St Luke’s recently welcomed a Rector from the other side of the world. The Rev’d Fr Francis Cho, Rector of the St Patrick's Centre in Geumsan, South Korea, arrived in Tiptree in November on a fact-finding mission to learn more about the Church of England and its work at parish level. He was quizzed by Rev’d Martin Fletcher, during the Communion service about life in Korea and how the Anglican faith was growing within the three dioceses in the Asian country. "We only have seven regular people in our congregation, but across the country the work that the Anglican church does is great,” said Rev’d Fr Cho. “One of the main projects we are involved in is the St Patrick's Centre, which provides a day care programme for the mental health patients in the Geumsan area.” He said they needed to raise £53,000 to buy land to build a day care centre." We desperately yearn for more space with better care facilities for increasing numbers of mentally-challenged people." The Anglican church in South Korea is tiny. With just 30,000 members across the whole country, it is over-shadowed by the Presbyterian churches - one, in Seoul, claims to have a membership of 750,000 alone. Rev’d Fletcher, who was born in Korea, is currently a committee member of the Korean Mission Partnership, which seeks to promote mutual support between the Church of England and the Anglicans in South Korea.
Below are links with news from Francis Cho and details of the St Patrick’s Centre
