THE KUKMIN DAILY

Rev. Moon Ik-hwan (1918~1994, photo) was an Old Testament authority, the pastor of Seoul Hanbit Church, and a Bible translation committee chief who emerged as a heroic activist for democracy and reunification, but he also was a poet. Rev. Moon, a friend of poet Yun Dong-ju, left behind such aphorisms as “To become one is to grow bigger.”

On July 7, at Seongsu Art Hall in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, the Moon Ik-hwan 100th Birth Anniversary Commemorative Committee, the Seongdong Foundation for Arts and Culture, Sakyejul (four seasons) Publishing Ltd. and others joined to hold a peace concert titled “Two palms together are warm.” Sakyejul recently published a book of Rev. Moon’s poems under the same title.

Singer Ahn Chi-hwan recalled, “The last time I saw Rev. Moon was at a street funeral in Shinchon in the summer of 1987, and he was not giving a speech, but was crying and shouting. He was calling out heroes’ names, one by one, as he wept.” This was the story of Moon’s speech at Lee Han-yeol’s funeral ceremony, depicted in the last scene of the movie “1987.”

Rev. Moon was born in 1918, half a year later than Yun Dong-ju, in Myeongdong-chon, Bukgan-do, Manchuria. Following graduation from Hanshin University, he studied at Princeton Theological Seminary in the U.S. During the Korean War he was a member of the UN troops, and became an interpreter for the ceasefire talks at Panmunjom. From 1955 he was a professor at Hanshin University and the pastor of Hanbit Church. He also worked as the chief of a Bible translating committee, starting in 1968. When he was 58, his friend Chang Jun-ha, publisher of the journal Sasanggye, died under suspicious circumstances, the incident that led Moon to participate in the 1976 “March First Declaration of Democracy to Save Korea” and to enter all-out struggle against the dictatorship. After that he was imprisoned six times, spending a total of 11 years and three months behind bars.

The general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK) has designated four persons born in 1918; Moon Ik-hwan, Chang Jun-ha, Rev. Suh Nam-dong and Rev. Park Bong-rang, as “PROK faith legacies,” noting in retrospect that “These elders’ confessions of faith were powers that made the church healthy and made the world change.”

Reporter Woo Sungkyu (mainport@kmib.co.kr), with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)


Original Article in Korean:
문익환, 그를 목 놓아 다시 부르다: 기념사업회·성동문화재단 등 탄생 100주년 맞아 평화콘서트 열어