Reflections & momentos from David’s autumn 2022 visit to South Korea
Sun 6 Nov 2022, Day 55/61. I’ve had such rich experiences here, memories that will last. But inevitably some things on my wish list didn’t happen. The Lotte World Tower is currently the 6th tallest building in the world. The best view I got was from a plane.
Sun 6 Nov 2022, Day 55/61. Today was my second visit to Yoido Island, on the Han River & both the financial & political centre of the nation. My first visit was to the National Assembly.
Two problems about calling this ‘Yoido Island’. First, the spelling. I’ve just accepted the spelling used by the Church, built in 1973. But in 2000 the Government revised the way Hanguel was romanized, so.여의도 should now be spelt “Yeouido’.
And second, ‘-do’, 도, is part of the official name for any Korean island. So ‘Yoido Island’ or even ‘Yeouido Island’ doesn’t really make sense.
Sun 6 Nov 2022, Day 55/61. An iconic view of the city from Yoido Island, which I only got to see on my final day in Seoul.
Sun 6 Nov 2022, Day 55/61, 6/6. The list of issues on which I disagree with this church is probably quite long. But I was grateful for the chance to share with them this remarkable act of worship.
Sun 6 Nov 2022, Day 55/61, 5/6. Many conservative Korean churches ignored COVID restrictions, But our temperatures were taken & we were not allowed to remove masks even for communion. Instead we were each given a ‘communion box’ to take away.
Sun 6 Nov 2022, Day 55/61, 4/6. The service (5 hrs 19 mins into this video) started with the Creed, ended with the Lord’s Prayer & included a Wesley hymn. The sermon mentioned the early Christian martyr Polycarp & I was interested to hear in this Protestant church John Chapter 6 (‘unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.’) used as the Bible text during communion. I appear a few times in this video!
Sun 6 Nov 2022, Day 55/61, 3/6. The service was an extraordinary experience. Hundreds of stewards; orchestra, huge choir, worship band. Translation into 10 languages, close circuit TV, projectors. All hugely impressive.
Sun 6 Nov 2022, Day 55/61, 2/6. The main sanctuary seats 12,000, with 7 Sunday services. There are also overspill chapels on site & local chapels all over Seoul. So one estimate of Sunday attendance is 150,000 on the main site, another 100,000 in area chapels.
Sun 6 Nov 2022, Day 55/61, 1/6. Today I went to Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, for many years the largest congregation in the world, though Calvary Temple in Hyderabad, India is possibly now a contender.
Sat 5 Nov 2022, Day 54/61. My time in Seoul is drawing to a close. Next week I travel to the south east of the country: to its second city, Busan, 부산시; to Ulsan, 울산시 , the country’s industrial powerhouse; & to the historic city of Gyeongju, 경주.
My journey to Korea 