Sang Chul Lee (February 29, 1924 – January 28, 2017) was the 32nd

Moderator of the United Church of Canada The Moderator of the United Church of Canada is the most senior elected official within the United Church of Canada. He or she may be a lay person or a member of the clergy, Order of Ministry and is elected to a three-year term by commissioners ...

and the first person of Asian descent to hold the position. He was elected by the 32nd General Council of the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (UCC; ) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholic Church in Canada. The United Chu ...

at their meeting in

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. He was married and had three daughters.

Early life

Lee was born in 1924 to

Korean immigrant The Korean diaspora consists of around 7.3 million people, both descendants of early emigrants from the Korean Peninsula, as well as more recent emigrants from Korea. Around 84.5% of overseas Koreans live in just five countries: the United Stat ...

parents in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

during the reign of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

. At the age of seven, his family moved to Japanese-occupied

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

, where he attended a mission high school operated by Canadian missionaries, and against the wishes of his parents - who were devout

Shamans Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of th ...

- he converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Lee moved to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. Lee saw Christianity as a way to cope with the brutality he had experienced in both Manchuria and Korea and was particularly interested in the Exodus story of Moses and the Israelites. He received theological education in South Korea, Switzerland and Canada. The

had inherited overseas missions in Asia from their founding denominations, who established the Korean mission in 1893. The United Church maintained this mission after church union in 1925 and it blossomed into a vital and growing community of faith. This was how Lee became exposed to Christianity and he was ordained as a minister of the United Church of Canada in 1954, remaining in South Korea to serve their overseas mission there.

Life in Canada

Lee accepted a call to a Japanese congregation in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

and immigrated to Canada with his family in 1965. This was a largely immigrant congregation and Lee's ministry made a point of creating a community of faith for new Asian immigrants to Canada. It was during this time that Canadian immigration policies were changing and it was becoming easier for Asians to both immigrate to and remain in Canada as landed immigrants. It was for this reason that Lee himself settled in Canada and was able to strengthen the United Church's ministry to new immigrants. After serving in Vancouver for four years, in 1969, Lee moved to Toronto and began with his own Korean congregation. There, he served for twenty years. As Moderator, Lee spoke on issues such as the ordination of homosexual persons, racial equality, indigenous and other human rights issues. He also continued to work to build bridges between the church and the Korean and other immigrant communities in Canada. The marriage of his daughter, which Lee himself performed, was the first inter-racial marriage performed in the United Church of Canada and opened the door to the acceptance of inter-racial marriages in the Canadian Christian community. In 1989, Lee was named Rainbow Chief of the All Native Circle Conference. He said the United Church had a special role in the world. “The religious community is the one constantly supplying dreams and visions and hopes, not despair and destruction,” he once said. “Sometimes our dreams are so small. God’s dream is so much larger than ours.” After his term as Moderator was finished, Lee went on to become the Chancellor of Victoria College at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, holding that position from 1992 until 1998.

Death and legacy

Lee died at his home in

Newmarket, Ontario Newmarket (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population: 87,942) is a town and regional seat of the Regional Municipality of York in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It is part of Greater Toronto Area, Greater Toron ...

on January 28, 2017, at the age of 92. Upon news of his death, the current Moderator at the time, Right Reverend Jordan Cantwell said, "He provided leadership for the church in a time of great division and nastiness in the church. I remember someone telling me that when he was asked how he felt about leading the church through such a fraught time, he responded that he had lived through occupations, revolutions, and brushes with death, so he thought he could handle some church controversy.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Sang Chul 1924 births 2017 deaths Canadian people of Korean descent Moderators of the United Church of Canada Korean emigrants to Canada Chancellors of the University of Toronto Ministers of the United Church of Canada Members of the United Church of Canada People from Siberia Soviet emigrants Immigrants to South Korea Soviet expatriates in China Soviet people of Korean descent Koryo-saram people