Photo by Nick Kenrick

By Eun Joo Angela Ryo

Some years ago, I had attended a conference geared toward Asian American church leaders who were either involved in a second-generation ministry (i.e. English Ministry) within Korean immigrant churches or multicultural ministries. I was one of three women in a sea of male pastors discussing the future of the English Ministry within the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Somehow, the discussion landed on raising up women leaders within our ministries. One young pastor got up to tell the story of how when he first started his ministry at his current church, there was great opposition to ordaining women as elders. However, he was proud to report that now, they finally have their first woman elder. Glad to hear his story, I asked the question of how such a radical change came to pass. He paused for a moment and said that it just happened over time. A bit baffled by his answer, I asked him how long it took for this change to happen. He answered eight years. Flustered, I couldn’t help but ask the obvious yet stinging question: “Do you think you could have done something more intentional to speed up the process?”  How can the church take credit for  growth that “just happened” over time (perhaps due to cultural pressures) rather than as a result of intentional and sustained effort to seek justice for all God’s people?

We all want change and growth in our churches, but I wonder if we are willing to take on the pain that comes with such growth. Too many times, the pain becomes the inevitable lot of those who are most vulnerable and disposable within the faith community so that the dominant group can continue to thrive and grow. If we are not actively seeking to do justice on behalf of those who are hurting in and outside of our church out of fear that we might lose certain long-standing members or lead the church to a steep decline, how can we say that we are growing?

Recently, the short article written by Grace Chough about the unfair treatment of clergywomen in the PCUSA and Presbyterian Korean community has shed light on the reality of many women who are serving in congregations that clearly do not abide by the polity of our denomination in regards to ordination and treatment of women. Some might say that the gross injustice Grace had experienced in her church might be her own fault or just a cultural thing or an exaggeration, but how can we grow as a church and how would we be able to figure out what justice truly is if we do not lend our ears to such narratives?  Will we choose to sit back and let passing of time take care of the injustices of our world or will we choose to listen and act?

Statistics show that the Church is dying.  Overshadowed by this fear of imminent (or ongoing) death, the Church is desperate to do everything within its power to maintain status quo.  But I wonder…is death such a bad thing?  There are many things the Church needs to die to in order for it to live again:  It needs to die to racism, ageism, sexism, classism, bigotry, greed, power — just to name a few.  To borrow the words of G.K. Chesterton, “Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.”  Death may be the greatest growing pain the Church has yet to embrace, and as long as we follow Jesus out of the grave by heeding his call to love and justice, I think the Church just might live amidst its pains.

Eun Joo Angela Ryo immigrated to America from Korea when she was nine. Having graduated with an MDiv from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, she was ordained as a Teacher Elder in the PCUSA this past July and started serving in her first call at The First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor as a Resident Minister.