The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
June 8, 2008
Vol. 11 no. 22

Everything But...
           I am supposed to be a translator of words, but someone at tea talked about a translation of a very different sort.
           This is the wrap up week for the Center of Theological Inquiry. It’s not that things shut down after this, but the regular events take their summer sabbatical. Tuesday we had our last afternoon tea, Wednesday the final morning worship, Thursday the last of our Member lunches with the final presentation and discussion of another member’s research, capped off with a family BBQ in the evening. We are going to miss those meals, communions in a real sense. Communion means people as much as food.
           Our afternoon teas are not highly attended - as our Scottish director notes, not enough children of the Commonwealth in the lot. One regularly invited tea-totaler is Samuel Moffatt, a 93 year old tall gentleman, whose books on the history of Christianity in Asia I had read in years past. Born in Korea, the son of the Presbyterian missionary who is considered to be the founder of the Korean Presbyterian Church, he has had lots to tell about us about his experiences and what it’s like in Korean Christianity today.
           Someone asked when Sam had last been in Korea - 2 years ago when the seminary his father had founded (2500 students today!) requested something unusual. Moffatt’s father was removed from Korea by the occupying Japanese and when he died he was buried in the US. 62 years later they asked permission from the Moffatt family to move his remains to a spot on the seminary campus. Knowing the great honour this indicated in Korean culture the Moffatts proudly agreed. In older language this removal of remains to another location is called a “translation.” Mere words do not come close to how one life translates into a communion of saints.