting the
primary goals and system improvement for the conference
ministry is my prime role as a bishop.
My life is a life of constant learning. As long as I am your
bishop, I will continue to learn from you and about you
through district and congregational visits, through the
leadership team and cabinet meetings, and through your
various communications to me.
I am eager to have your input and count on your prayerful
support.
Focused
on the whole: Reflections on learning to be a bishop
(October 29)
As I contemplate my call to episcopal leadership I see
competing scenarios between busy-ness and centered-ness. I
know that micro-management — which necessarily entails great
busy-ness — is bad leadership. I need to learn how to coach
the conference in being a team for effective mission and
ministry.
A team requires not only interdependence, but awareness of
and reliance on that interdependence. And just as important,
I need to trust other leaders in the conference to act
responsibly and effectively in pursuing that same mission
and ministry.
Of
course, it is God’s church
(October 22)
(Oct. 22) Upon arriving in the Northern Illinois Conference
(NIC) as your Episcopal leader, I soon learned that one of
our congregations was at the point of having decided that it
no longer wanted to be a United Methodist church. This has
prompted two reflections on my part.
First is on my own role in this matter. A first inclination
was to allocate a significant block of my time to work on
it. “Perhaps we can keep them within the denomination,” I
thought. “Perhaps I can make a difference and they will
change their stance.”
I invited the congregation to meet and be open to
re-engaging dialogue for reconciliation and mutual
covenants, yet they insisted that they were not interested.
We are a living body of Christ and in all cases Christ’s
love would be the answer. Why not come together? I have
tried twice in my scheduling with the District
superintendent to meet with the congregation face to face,
but its leaders were not willing to have conversations
together.
Community
and grace-filled unity
(October 15)
Communal living and values
shape the desires of our hearts and the longings of our
spirit so that we are better able to reach out and invite
others into this same blessed communion. John Wesley
believed this kind of practical divinity is essential, and
organized his followers into small communities, the
so-called class and band meetings. He invited all laity to
network with companions to deepen their commitment in a
consistent discipleship with mutual accountability.
Covenanting
Service Sermon: Offering God the First Taste
(October 3)
The great good news of life in our Conference is that it is
our very diversity — a diversity that seems so troubling and
unsettling at times — but that keeps us open to being
disciplined and called back to the center of God's movement.
This diversity and our seeking to value it in our structures
is at the heart of the Northern Illinois Conference’s being
a remarkable place. We seek to celebrate difference in our
life together. Our celebration is a growing awareness of how
limited we are, of how much our perceptual and conceptual
categories have been shaped by our particular cultures and
our histories. We discover how little we know but how much
God wants us to know.
In John 10:10, Jesus proclaims it boldly: “I have come that
they might have life, life more abundant than they ever
dared to imagine.”
We need to continue to celebrate that God created this
diversity and offers it to us as a gift, a life-saving and
soul-saving gift. God is breaking in with a new vision and a
new reality, widening our imaginations so that we can see
visions and dream dreams that we previously thought were
impossible. God has broken down the dividing walls because
we are meant to live in community, meant to join hands
around the table in the household of God.
A beautiful thing to Jesus today is our claiming authentic
relationship between gospel and justice. The story is
repeated again and again in different contexts in American
religious history, with the result that gospel and justice
are often pitted against each other. The modern phrase for
this tension is “evangelism versus social justice,” but at
its roots it is the same issue that has plagued us for
generations.
Can we emphasize how important it is to accept Jesus Christ
as our Lord and Savior while at the same time emphasizing
how important it is to work for justice in seeking to join
God in building the beloved community? The separation of
these two has enabled people too believe that they are
leading godly lives while exterminating native peoples,
using slaves to work the land, and worshiping the money and
capital produced for such a process. This separation has
made a mockery of the biblical faith and has often been
revealed for what it is: an attempt to reap the material
rewards of injustice while congratulating ourselves for
living lives worthy of our callings.
God is active in the life of United Methodism in Northern
Illinois. We come from different places, from different
economic levels, from different countries of the world. We
are a church in the city and we are a church in the rural
community. And our people once were afraid, afraid of
different races, and afraid of different cultures. In Jesus
Christ the dividing walls of hostility have been broken
down. Though we are born into diverse earthly families, our
life together in the United Methodist Church has led us to
affirm that we are called to be one family through the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Our diversity is woven into the one tapestry in the love of
Jesus Christ. We are young woven with old, black with white,
Asians and Hispanics, Native and African, male and female,
gay and lesbian with straight. We are employed woven with
unemployed, poor with the comfortable, strong with the
broken, Ko-nglish with Span-glish. Our life together is a
proclamation that people are more than just race, gender,
economic class, and sexual orientation. We all find dignity
in Christ’s church no matter the category in which society
places us.
Spirituality
and Leadership
(October 1)
I am convinced that the answers to our problems and
frustrations as a conference, as congregations and as
individuals will not be found without a central emphasis on
prayer and reflection. Stop and breathe in the direction of
the Divine and we will refuel our souls. Stop and breathe in
the direction of the Divine and our discipline of spiritual
formation will keep us focused on God
The
Great Commission must become our passion (September 24)
Furthermore, if you are reaching out in both word and deed,
then it doesn’t matter how much you might disagree with me.
Jesus did not command us to never disagree with each other.
But he did command us to reach out and would likely be upset
with us whenever our disagreements with each other took
precedence over our sharing of the gospel.
Hospitality
is key to being a servant-leader
(September 3)
The hospitality of Jesus as depicted in the Gospels
increased in inverse relationship to the religious and
social acceptability of the persons being welcomed. Those
most welcomed by him were often those most rejected by
others.
