Participants gather for a discussion on the future of the Korean Church after COVID-19. On April 27th, 2020 The NCCK's Theology Committee held a conference to explore ways the Korean Church should prepare for its future in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof. Yang Gwon-seok (SungKongHoe University), vice chair of the Theology Committee, moderated the discussion and opened by noting that many church communities around the world who suddenly had to move from in person worship (a dangerous exercise in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic) to online worship of various forms. With such massive changes to the life of the Church, they discussed both the implications and what this could mean for being the Church in the future. Two guest speakers offered reflections and suggestions for directions the Church could take moving forward. Professor Seong, Seok Hwan, noting that the pandemic has laid bare problems within the Church itself, and he focused on how the Church could instigate public discussions geared more toward the "common good." Professor Seong also suggested the Church should use this crisis as a time to reflect on public theology in pointing toward a new system that could uphold that common good. Rev. Lee Sang Cheol, president of the Christian Academy, addressed the pandemic situation from three perspectives including historical philosophy, religious sociology, and religious phenomenology. He saw that online worship has drastically changed the experience of worship and the worshiping community itself to the extent that online worship has "destroyed the aura" of the worship experience. Rev. Lee advocated that the Church should develop a new perspective on worship, proposing that worship should focus less on the sublime and more on understanding differences and the "other." This would build to a new post-COVID-19 Christian ethic that moves from "a pedantic religious life to a life of a grand living faith directed towards others." Source⇒ NCCK |