Expanding Community
06-01-2022
When the pandemic redrew the boundaries for where and how churches would gather, Rev. Angela Ryo broadened her definition of community to include people from all parts of the world. She also decided to give back to McCormick for its role in preparing her to face the challenges of a global crisis.
A core part of Rev. Angela Ryo’s role at Kirk in the Hills Church was helping people experience the transformative love of God. Having joined the staff of this Presbyterian congregation in a Detroit suburb in 2017, Rev. Ryo felt that she was coming into her stride when the pandemic hit.
“We had been reimagining ministry…we were excited about the future,” recalls Rev. Ryo, M.Div.’13, who was called last month to serve as the transitional senior pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Munster, Indiana. “Then we were suddenly challenged to think about ‘church’ when people couldn’t physically gather…what does that mean... how do we embody our values?”
One shift occurred, notes Rev. Ryo, when the church moved from thinking in terms of how many people were in the building to how meaningful they could make the gospel message for a wider audience. “We were now worshiping with believers around the world because of online streaming,” says Rev. Ryo. “We were receiving comments from faith traditions in Europe, Africa, and Asia. It was still a time to be very excited about the future of the church.”
Rev. Ryo believes her McCormick experience helped her pivot to the new challenges the global health crisis presented. It’s one of the reasons she signed up to make a recurring gift to McCormick. “I believe in giving back to the places that shaped and formed me,” says Rev. Ryo, who taught at the high school she graduated from and served as a youth leader at the church where she grew up. Giving, for her, is a practice of gratitude.
As a McCormick student, Rev. Ryo remembers being eager to participate in student leadership and to create spaces for discussing what it means to be a church. The pandemic, as well as the nation’s rising social and racial unrest, were opportunities she saw to bring new discussions to the forefront.
“Step one is awareness,” Rev. Ryo says. “As a Korean-American woman in a predominantly white church located near a majority Black city, I can use personal stories about being an immigrant to raise awareness of the need for inclusion and the end of injustice.”
Stories from biblical texts also expose the need to embrace people who are deemed different, she remarks. “The exodus story, the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Syrophoenician woman asking for the healing of her daughter are just a few stories that require us to ask, ‘How do we treasure the dignity of all people?’” she says. “Ministry that is God-centered and inclusive continually reimagines what it’s doing so that it can create more opportunities to touch lives in new ways.”
Rev. Angela Ryo
“Ministry that is God-centered and inclusive continually reimagines what it’s doing so that it can create more opportunities to touch lives in new ways.” Rev. Angela Ryo