SEOUL, South Korea — On the afternoon of Reformation Sunday, nearly 2.1 million Christians gathered for a common worship service to “come together to repent, regenerate, and restore holiness in our society.”

According to organizers, around 1.1 million people attended on site despite the bad weather, and another 1 million attended online (although police estimated a lower figure for the in-person gathering). The unprecedented joint worship ceremony brought together Korean churches across denominations who affirm traditional marriage and family and pray for their nation.

The initial trigger for the event was anti-discrimination legislation that Korean Christian leaders feared would pave the way for same-sex marriage and ultimately open the country to transgender ideology that would harm families and restrict churches’ freedom to practice their faith. They point to Western countries like Britain and Canada as warning signs of what could happen if believers do not stand up in this time.

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“I hope that through this worship service we offer today with spirit and truth, families and churches will live, and the Korean church and the world church will experience a new revival,” said Rev. Jung-Hyun Oh, Sarang’s senior pastor. The church told officials: According to the news of Christian Daily Korea.

In three sermons given in the afternoon, the importance of the Church not remaining silent to protect families and children was emphasized, while a priest prayed to God: “Please accept our repentance and protect our families.”

The event also featured speakers from England and Germany, who encouraged Korean Christians not to follow the same path they saw in their home countries, but rather to be a beacon for churches around the world and shine the light of God’s truth.

“Who would have thought that England would forget God? But it happened,” said Andrea Williams, a lawyer at the Wilberforce Academy in the United Kingdom, “They removed Jesus Christ from public life. People don’t know who Jesus is. They legislated the right to kill the unborn same-sex marriage. Street preachers are jailed, and those who hand out Bibles or pray at work are punished. “While all this was happening, Britain’s churches were asleep.”

(Christian Daily International has previously reported examples such as: A Christian in England was convicted for praying near an abortion clinic earlier this month or unlawful arrest and imprisonment of a street preacher.)

The churches participating in the event issued a joint declaration calling for the “renewal of the Republic of Korea” as an expression of their unity and commitment.

The declaration draws attention to the crisis of values ​​and expresses regret for the failure of churches to fulfill their role to date. The declaration affirms, among others, the protection of the family, the right of everyone to “freedom of religion, speech, thought and expression” and the role of the church as salt and light in society. It concludes by calling on the government, the Constitutional Court, the National Assembly and the Ministry of Education to refrain from passing laws allowing same-sex marriage or promoting homosexuality and gender ideology through school textbooks.

(Full text of the paper in Korean is available Here.)

As the event ended, the organizing committee said: “Those gathered pledged to fulfill the social role of the church and reaffirmed their solidarity as a community of faith. “This service will remain an important moment for the Korean church to reflect on its social responsibility and the essence of faith, and a milestone that shows the direction and role the Church should take.”

A day to raise awareness in society and unite the Korean Church

One Exclusive interview with Christian Daily International Ahead of the event, organizing committee chairman Rev. Hyun-bo So, senior pastor of Segero Church in Busan, explained what motivated them to mobilize churches for the event.

“We don’t hate homosexuals. “We’re not trying to tell them what they should and shouldn’t do,” he emphasized. “But if these laws regarding same-sex marriage are passed in Korea, then the Christian Church cannot stand up for what it believes and say what it wants to say.”

He noted that stories have emerged in Canada and other countries in which minors are led to believe they are transgender and undergo experimental, body-deformation procedures where their parents are not allowed to participate in the conversation.

“Sometimes there are situations where a 13-year-old child wants to change his gender, but his parents cannot say anything about it. “Students will receive hormone injections through the school, and parents will not be involved in the process,” he said, adding that Korean churches are against excluding parents from children’s lives and education.

He also laments that minors are young and naive and can easily be misled about the risks and lifelong consequences of such treatments. He specifically points out a case in which “a 13-year-old boy experienced a gender change with transition and thought his breast would grow back.”

The prospect of facing such a future led him to mobilize Korean churches to oppose the latest change to laws regarding same-sex couples in an effort to prevent the country from going down that path.

Asked to elaborate on the legal developments, Pastor Son said: “July 18 was a big day for Korean courts because they agreed that a gay couple could benefit from health insurance. “Internationally, once such a law was passed or accepted in the courts, it usually took around two years for same-sex marriage to become legal.”

He said he saw the event as a chance for the Christian Church to raise awareness among the broader society about the harm that passing these laws would do to Korea. He said he believes more than 90 percent of people would be against young children as young as 9 or 10 receiving irreversible cross-sex hormones for gender transition. But a major problem is that “ordinary people do not know the depth of what the law requires.”

He hoped the event would provide “a good chance for churches to come together, pray together, and have discussions together about how to help homosexuals,” including those struggling with same-sex attraction in churches.

Pointing out the difficulties within the Korean Church, Pastor Son said, “I believe that this event will be a great time for everyone to come together and unite.”

Originally published on: Christian Daily International