Koreans Sue Presbytery, Allege Bias, Deceit, Theft

In a tangled feud, the nation’s oldest Korean-American church is charging its governing organization with racial discrimination, conspiracy and fraud.

The Korean United Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, in a suit filed in Superior Court in December, accused the Presbytery of the Pacific of using deception and coercion to steal a property title valued at $3 million.

Led by the Rev. Sang Bom Woo, a majority faction of the church charged presbytery officers with taking advantage of congregation leaders’ limited knowledge of English during a business transaction in which the church’s property title was signed away without the knowledge of the minister.

Presbytery representatives and a group of dissident church members, in turn, claimed that the allegations are the disgruntled rumblings of a misguided congregation. The real issue, the presbytery claimed, is not communication or property ownership, but the renegade tendencies of Pastor Woo.

The presbytery said Woo’s struggles to maintain control of the church have resulted in the exodus of about 25% of its 400 active members. The governing body in January filed a cross-complaint in court calling for an “ejectment” order to remove Woo and his followers from the church.

Beyond the property dispute is the question of who controls what is considered the mother church of Korean Christians in America. The wrangling has touched on numerous issues not found in the lawsuit, including new and old theology, charges of an “old-boy network” and the changing ethnic landscape of today’s churches.

The presbytery is a nonprofit corporation that handles financial and judiciary matters in part of Southern California for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Inc.

David Meekhof, the organization’s executive administrator, noted that the church has had a history of supporting minority churches that don’t have independent financial resources. But the diverse ethnic makeup of the presbytery’s 23,000 members, he added, makes for sometimes volatile partnerships.

“With worship services held in 10 languages, we walk a fine line in being sensitive to our minority congregations and remaining true to our Presbyterian rules of order,” he said. Of the presbytery’s 56 Los Angeles churches, 18 are principally ethnic congregations, Meekhof said.

Several ministers with primarily ethnic constituencies said they share the Korean church’s feelings of being discriminated against and manipulated by the presbytery. But, they said, most ministers are afraid to speak out because they don’t want to fall from the good graces of the denomination, as Woo has.

Want Suit Settled

The ministers said they are eager to see how the suit will be settled.

“I know the presbytery has taken actions that are not in the best interest of their ethnic churches,” said a black minister who fought the presbytery over the closure of his church. “It is an organization ruled by the good-old-boy network,” said the minister, who did not want to be named. “There is no understanding of the black heritage, the Hispanic heritage, or Korean heritage.”

The lawsuit filed by the Korean church stems from a $200,000 loan from the presbytery in 1983 that helped pay for a 400-seat sanctuary addition to the modest church complex in the 1300 block of Jefferson Boulevard in South Los Angeles.

Korean church elder Chung Won Kim said two church elders were under the impression that they had signed a temporary transfer of ownership that would guarantee payment on the loan.

Title Copy Obtained

But last year, while the church was making payments on the loan, a church officer obtained a copy of the property title while researching an unrelated matter. The name of the congregation appeared nowhere on the title, and the presbytery had sole ownership of the church.

“Everyone was shocked,” said Mark Song, director of the church’s educational ministry.

Song said he has since looked into four other conflicts between minority churches and the presbytery in recent years. The presbytery allegedly misused its authority to remove ministers who did not agree with property policies and interdenominational politics, Song said.

In the four cases, ministers were deposed, congregations were dispersed and the presbytery kept control of the property, he said.

Parker Williamson, editor of The Layman, the national publication of a conservative group often critical of the denomination’s liberal-to-moderate leadership, said property disputes within the denomination are not uncommon.

Typical Scenario

“Cases run something like this: A local congregation will find itself not in favor of the positions of the denomination. They will say we no longer want to be a member of the governing body and we want to take our church; we paid for it,” Williamson said.

“According to secular property law, ownership goes to the party whose name appears on the deed. But if you look at the Presbyterian constitution it says very clearly all properties of the individual churches are held in trust for the denomination.”

Several cases around the country have resulted in conflicting decisions, Williamson said.

Lee Kliewer, a retired legal adviser to the Presbyterian denomination, said that with the growth of immigrant congregations in recent years, misconceptions concerning property and church laws have increased.

Adjustment Problems

“Immigrant churches have difficulty adjusting to the working of the Presbyterian Church in America . . . particularly the Korean churches,” Kliewer said.

Kliewer said most Presbyterians coming from Korea bring a tradition that tends to be more conservative than the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Following their own strong tradition and being unfamiliar with the denomination’s constitution, Koreans “tend not to (follow) the line on the Book of Orders.”

Koreans tend to hold a more conservative theological line of thinking in which the Bible is the word of God, he said. The more liberal governing organization takes a less literal interpretive approach, in which it is accepted that the Bible contains errors.

Meekhof said he would be quicker to dismiss the Korean congregation as a group of malcontents if the presbytery were not particularly concerned about losing its tie with America’s oldest existing Korean church.

“A great deal of love has been given to them,” he said, “because we’ve held that church in such honor.”

Workers From Hawaii

The church was founded by former sugar cane workers from Hawaii, who were among the first Koreans to settle here at the turn of the century. Church officials said the congregation has been home to more than 1 million worshipers during its 82-year history, and has had a hand in forming dozens of congregations in the United States and in Korea.

For several years, its sanctuary and Sunday school classrooms doubled as office space for Korean consulate officials. And during 36 years of Korea’s occupation by Japan before World War II, the church was a gathering place for expatriate leaders of the Korean independence movement, including the first president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, officials said.

Now, the long history has been overshadowed by bickering.

Replacement Feared

The 66-year-old Woo, who has been at the church for 18 years, said he believes the presbytery has a plan to replace him with someone more loyal to the governing organization.

Last spring, a presbytery-appointed commission recommended that Woo be allowed to stay on. But now, Meekhof said, the presbytery wants Woo out--out of the organization, out of the ministry and out of the church’s building.

The change came last summer when Woo denounced the presbytery and declared himself independent of the denomination, Meekhof said.

“The day before Rev. Woo announced he is leaving the presbytery, he came to my office and begged forgiveness,” Meekhof said.

“He said he would withdraw the lawsuit and then asked for a prayer. We had prayer together and I told him I supported him in his suffering. We parted and he said that I was his best friend. The next morning I got a call from his assistant, saying that he changed his mind.”

Compromise Sought

Woo said he did not apologize and simply asked for a compromise on the property issue. Woo maintains that he and the church elders were duped because they didn’t understand English.

“When I told Rev. Woo the title to the church had been grant-deeded to the presbytery,” said Edward Masry, attorney for the Korean church, “he didn’t have any idea of what I was talking about. I don’t want to offend the man, but he knew about real estate law about as much as the man in the moon.”

Speaking in Korean, Woo agreed with Masry’s translated comments. Woo said that while his English proficiency is the best of the current church board members, there were often discussions in presbytery meetings he couldn’t comprehend.

Meekhof, however, said all the leaders of the church were completely bilingual.

“I really think what they have is a trumped-up case,” Meekhof said. “For them to emphasize it (as) an immigrant church that has language problems after 80 years in America seems a little bit strange.”

Former church elder Se Jin Moon, who sides with the presbytery, said Woo knows he is on his way out of the presbytery and is trying to keep the congregation in tow to guarantee he will have people to preach to after he leaves. Moon claims the minister has forsaken decades of association because he is afraid of joining the large ranks of unemployed Korean ministers.

No court date has been set.