South Korea:Rev. Park of Kyungdong Church retires after 16 years of service

By Chung Hyun-chae Rev. Park Jong-wha, who has served as the senior pastor of the Kyungdong Presbyterian Church since 1999, will give his last sermon Sunday. "The truth about life I have discovered during my ministry is that people should live in harmony," Park said in an interview with a local newspaper. With this belief, he has participated in various activities for inter-Korean reconciliation and to help the underprivileged. "What is important is also harmony when it comes to the reunification of North and South because the unification may be realized in a form of mixed society," he said. Park said he learned the spirit of compromise while delivering sermons in Germany from 1976 to 1981. He was invited by the Evangelical Church in Wuerttemberg, Germany, to join a team for its world mission and ecumenical relations. After he returned to Korea, he served as ecumenical theology professor at Hanshin University in Seoul from 1985 to 1994. Kyungdong Church, a red-brick building, was designed in 1981 by Kim Swoo-geun, one of the nation's most notable architects who proclaimed that architecture needs its own concept and philosophy. Shaped like praying hands, the church also resembles a fortress. After retiring as senior pastor, Park plans to establish a unification policy research institute to develop policies and form public opinion.