Global Mission Center dedicated to Christian education champion
Left, Anna and Haesun Rhee, and President Brian and Sharon Blount stand with a new portrait of Syngman Rhee outside the newly dedicated center in Richmond Hall that bears the late Christian educator’s name.
Dr. Haesun Rhee paused as she lifted the black fabric draped over the portrait of her late husband, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Mission and Evangelism Syngman Rhee.
That brief pause seemed to hold within its span the enormous significance of a day that was long in the making, as Union Presbyterian Seminary presidents, faculty, staff, students, alumni, trustees, and donors, gathered on the Richmond campus with Rhee’s family to dedicate the new Syngman Rhee Global Mission Center for Christian Education.
The joyful ceremony, which took place in front of 200 people in the newly renovated Richmond Hall, celebrated both the launch of the center and the man for whom it is named.
“It’s perfect that we name a center for teaching that invites students from around the globe to participate in the study of Christian education,” said President Brian K. Blount. “It’s perfect that we name such a place after Syngman because he represented all of that in his work while he was here with us.”
The center will recruit 10 students per year, particularly from developing countries, to pursue a global Master of Arts in Christian Education and live in Richmond Hall. It will also seek students who wish to study for a briefer time to do continuing education, work with faculty and use the library; and students who would visit with faculty to conduct research. Also, the Global Mission Center in Seoul, South Korea, will send students on a short-term basis to use the seminary’s resources.
A search is now underway for a director of the center who will have responsibilities in teaching and advising in the master’s level programs in Richmond and the Blended Learning Program’s Master of Arts in Christian Education program; developing and administering programming of the center; and strengthening the seminary’s existing global relationships in Ghana, South Korea, China, India, Central America, and Egypt, as well as building new relationships.
President Emeritus Louis B. Weeks shares memories of Syngman Rhee at the dedication ceremony.
During Rhee’s ministry, he adopted the turtle as an animal whose characteristics set an example in the pursuit of social justice. A turtle, though small, has both a shell which can protect it from storms and a neck, which needs to be stuck out from time to time. Though slow, it can make its way toward the goal step-by-step. Louis B. Weeks, who was president when the Rhee’s established the Asian American Center for Ministry and Mission in 1997, noted that “It seems strange that Syngman chose the turtle. I never once saw him tuck his head back in shell.” It was mentioned more than once during the dedication that Syngman had an indefatigable spirit. Weeks added, “he moved like crazy!”
The Rhees collected over 1000 turtles in their life together. Upon Rhee’s passing, the turtles were shared with colleagues as an encouragement to remain faithful in the fight for equality, reconciliation, and human rights.
Guests who attended the dedication received a white box which included a green ceramic turtle. Inside the lid of the box was a poem written by Rhee himself called “Like A Turtle.” The closing line sums up the life of a man who made his journey from North Korea to the United States, who would become moderator of the PC(USA); a man who would become a professor and shepherd to hundreds of young people here in the United States and around the globe: “I will walk like a turtle, a walk of victory, patience, and faith.”
“I think his spirit of genuine care for people will be very much alive here,” said Anna Rhee, who recalled that her father dedicated Friday afternoons to playing ping pong in Richmond Hall. “He was a pretty good ping pong player. You could not schedule anything on Fridays during ping pong hour because there was always a match to be had.”
