Korean Congregations May Break With Church : Schism: Ministers are angered by Christian Reformed Church’s move to ordain women. Dissatisfied pastors plan to meet in October to form new denomination.

At least seven Korean-American churches in Southern California are thinking about pulling out of the Christian Reformed Church over the denomination’s move toward ordaining women to the ministry.

Leading the defections is the Rev. John E. Kim, the influential pastor of the 1,400-member Los Angeles Korean Christian Reformed Church, which is the second-largest congregation in the 311,000-member denomination based in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Kim, whose $11-million church is in the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles, is traveling in Kenya and Europe and could not be reached. But an assistant pastor, the Rev. Young J. Kim, confirmed that about 30 Korean church leaders who met at the church Aug. 2 called for a new denomination to be formed Oct. 18 in Los Angeles.

Although the Christian Reformed Church is a theologically conservative body within the spectrum of U.S. Protestantism, the denomination’s synod, or convention, voted this summer to end its ban on female ministers, subject to a second vote at its June, 1994, synod.

Assistant pastor Kim said the long-simmering women’s ordination issue and a perceived “open attitude toward homosexuality” were the primary causes of dissatisfaction by Korean-heritage pastors in the denomination. “The Korean pastors are concerned that the denomination is disloyal to the word of God, which doesn’t allow women in the ministry or homosexual behavior,” he said.

The prospect of losing subsidies from the denomination may keep some Korean congregations from defecting. “For many years, the Christian Reformed Church has helped many small Korean churches with financial and moral support, but I think doctrine is more important than financial help,” said the assistant pastor.

John Choi, the denomination’s Korean ministries coordinator based in Los Angeles, said he believes that the great majority of unhappy pastors will wait to see if the Christian Reformed Church adopts women’s ordination next year.

Top denomination officials plan to meet with Korean pastors Aug. 31 at Rosewood Christian Reformed Church in Bellflower, Choi said. The denomination has more than 25 Korean congregations in Southern California.

Choi conceded that John E. Kim’s Los Angeles church was definitely leaving, and that the Valley Christian Reformed Church in Arleta, whose pastor is the Rev. Jae Yon Kim, is leaning toward pulling out. The Arleta pastor did not respond to requests for an interview.

Choi said the charge that the denomination has an open attitude toward homosexuality goes too far. “We have some sympathy or openness to those people who are homosexual, just as we would to an alcoholic or someone with a physical or mental disability, but our church does not allow homosexuals to preach or lead a church,” Choi said.

One pastor taking a wait-and-see approach on defecting is the Rev. Kenneth Cho, pastor of Hacienda Immanuel Christian Reformed Church in Rowland Heights. He was elected in April as the president of the Korean Council of Christian Reformed Churches in North America, which has 47 affiliated churches.

“I will stay in the denomination for a while to fight the changes,” Cho said. “It is not easy to pull out. The (Christian Reformed) home mission board has supported us financially.”

Cho said he will go to the Oct. 18 conference as an observer, but he added that he is personally very close to John E. Kim, who is heading the move toward a new denomination, tentatively called the Korean Reformed Presbyterian Church.

About 20 other Korean congregations around the country, some Presbyterian and many independent, are also expected to attend the October gathering. Included among them are a large church in Glendale and one in the Antelope Valley, Cho said, but he declined to identify them.

John E. Kim, 59, who studied at Temple University in Philadelphia and taught at a Presbyterian seminary in South Korea before returning to the United States in the mid-1970s, is seen as a patriarchal figure among many Korean clergy, said Malcolm McBryde, associate editor of the Banner, the denomination’s magazine.

Ten years ago, Kim served a term as president of the interdenominational Council of Korean Churches in Southern California.

His church, which in 1990 dedicated a new sanctuary seating 1,440 people, began with three members in 1976. Original plans for the new building and its landscaped 22 acres, which include a prominent stepped waterfall, called for a drive-in section for some worshipers to listen to the service in their cars, an option pioneered by the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. The feature has not yet been instituted.