An Interview with Rev. Dn. Isaiah Kim
You recently began serving our Holy
Metropolis and the Church of St. Nicholas in Toronto as a Deacon; can you tell
our readers a little about yourself and your family?
Let me
begin by expressing my sincere appreciation and gratitude to His Eminence
Metropolitan Sotirios for his paternal blessings and for giving me the precious
opportunity to grow in my Church life within the Holy Metropolis of Toronto and
while serving at St. Nicholas, notwithstanding my lack of ability.
I came to
Canada from South Korea in April 2014 to reunite with my family members who
have been studying here since 2010. In addition to my duties as a deacon, I am
currently working as an educational counselor at a private high school in
Toronto for mainly Korean-Canadian students. Before coming here, I taught
computer science and worked as a guidance counselor at a high school in Korea
for more than 10 years; at the same time, I served at the St. Nicholas
Cathedral in Seoul on Sundays and major feast days.
My wife,
Justine, and I were married in the Orthodox Church about twenty years ago;
together we have two sons, Joseph and Moses. Justine is currently studying to
become an early childhood educator and our children attend high school in
Toronto. Each of us was baptized at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Seoul where
we attended the Divine Liturgy.
I also
want to give humble thanks to St. Nicholas, whose intercessions for me and my
family have guided us closer to the Church and salvation in Christ, from Korea
to Canada.
What was it that initially attracted you to
Christ and to the Orthodox Church in particular?
Up until
the present hour, I have continuously lived between two ways: one of life and
one of death. On the one hand I yearn to live a full spiritual life, but on the
other hand I want to follow the desire of the flesh in the world: greed, lust,
pride and so on. These weaknesses in my life led me to sincerely long for
salvation in Christ since all things that I did and do without a purpose
towards Christ could not and do not bear good fruits. My life experiences and
sense of weakness in the world then and now draw me to Christ beyond human
understanding. Moreover, the older I get, the more I feel my own inadequacies
in the world and understand that I am unable to accomplish anything without Christ.
As the
ark of Salvation and the body of Christ, the Orthodox Church is central to my
life. The confession of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church offers me
the hope for salvation in Christ and serves as a signpost for my life in the
world. This is most assuredly true while partaking in Holy Communion in the
Orthodox Church which attracts me – and all partakers – to God’s love and to a
brotherhood (κοινωνία) in Christ.
When and what was the process that you went
through before being baptized?
I was
baptized in the Orthodox Church when I was a first-year university student
almost thirty years ago. Before then, I was attending a Presbyterian parish in
my hometown on Sundays because, like most Christians in Korea, I was raised in
a Protestant family. When I entered university, however, I began to question
the numerous schisms among Protestant denominations, and wanted to learn about
the prototype of the Church from the beginning of Christendom.
In order
to find the original Church delivering the true and unaltered Gospel of Christ,
I was first attracted to Roman Catholicism and attended Sunday Mass as a
catechumen in my hometown. Even while acknowledging that Catholicism has a form
of Apostolic succession, as I learned more, I could not accept some of its
teachings. Then, by chance – or maybe providence – I discovered the existence
of the Orthodox Church in Korea by reading an article about it in a Catholic
encyclopedia.
Thereafter,
I visited the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Seoul and soon came to be more familiar
with Orthodoxy. When I learned the faith of the Orthodox Church from then-Fr.
Sotirios (the present Metropolitan of Pisidia), I enthusiastically and
unreservedly accepted Orthodoxy as the continuation of the original ancient
church in my heart and was eventually baptized by Fr. Sotirios.
When were you ordained and can you tell us
about your decision to become a Deacon?
I was
ordained as a deacon in 1995 by the then Metropolitan of New Zealand and Exarch
of Korea under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, His Eminence Dionysios, of blessed
memory. Since graduating from high school, I eagerly hoped to become a servant
of God to perform church services and missionary work (διακονία) among my
countrymen since I was convinced that it was God’s calling for me.
As I
became an adult, I began to seek after eternal truth and a life worth living
because I did not want to have regrets at the end of my life here on earth.
Thus, initially, I was interested in philosophy to learn the truth about human
life; but, after some years I desired to learn theology and the life in Christ
in order to serve the Church and to positively answer God’s calling.
After
being ordained, I travelled to Greece to learn theology and expand my knowledge
of Church life. Unfortunately, due to my father’s sudden and serious illness, I
could not finish my studies at the University of Athens and returned to Korea
to serve there and care for my father until his repose in the Lord.
Now, if
God permits it, I wish to resume my theological studies so as to become a more
faithful and knowledgeable servant of Christ. With this education, I hope to
deliver the good news of the Holy Gospel among people seeking salvation in
Christ and to help them come to the true Church, including undertaking
missionary work among the Korean and Far East Asian Diaspora communities in
Canada.
If there are one or two things about
Orthodoxy that you would want to share with your fellow countrymen in Korea –
or even those outside of the Church here in Canada – what would they be?
Firstly,
I want to share the hope of salvation by God’s love. Although I am weak and
unworthy, I place in Christ the hope of my salvation by His mercy. I have been
learning through the Church to bravely hope in Christ in spite of my weakness
and unworthiness and to not abandon myself to despair in the world. I want to
distribute this daring hope of resurrection in Christ by delivering the Holy
Gospel to those estranged from the Church and suffering from a spirit of
darkness.
Secondly,
I want to share the Church life to live in peace and in brotherhood with my
countrymen in Korea and here in Canada as well. Without prejudice or
discrimination, all people can listen to the Holy Gospel in the Church and to
pray for His great mercy. All Christians consist of one body of Christ by
participating in the Church. The mystery of Holy Communion enables us not only
to participate in the Divine nature, but also to share peace, love and
brotherhood with one another in our daily life. I yearn to deliver this message
of peace and eternal life in Christ to my countrymen who do not know Orthodoxy
yet, in order for them to come to the Church and participate in the Divine
nature through the mystery of Holy Communion.
To do
this, I wish to become a kernel of wheat for the Korean Orthodox Community in
Canada as well as in Korea under the Ecumenical Patriarchate and His Eminence
Metropolitan Ambrosios.
“I am small, insignificant, but the Lord is
at my side, Your right arm guides me where I go” (from The Akathist Hymn).
An interview by Evagelos Sotiropoulos
Source: http://www.gometropolis.org/clergy/clergy-interviews/interview-with-dn-isaiah/
CONVERSATION