Wahroonga Friends Bulletin - 26 November 2025
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Wahroonga Friends Bulletin - 26 November 2025
A Day With Korean Quaker
Leader Bongsoo Kwag
David Mowat toured South Korea in August, making friends across the country. He shares with us his interview with Korean Quaker leader Bongsoo Kwag.Above Bongsoo (right) with Paolo, the drummer in David’s band. A cable car takes us to the opposite bank of the Imjin River across emerald paddy fields to eerily peaceful – and mined – vistas where once the cold war's bloodiest conflict had reigned.
Quakerism has had a strong presence in Korea since the war, with the message of peace and reconciliation finding fertile ground on the divided peninsula. “There are ten members of Seoul Meeting. So, we can't be active on reconciliation work as we don't have the same resources as in the UK."
This is Bongsoo Kwag, explaining to me the challenges of re-establishing Seoul Meeting in 1997, after he returned from studying Quakerism at Woodbrooke and Bradford.
“I think that they didn't have the foundation in Quakerism that I had in the UK; if you don't have that base Quakerism becomes distorted. Some people don't like this harking back to how British Quakers do things; they see me as too dominant! And they're older and in Korean society which traditionally is hierarchical it's hard to take leadership from a younger person. Or they complain that they have to work and have no time. Korea is a very hard-working society without the concept of giving service to the meeting."
Although Seoul Meeting is small, it is very engaged in nonviolent witness:
“We held loud demos at Gangjeon Village on Jeju island. This lasted many years. We delivered peace education to the activists there protesting the forty thousand US troops expansion at the naval base. I was clerk to Seoul monthly meeting at the time. We created a Quaker base from a container! I was trained in AVP (Alternatives to Violence Project) already at high school. But it's hard in this machismo culture. Men laugh at me. 'You've got to be strong' they believe. The problem is they kill their mentality [their soul] in this way. I believe I've kept in touch with my softer side and people remark that I'm young in spirit."
The Situation Today
Bongsoo is an enthusiastic businessman and philosopher. Today he's my guide to the post-Korean War Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). We're driving north from Seoul along 'Freedom Road'. The massive Han river is on the left, futuristic skyscrapers on the right. It's another hot humid day. The sound of cicadas dominates each time we step out of the car. Billowing cumulus alternate with sharp blue and the distant skyline is full of verdant mountain tops.
“You are seeing the miracle of the Hangang River. Just after the war we were nothing," he explains. Holding his belly he says, “Koreans are accessing their spirit of 'Han' to become strong again." Check out this beautiful article explaining the meaning of Han.
Topics jump around. Bongsoo is preoccupied by organising the next Asia and West Pacific Central Executive Committee Section gathering in Seoul due in October. So much seems to fall on his shoulders and he's far from retiring from his cosmetics business.
He points out his old school amidst the concrete giants, Osan High, also attended by his mentor, the famous Quaker known as the 'Korean Gandhi' Ham Sok-Hon.
“After the Korean war and the Quaker relief effort a young guy, impressed by these Quakers, set up Seoul Meeting in 1961. At the time Ham Sok-Hon was very influential. He came to believe that Christianity was too narrow and became a Quaker. His was a very nonviolent deeply thoughtful way to social change. He frequently got in trouble with the authorities. He never belonged to any political group and was nominated twice for the Nobel peace prize.
“He was influential in the 1960 April revolution and 1980 Gwangju Uprising" – two important movements against authoritarian rule in South Korea. “Some people became conscientious objectors after hearing him. I was a Buddhist at the time and after three years in his company I became a Quaker. He taught ancient classics like Lao Tzu. He died in 1989."
The DMZ and hope for the future
As a businessman Bongsoo is doing his bit for reunification, as he employed women from North Korea through the Kaesong special industrial zone – a cross-border project quashed by the US in 2016.
There's mounting excitement as we approach the DMZ. Our talk is of the impeaching of the South Korean president last December.
“Koreans put their corrupt politicians in jail. My friend is a Greek businessman and tells me 'We never put our presidents in jail, but you do. So, you see Korea can change'."
At the DMZ we find a rusting steam engine marking the end of a bombed bridge. A cable car takes us to the opposite bank of the Imjin River across emerald paddy fields to eerily peaceful – and mined – vistas where once the cold war's bloodiest conflict had reigned. Near here was the 1951 Imjin River Battle between the UN's 'Glorious Gloucesters' and Chinese communist forces.
These still-visible legacies of war are a reminder of the vital importance of Quaker values of nonviolence and reconciliation. A day with Korean Quaker leader Bongsoo Kwag
Hear - Finding Silence in Post-Twitter LifeShould Quakers still be on social media? In this bonus episode, author and professor Wess Daniels talks about why he left Facebook and Twitter, and how he’s encouraging his students to take a step back from the algorithm to explore an age-old Quaker practice: silence. Hear it here https://quakerpodcast.com/finding-silence-in-post-twitter-life/
Friend Wins Appeal Against Deportation
‘He is demonstrably a credit to humanity.’
.
The Quaker climate activist Marcus Decker has won his appeal against deportation from the UK. The Tottenham Friend faced deportation to his native Germany after being sentenced to more than two years in prison for scaling the Dartford Crossing in 2022 as part of a Just Stop Oil protest. He also climbed 200 feet up the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, unfurling a banner and causing major disruption.
Quakers rallied to support Marcus Decker at an immigration tribunal on 10 November, where barristers from Matrix Chambers argued that he had acted out of conscience. The TV presenter Chris Packham also joined a Meeting for Worship outside the Islington hearing, in solidarity with the activist.
Gabriel Firth, from Winchmore Hill Meeting, told the Friend: ‘It was a very moving event [with] about seventy to eighty people in the Friends’ circle [and] Meeting for Worship, and thirty to forty others also quietly present to support. We saw Marcus arrive, and he turned and gave a big smile and a wave.’
Paul Parker, recording clerk for Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), said: ‘We are facing an existential threat thanks to the climate crisis. Marcus Decker served a draconian prison sentence for bearing witness to that threat. That that sentence was then used to suggest his presence here was not conducive to the public good, when he is demonstrably a credit to humanity, sets a dangerous precedent.’ BYM said that the Home Office is expected to challenge the ruling once formal legal explanations are issued later this month. Friend wins appeal against deportation | The Friend
Buy the Earthcare Game for Just $50
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22 SEPTEMBER 2025 - 22 NOVEMBER 2025
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December QBC - Jesus of the EastThe December QBC (Quaker Book Club) selection is Jesus of the East: Reclaiming the Gospel for the Wounded
Much of Western Christianity has subdued the narrative of Jesus as a Palestinian Jewish healer and liberator who served the sick and oppressed. But the Jesus of the Gospels is a revolutionary who stands with the sinned against, the wounded, and the marginalized. In Jesus of the East, author Phuc Luu re-narrates the life of Jesus to show how he made it his work to topple systems that privileged the few and disregarded the many, especially the poor and lowest.
In this provocative book, Luu offers a counter-narrative to Western Christianity, which for centuries has legitimized colonization and violence to prop up the powerful at the expense of the masses. Pulling from the tradition of the early Eastern church, the present work of theologians of the oppressed, and Luu’s own experiences as a Vietnamese immigrant, Jesus of the East offers a transformative vision of healing for the world. Obtain a copy here https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Jesus-of-the-East-by-Phuc-Luu/9781513806716
e - Wahroonga Send news of f/Friends and newsletter items to quiver...@yahoo.com.au Agenda items for Business Meeting should be emailed at wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info or handed to a co-clerk. Visit us at "Our Home" First days (Sunday), 9.30 am Meeting for Worship - Wahroonga Friends Meeting, your local peace church. Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) 59 Boundary Road Wahroonga NSW 2076 Email:wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info Web: Wahroonga Local Meeting | Australia Yearly Meeting A Zoom meeting occurs 9.30 am Sundays Meeting link Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting 918 558 7747 Passcode: 554662 Phone: 02 8015 6011 Please contact Paul Carter if you have any problems connecting 0433 886 093
A Day With Korean Quaker
Leader Bongsoo Kwag
David Mowat toured South Korea in August, making friends across the country. He shares with us his interview with Korean Quaker leader Bongsoo Kwag.Above Bongsoo (right) with Paolo, the drummer in David’s band. A cable car takes us to the opposite bank of the Imjin River across emerald paddy fields to eerily peaceful – and mined – vistas where once the cold war's bloodiest conflict had reigned.
Quakerism has had a strong presence in Korea since the war, with the message of peace and reconciliation finding fertile ground on the divided peninsula. “There are ten members of Seoul Meeting. So, we can't be active on reconciliation work as we don't have the same resources as in the UK."
This is Bongsoo Kwag, explaining to me the challenges of re-establishing Seoul Meeting in 1997, after he returned from studying Quakerism at Woodbrooke and Bradford.
“I think that they didn't have the foundation in Quakerism that I had in the UK; if you don't have that base Quakerism becomes distorted. Some people don't like this harking back to how British Quakers do things; they see me as too dominant! And they're older and in Korean society which traditionally is hierarchical it's hard to take leadership from a younger person. Or they complain that they have to work and have no time. Korea is a very hard-working society without the concept of giving service to the meeting."
Although Seoul Meeting is small, it is very engaged in nonviolent witness:
“We held loud demos at Gangjeon Village on Jeju island. This lasted many years. We delivered peace education to the activists there protesting the forty thousand US troops expansion at the naval base. I was clerk to Seoul monthly meeting at the time. We created a Quaker base from a container! I was trained in AVP (Alternatives to Violence Project) already at high school. But it's hard in this machismo culture. Men laugh at me. 'You've got to be strong' they believe. The problem is they kill their mentality [their soul] in this way. I believe I've kept in touch with my softer side and people remark that I'm young in spirit."
The Situation Today
Bongsoo is an enthusiastic businessman and philosopher. Today he's my guide to the post-Korean War Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). We're driving north from Seoul along 'Freedom Road'. The massive Han river is on the left, futuristic skyscrapers on the right. It's another hot humid day. The sound of cicadas dominates each time we step out of the car. Billowing cumulus alternate with sharp blue and the distant skyline is full of verdant mountain tops.
“You are seeing the miracle of the Hangang River. Just after the war we were nothing," he explains. Holding his belly he says, “Koreans are accessing their spirit of 'Han' to become strong again." Check out this beautiful article explaining the meaning of Han.
Topics jump around. Bongsoo is preoccupied by organising the next Asia and West Pacific Central Executive Committee Section gathering in Seoul due in October. So much seems to fall on his shoulders and he's far from retiring from his cosmetics business.
He points out his old school amidst the concrete giants, Osan High, also attended by his mentor, the famous Quaker known as the 'Korean Gandhi' Ham Sok-Hon.
“After the Korean war and the Quaker relief effort a young guy, impressed by these Quakers, set up Seoul Meeting in 1961. At the time Ham Sok-Hon was very influential. He came to believe that Christianity was too narrow and became a Quaker. His was a very nonviolent deeply thoughtful way to social change. He frequently got in trouble with the authorities. He never belonged to any political group and was nominated twice for the Nobel peace prize.
“He was influential in the 1960 April revolution and 1980 Gwangju Uprising" – two important movements against authoritarian rule in South Korea. “Some people became conscientious objectors after hearing him. I was a Buddhist at the time and after three years in his company I became a Quaker. He taught ancient classics like Lao Tzu. He died in 1989."
The DMZ and hope for the future
As a businessman Bongsoo is doing his bit for reunification, as he employed women from North Korea through the Kaesong special industrial zone – a cross-border project quashed by the US in 2016.
There's mounting excitement as we approach the DMZ. Our talk is of the impeaching of the South Korean president last December.
“Koreans put their corrupt politicians in jail. My friend is a Greek businessman and tells me 'We never put our presidents in jail, but you do. So, you see Korea can change'."
At the DMZ we find a rusting steam engine marking the end of a bombed bridge. A cable car takes us to the opposite bank of the Imjin River across emerald paddy fields to eerily peaceful – and mined – vistas where once the cold war's bloodiest conflict had reigned. Near here was the 1951 Imjin River Battle between the UN's 'Glorious Gloucesters' and Chinese communist forces.
These still-visible legacies of war are a reminder of the vital importance of Quaker values of nonviolence and reconciliation. A day with Korean Quaker leader Bongsoo Kwag
Hear - Finding Silence in Post-Twitter LifeShould Quakers still be on social media? In this bonus episode, author and professor Wess Daniels talks about why he left Facebook and Twitter, and how he’s encouraging his students to take a step back from the algorithm to explore an age-old Quaker practice: silence. Hear it here https://quakerpodcast.com/finding-silence-in-post-twitter-life/
Friend Wins Appeal Against Deportation
‘He is demonstrably a credit to humanity.’
.
The Quaker climate activist Marcus Decker has won his appeal against deportation from the UK. The Tottenham Friend faced deportation to his native Germany after being sentenced to more than two years in prison for scaling the Dartford Crossing in 2022 as part of a Just Stop Oil protest. He also climbed 200 feet up the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, unfurling a banner and causing major disruption.
Quakers rallied to support Marcus Decker at an immigration tribunal on 10 November, where barristers from Matrix Chambers argued that he had acted out of conscience. The TV presenter Chris Packham also joined a Meeting for Worship outside the Islington hearing, in solidarity with the activist.
Gabriel Firth, from Winchmore Hill Meeting, told the Friend: ‘It was a very moving event [with] about seventy to eighty people in the Friends’ circle [and] Meeting for Worship, and thirty to forty others also quietly present to support. We saw Marcus arrive, and he turned and gave a big smile and a wave.’
Paul Parker, recording clerk for Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), said: ‘We are facing an existential threat thanks to the climate crisis. Marcus Decker served a draconian prison sentence for bearing witness to that threat. That that sentence was then used to suggest his presence here was not conducive to the public good, when he is demonstrably a credit to humanity, sets a dangerous precedent.’ BYM said that the Home Office is expected to challenge the ruling once formal legal explanations are issued later this month. Friend wins appeal against deportation | The Friend
Buy the Earthcare Game for Just $50
For Limited Time Only Obtain Get in quick this offer is limited to 50 games at this price.
|
|
|
YOUR PROMO CODE: JAKE
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
22 SEPTEMBER 2025 - 22 NOVEMBER 2025
|
|
|
|
|
|
| BUY NOW |
|
|
|
Everything on the Site for Just $50.00
December QBC - Jesus of the EastThe December QBC (Quaker Book Club) selection is Jesus of the East: Reclaiming the Gospel for the Wounded
Much of Western Christianity has subdued the narrative of Jesus as a Palestinian Jewish healer and liberator who served the sick and oppressed. But the Jesus of the Gospels is a revolutionary who stands with the sinned against, the wounded, and the marginalized. In Jesus of the East, author Phuc Luu re-narrates the life of Jesus to show how he made it his work to topple systems that privileged the few and disregarded the many, especially the poor and lowest.
In this provocative book, Luu offers a counter-narrative to Western Christianity, which for centuries has legitimized colonization and violence to prop up the powerful at the expense of the masses. Pulling from the tradition of the early Eastern church, the present work of theologians of the oppressed, and Luu’s own experiences as a Vietnamese immigrant, Jesus of the East offers a transformative vision of healing for the world. Obtain a copy here https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Jesus-of-the-East-by-Phuc-Luu/9781513806716
e - Wahroonga Send news of f/Friends and newsletter items to quiver...@yahoo.com.au Agenda items for Business Meeting should be emailed at wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info or handed to a co-clerk. Visit us at "Our Home" First days (Sunday), 9.30 am Meeting for Worship - Wahroonga Friends Meeting, your local peace church. Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) 59 Boundary Road Wahroonga NSW 2076 Email:wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info Web: Wahroonga Local Meeting | Australia Yearly Meeting A Zoom meeting occurs 9.30 am Sundays Meeting link Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting 918 558 7747 Passcode: 554662 Phone: 02 8015 6011 Please contact Paul Carter if you have any problems connecting 0433 886 093
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