Rev. Sungmin Jung, minister at St. John’s United in Alliston, Ont., has been nominated to be the next moderator of The United Church of Canada.
Nominated by Western Ontario Waterways Regional Council, Jung says that as moderator, he would “lead the church into deep spirituality.”
Jung felt the call to ministry from a young age, declaring on the last day of first grade that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. After studying theology in Seoul, South Korea, Jung came to Canada to study at the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax. After he was ordained by Maritime Conference in 1999, he was settled at a four-point pastoral charge in Wesleyville, N.L. for three years. He then served at Hartland-Jacksonville Pastoral Charge in New Brunswick for 10 years before joining Immanuel Toronto Korean United, which amalgamated with Willowdale Emmanuel United during his five-year tenure.
Jung is a four-time General Council commissioner and was a member of the General Council Executive from 2013-2018. He has also been a member of the Toronto Conference Executive, the United Church Board of Vocation and the United Church Observer, now Broadview, board of directors. He has been at St. John’s United since 2017.
The United Church “is one of the most beautiful churches in the world,” Jung says. “But at the same time, one of the most declining denominations – so what’s wrong?”
Jung believes that the church has “taken significant steps in bold discipleship and daring justice” in the last 100 years, but in this era of “Trump 2.0,” its spiritual leader must concentrate on deep spirituality.
More moderator nominees:
- Kimberly Heath wants to be the United Church’s next moderator
- Samuel Dansokho is hoping to be the United Church’s next moderator
- Cheri DiNovo nominated for United Church moderator
- John Pentland throws his hat in the ring for United Church moderator
“My invitation is we have to be back to go back to the Bible,” he says, and reread it through an allegorical lens, rather than a historic, miraculous or literal one to reveal deeper meaning. Jung has written two books exploring this idea: Reread the Bible with a New Eye, published in Korean in 2018 and Finding Christ in You – the Hope of Glory: Re-reading the Bible in an Allegorical Way in 2023.
“If we read that way, we can approach young people with scientific and academic minds,” he says.
He is currently working on a new book, Finding Christ in Heroes and Heroines of the Hebrew Bible, which is expected to be published in July.
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Leslie Sinclair is a freelance journalist in Toronto.
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