Korean-American congregations in the United Methodist Church...

Korean-American congregations in the United Methodist Church have more than doubled nationally in the last four years--from 105 in 1982 to 212 in 1986, according to an unofficial count by denominational officials.

The steady growth of Korean immigration and the recognition of ethnic church life as a way to feel at home in a strange country are given as primary reasons by church leaders.

But the fast pace of growth is also due to the strong “evangelistic” nature of Korean pastors and members, according to the Rev. Jeen Shoung Park, superintendent of the Long Beach District of the United Methodists’ California-Pacific Conference.

“Korean churches have more prayer meetings and Bible study sessions than committee meetings,” Park told the United Methodist news service. “This makes people want to come to church.”

The study of Korean church growth in the denomination was released in connection with the four-day meeting in Inglewood, starting Friday, of the National Federation of Asian American United Methodists.

Methodist and Presbyterian churches, which have the longest missionary history on the Korean Peninsula, have felt the greatest pressures to accommodate Korean immigrant Christians in this country; that is, to help them establish churches while maintaining American guidelines for ministerial training and financial support.

DATES

More than 500 rabbis and lay members of Reform Judaism in five Southwestern states will be meeting at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel next weekend. Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler of New York, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, will address delegates at a Jan. 17 banquet.

Bishop Karoly Toth of the Reformed Church of Hungary, president of the worldwide Christian Peace Conference, and Metropolitan Paulos Mar Gregorios of New Delhi, one of the presidents of the World Council of Churches, will be among guest speakers discussing “preaching in the contemporary world” at the School of Theology at Claremont Monday and Tuesday. Other speakers include Julio de Santa Ana of Sao Paulo, Brazil, a lay exponent of “liberation theology,” and the Rev. Carter Heyward, a professor of theology at the Episcopal Divinity School in Boston.

South African clergyman Allen Boesak, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, will be in Southern California soon for a series of speaking engagements, according to Ecumedia official Maxwell Perrow. Boesak is scheduled to speak Jan. 18 during the 11 a.m. worship service at Pasadena Presbyterian Church and at an ecumenical “service for Christian unity” at 4 p.m. that same day at St. James Episcopal Church in Los Angeles’ Wilshire District. Boesak will also take part in a Martin Luther King Jr. birthday dinner celebration Jan. 19 at the Bonaventure Hotel.

Also: U.S. Sen. Richard L. Lugar (R.-Ind.), who recently completed two years as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is a Methodist lay preacher, will speak at the 10:30 a.m. service Sunday at Hope Lutheran Church in Hollywood. . . . Ethicist-theologian Lewis Smedes of Fuller Theological Seminary will give four lectures on “making and keeping commitments” at Pepperdine University in Malibu on Monday and Tuesday as a part of the campus’ annual Staley Lecture program.

PEOPLE

Chris Glaser, whose openly homosexual views barred him from ordination as a Presbyterian minister during a denominational controversy in the late 1970s, has resigned after nearly 10 years as director of a homosexual-oriented ministry at West Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Glaser was hired shortly after his graduation from Yale Divinity School as director of the Presbyterian-funded Lazarus Project, in which he preached, conducted Bible studies, organized educational conferences and engaged in counseling sessions. The Lazarus Project also started a jail ministry for gay inmates at Los Angeles County Jail, formed a group for gay and bisexual church leaders and recently initiated a Christian AIDS support group. Glaser said he resigned to finish two books.