UMC GBHEM Rev. Kim Cape: “Great fruits have grown from the seeds that Appenzeller planted!”

“This year is the 130th anniversary of Korean mission by Henry Appenzeller. I’m glad to visit Korea at this meaningful time. The great fruits from the mission seeds planted by Mr. Appenzeller are also amazing. I hope the churches of the world inherit his will and devote themselves more to mission activities.”

So said Rev. Kim Cape (63·photo), general secretary of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM) of the United Methodist Church (UMC), on February 2 at Yonsei University’s Songdo international campus. UMC is the second largest denomination in the United States following the Southern Baptist Convention.

General Secretary Cape said, “As John Wesley (the founder of the Methodist Church) said, Christians should consider marginalized persons in the world as the sheep they need to care for… The colleges founded by the Korean church and Methodist missionaries need to grow and spread into the world, to share more with the world.”

Cape visited Korea to attend the 2015 conference of the Asia Pacific Association of Methodist-related Educational Institutions (APAMEI). Established in 2012, APAMEI now has more than 200 members, Methodist seminaries in the Asia-Pacific region and schools founded by Methodist missionaries. At this year’s conference, the second one following the 2012 founding conference, 147 professors and ministers from 70 educational institutions in 15 countries took part.

The conference was held from February 1-4 at the international campus of Yonsei University, with the theme “Mutual Healing in Cross-Cultural Contexts Promoting Reconciling Global Leadership for 21st Century Education,” to search for the role of the church and schools in multicultural society.

General Secretary Cape added, “Just like the missionaries who devoted themselves to building schools and hospitals in underdeveloped countries in the past, the church has various roles besides communicating the Gospel in multicultural ministries today, such as healing the wounds of the world, and enabling universities to nurture their students to build leadership in this capacity.”

Rev. Cape described her expectations for APAMEI, saying that it needs to become a bridge between developed and developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region. She said, “Back in 2012, it was still somewhat unclear whether or not APAMEI could succeed. Ahead of this conference, however, inquiries came in from quite a lot of countries and in fact many schools participated. I hope APAMEI grows to become a place for communication in which we share learnings from each mission field and are reminded of our own calling.”

Reporter Park Ji Hun (lucidfall@kmib.co.kr) from Incheon, with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)

Photo by intern reporter Heo Ran from Incheon


Click here for the original article in Korean

박여라 기자 yap@kmib.co.kr


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