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LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS OF ETHNIC CHURCHES IN THE KOREAN DIASPORA IN CANADA
According to Park Seong Man, 382 Protestant and 17 Catholic ethnic Korean
churches were established in Canada by 2007 (“Religious Participation” 13).
Counting 392 ethnic Korean churches altogether, statistics published in The
Kukmin Daily ten years later, in January 2017 show similar figures, making
Canada a runner-up in the number of churches founded by Korean immigrants,
right behind the United States (Yeong and Kim, “Worldwide, Korean Churches”).
THE ROLE OF KOREAN ETHNIC CHURCHES IN THE DIASPORA
The quotation by Huh et al. in the introduction draws on the social network¬
ing function of Korean ethnic churches: congregate, meet and develop com¬
munity (4, my emphasis). Moreover, the church is also seen as a form of social
support: “[n]ewly arrived immigrants were able to get support from more
established community members, particularly in urban areas” (Huh et al. 4).
Sang Chul Lee’s views on the mission of an ethnic congregation presented
above are suggestive of similar ideas. His aim was to build a supportive com¬
munity to aid its members to negotiate the challenges of learning the host
country’s language and culture, and those of the education system and work
environment. A shelter, an enclave with “the sense of being understood” (Kim¬
Craigg 181, my emphasis). Commenting on the prevalence of the church in the
Korean immigrant experience in Canada, Song, as quoted in the Introduction,
also stresses support and assistance with adjustment.
Kim-Craigg focuses on the importance of the congregation in the preser¬
vation of the mother tongue and the home culture: “with regard to the function
of Christianity in preserving a distinct Korean culture, just as the early Kore¬
an congregations had done in Korea, Korean Christian communities in Can¬
ada used the church as a way to preserve and promote their culture and language
in a strange land” (Kim-Craigg 236, my emphasis).
The most comprehensive summaries on the role of Korean ethnic churches
in the life of the diaspora come from Park Seong Man and Min Pyeong Gap.
Park enumerates six such roles: “Korean ethnic churches serve religious as well
as social, educational, and psychological functions for Korean immigrants, and
Korean immigrants’ religious faith within Korean ethnic churches helps them
overcome the unstable adjustment periods and intensifies the ties of ethnic
identity in the new host country” (“Religious Participation” 11, my emphasis).
Min’s roles include the organization of businesses, matchmaking, networking,
fostering the preservation of cultural traditions and the provision of fellowship,
social status and positions (“The Structure and Social Function”).
The sources mentioned in this section revealed a wide spectre of functions
Korean ethnic churches fulfil, from the preservation of one’s language and cul¬
ture to networking, to providing various forms of support to foster adjustment
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