Yoido Full Gospel Church Reaffirms Support for WCC 10th Assembly in Busan

The Rev. Dr Young-Hoon Lee, senior pastor of the Yoido Full Gospel Church, has reaffirmed his church’s commitment to support the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), which will take place in Busan, Korea, in 2013.

Lee made the pledge while meeting WCC General Secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit at the Edinburgh 2010 conference. He said the Yoido Full Gospel Church is very interested in being involved with the upcoming Assembly and keen to take part. “The WCC can expect to receive full support of the Pentecostal church in Korea for the 10th Assembly,” Lee told Tveit.

The Yoido Full Gospel Church, located in Seoul, has about 830,000 members and is considered the largest Pentecostal congregation in South Korea. Lee serves as its senior pastor and as General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in Korea, to which the church belongs. The source states that, through its membership in the National Council of Churches in Korea, the Assemblies of God have supported the choice of Korea as the venue for the 10th WCC Assembly from the outset.

Tveit welcomed the commitment. “We are grateful for the prospect of a fruitful cooperation of the Yoido Full Gospel Church with our member churches in Korea around the 10th WCC Assembly in Busan,” he said. He added that the church’s support “highlights the significance of having a WCC Assembly in the Korean peninsula.”

Tveit also said that the church’s contribution to the Assembly “opens up new possibilities for the call to work for Christian unity, even beyond the fellowship of WCC member churches” (John 17:21).

Lee and Tveit were both taking part in the Edinburgh 2010 conference, held 2–6 June, with some 300 delegates from more than 60 countries and virtually all Christian traditions. The event commemorates the 1910 World Mission Conference held in the Scottish capital a century earlier and seeks to offer new perspectives on Christian mission for the 21st century. The WCC supports the conference together with partners in the ecumenical movement, within and beyond the WCC fellowship.

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