From Korea to Egypt to Vermont, pastor lands at Gales Ferry church

Ledyard ― By means of his childhood and into younger maturity, Yunki Kim recognized how society labeled him: He was a Korean immigrant dwelling in Egypt, the pastor’s child, the one going to a pleasant school. However that modified when he was doing the 2 years of army service mandated in Korea and he was assigned to help the chaplain, counseling troopers.

“That’s once I actually bought to listen to the various tales of the place these of us have been coming from, in order that was a life-changing expertise for me,” Kim stated.

However it will hardly be the final time that Kim mirrored and reassessed. Going to the Boston College Faculty of Theology gave him “theological route of who I’m going to be as a pastor,” which was as somebody who’s extra progressive and “craving for a extra inclusive approach of being a church.”

It’s a mindset that Kim, 39, has introduced with him to his new position as pastor on the United Methodist Church of Gales Ferry. He began July 1 and lives within the parsonage together with his spouse, Hyoeun Track, and youngsters Noah and Zoey, 9 and 5. Dan Reilly, lay chief of the United Methodist Church of Gales Ferry, stated that is the primary time for the reason that Seventies that the parsonage has had elementary-aged kids.

“He jumped proper in and he’s offering a fantastic new imaginative and prescient for us on loads of issues,” Reilly stated, including that Kim is singing with the choir and Track is ringing handbells. He stated Kim is relatable, has good private tales, and is simple to take heed to.

“It’s good to have somebody with a various set of instruments, and a various background, to steer the congregation in a approach that is smart to him and to us,” organist Jake Troy stated, including that Kim “has rapidly tailored himself to our love of music, and ensuring that he’s utilizing that to his benefit when reaching out to the congregation and the broader neighborhood.”

Kim stated there are about 75 folks in attendance on Sundays and 15 tuning in on-line, and Sunday faculty simply began again up for kids and adults. He praised the sturdy music ministry on the church.

His sermons have been extra introductory thus far, with the message that “the blessing that we have now is we have now one another, and we’re going to do it collectively.”

He’s nonetheless studying about Gales Ferry and Ledyard ― and in regards to the neighborhood in relationship to Norwich, Groton and New London ― to know what sort of ministries to supply.

Kim, who’s the primary nonwhite pastor of the church, additionally stated he’s serious about studying in regards to the land on which the church sits, in regards to the Native American historical past.

His imaginative and prescient for the church is to assist everybody expertise peace and love no matter their background, immigration standing, gender identification, age, or political opinions. However on a worldwide degree, there’s division throughout the United Methodist Church over LGBTQ rights.

In 1972, the Normal Convention ― a physique of representatives that meets each 4 years ― voted so as to add the language that “the follow of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian educating.” Based on the UMC web site, pastors can’t conduct same-sex marriage ceremony ceremonies.

Kim stated he hopes the language is modified or eliminated altogether on the subsequent Normal Convention in 2024. His dream is for a church the place each progressive and traditionalist voices can have house.

Discovering his identification and path to ministry

Kim was born in Korea however moved to Egypt at age 6, for his father’s work in Cairo as a Methodist church missionary. In a rustic that’s 90% Muslim and about 10% Christians, with most Christians belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church, he was a minority in a number of methods.

Kim’s mother and father now dwell in Korea, whereas his youthful brother lives in Toronto.

He recalled realizing in center faculty that he wished to do one thing to construct peace amongst totally different religions, which grew to become his preliminary calling into ministry. His “second nudge” about going into ministry got here whereas doing his army service, which Kim accomplished partway by way of his research at Yonsei College in Korea.

When the Korean church was all Kim knew, he didn’t essentially consider it as being traditionalist and patriarchal, however that perspective shifted when he was at BU.

“You simply surprise why,” he stated. “Why is the church so unique, when it comes to who will get to serve, who will get to enter, who will get to style the love of God, and expertise the love of God?”

After seminary, Kim’s first appointment was as affiliate pastor in Malden, Mass., working with kids and youth. His first “solo gig” was at a United Methodist Church in Montpelier, Vermont, the place he spent eight years.

Within the United Methodist Church, it’s not the congregation that hires a brand new pastor, however reasonably the bishop that appoints one.

Dan Reilly stated in February 2021, the United Methodist Church of Gales Ferry realized that Pastor Tom Bentum was going to be reassigned to a brand new church and they might get a pastor final July. However he stated that pastor had some private points together with his household and ended up not coming.

“In attempting to come back out of the pandemic and reestablish issues and produce folks again to church that weren’t going earlier than, it was a tough time for us to not have a everlasting pastoral appointment,” Reilly stated. However the church was lucky to have a retired pastor within the congregation, and so Frank Denton served as interim pastor till Kim’s appointment began July 1.

Rev. Gale Williamson was pastor on the church for 20 years, from 1969 to 1989, however Reilly stated it’s extra frequent for a pastor to be a church for five to eight years. Kim doesn’t understand how lengthy he’ll be right here.

“I’m type of trying ahead to what God has in me, on this journey, on this Gales Ferry neighborhood, past the congregation,” he stated. The “most vital factor for me is I’m right here, I’m current and I need to be current in folks’s lives.”

e.moser@theday.com