Members and visitors to First Korean United Methodist Church in Wheeling display signs of love at the close of the service celebrating the church’s 100th anniversary of ministry.

First Korean United Methodist Church in Wheeling celebrated 100 years of ministry on Oct. 4, and Korean-American United Methodists from around the nation were on hand to celebrate with them.

The celebration fell during the special session of the National Association of the Korean American United Methodists, held Oct. 2-5 in Northbrook. A number of the association members attended the service.

The church’s pastors are Rev. Sun Hyung Jo and Rev. Juyeon Jeon.

Bishop Dan Schwerin, speaking at the service, recalled some of the significant moments in the church’s founding.

“We are so grateful for your history and the legacy tied to your founding in 1923 by one of the signers of the nonviolent declaration of Korean Independence document during the Japanese occupation in 1919,” he said.

“We are blessed by your mission from the beginning: raising funds at the start to support the Korean Independence movement, up to your recent support of the school building to support our missionary in Tanzania, Rev. Christina Kim.”

Bishop Schwerin also called on the church to help lead the conference in birthing a renewed United Methodist Church.

“I believe a new United Methodist Church wishes to be born among us,” the bishop said. “In a pastoral letter to Dorothy Furley in 1742, John Wesley wrote, ‘I want you to be all love. That is the perfection I believe and teach.’ Help us, help our conference, help the kingdom of God, help our connexion [the 18th century spelling] to be ‘all love’ people.”