Reflections & momentos from David’s autumn 2022 visit to South Korea
Mon 19 Sep 2022, Day 7/61. Very special to be able to watch the funeral live on the other side of the world. A little surprising though that I had to switch away from the BBC to Sky News.
Photo from Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport at https://flickr.com/photos/49429730@N08/52371505094, available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
Sun 18 Sep 2022, Day 6/61. Tweet from the British Ambassador to the Republic of Korea following the service at Seoul Cathedral at which he gave the eulogy.
Sun 18 Sep 2022. Day 6/61. A tweet from New Zealand’s Ambassador to the Republic of Korea following the service in the Cathedral, in which he played a part.
Fri 16 Sep 2022, Day 4/61. Hugely honoured to be invited by the Bishop of Seoul to lead Sunday’s Service of Remembrance for the Queen in Seoul Cathedral. With the participation of Ambassadors of the UK, Australia, Canada & New Zealand and the presence of other ambassadors, including the US.
Wed 14 Sep 2022, Day 2/61. My thanks to the helpful and friendly staff at the Embassy for taking this. The Embassy is next to the Anglican Cathedral, where I’m preaching a couple of times in October. But I’m hoping not to be in need of their services in the next two months!
Mon 12 Sep 2022. The journey from the UK to Korea was always going to involve a cultural leap. But I’m now travelling from a nation in mourning to one celebrating its biggest traditional holiday, Chuseok (추석), the annual Harvest Moon Festival. I had delayed my flight until now to avoid landing during the migration and disruption which accompanies Chuseok. And so unexpectedly I found myself able to step back into parish life last week following the Queen’s death.
I don’t feel able completely to put behind me what my own country is going through. And actually it is news as much in South Korea as the rest of the world.
And so South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol (윤석열) visited the British Embassy in Seoul the day after the Queen’s death, to sign the Book of Condolence. And yesterday he announced he would attend the funeral in London a week today. The Queen’s visit to South Korea in April 1999 appears to have made quite an impact on her. Next Monday’s funeral will be at 19:00 Korean Standard Time (KST) and I’m assuming I will find a way to watch it.
My journey to Korea 