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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 networking function of Korean ethnic churches: congregate, meet and develop community (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 community 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” (KimCraigg 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 preservation 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 Korean congregations had done in Korea, Korean Christian communities in Canada 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 culture to networking, to providing various forms of support to foster adjustment ¢ 131 ¢
