Praying at Hiroshima’s Peace Park and along Korea’s Demilitarized Zone, at Nanjing’s massacre memorial in China and in Taiwan’s Episcopal cathedral, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold joined in the reconciling mission of those who welcomed him to Asia during his two-week visit in late October.
“The journey itself was all about peace and reconciliation,” said Griswold after his seven-city itinerary, which included conferring in Seoul with South Korea’s President Roh Moo-hyun, and in Nanjing with China’s Bishop K. H. Ting. “Across national boundaries and in the face of antipathies of competing political perspectives, the churches of the region are making common cause,” he wrote in his monthly column for Episcopal Life this month (page 31). “I am impressed and encouraged by the witness of our Anglican brothers and sisters as they seek to heal wounds from the past and to exercise a ministry of reconciliation.”
Emphasizing reconciliation
Citing the “genius of Anglicanism” in bridging differences and uniting people of divergent points of view, Griswold praised the work of three fellow primates for aiding local and international peacemaking through the Anglican Church of Korea, Japan’s Nippon Sei Ko Kai and the Anglican Church of Hong Kong.
In Korea, Roh praised the Anglican Church’s contributions to Korean democratization and social services. With Archbishop Matthew Chung and aides, Griswold reiterated his call upon the U.S. government to support peaceful reunification on the Korean peninsula by refraining from any preemptive military strike.
In Japan, Anglican Archbishop Joseph Uno, accompanied by Griswold, laid a wreath at the memorial to Korean victims of the Hiroshima atomic blast of 60 years ago. Uno voiced his church’s continuing commitment to foster reconciliation with Koreans, thousands of whom were held involuntarily by Japan during World War II.
Clear international commitments to peacemaking were underscored as Griswold visited Hiroshima’s Peace Park memorializing the 200,000 killed in the U.S. bombing, a topic of his October 23 sermon in the city’s Resurrection Church. In Hong Kong, Archbishop Peter Kwong emphasized the friendships shared by Anglicans around the Pacific Rim. He said dialogue across the Anglican Communion would continue to ease tensions that had been marked by dissention
In Shanghai and Nanjing, leaders of the “post-denominational” China Christian Council and Three-Self Patriotic Movement briefed the presiding bishop on their work for “theological reconstruction” that has unfolded since the Cultural Revolution. Bishop K. H. Ting, 91, who began his ordained ministry as an Anglican, reiterated the need for renewed education of clergy and laity. The visit included a tour of Shanghai’s former Anglican cathedral, soon to be renovated.
Griswold prayed and left a votive candle at the memorial to the 300,000 killed in the 1937-38 Nanjing Massacre waged by Japan. Griswold’s prayer asked that this and similar far-reaching acts of violence “never happen again.” Bishop David Lai welcomed the delegation to the Diocese of Taiwan, part of the Episcopal Church, where Griswold preached in St. John’s Cathedral on cross-cultural understanding.
Faith’s incarnation
In conversations within groups and with individuals, Griswold praised the unique contributions of Asian Christians to global Anglicanism, noting deep traditions of prayerful meditation and mutual respect, particularly for elders, within the region’s cultural history.
“Because Jesus enters into the fullness of human life and human struggle, the gospel is always embodied locally,” Griswold told students at Taiwan’s St. John’s University, founded in 1879 and continuing today with an emphasis on education in technology. His remarks were echoed at lectures at China’s Nanjing Theological Seminary, Japan’s Central Theological Seminary and Kiyosato Environmental Education Project and Tokyo’s Rikkyo University, which conferred on him an honorary doctorate degree.
Phoebe Griswold, the presiding bishop’s wife, met with women in Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Taipei. She emphasized the importance of gender-equity in church councils and leadership bodies and invited participation in Anglican Women’s Empowerment, a group that will meet at the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women in New York in March.
For other stories on delegation’s trip: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens.
