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Tongsung Kido
by Major Young Sung
Kim
Territorial Ambassador for Holiness
The Salvation Army USA Eastern Territory
Tongsung Kido, which literally means
“praying together out loud,” is
an important part of prayer life
that the Korean
Christians
have cultivated in their practice
of faith. Tongsung kido is a significant
and almost universal spiritual practice that has been a
distinctive way of experiencing the Spirit filled prayer life
among Korean Christians. As a unique form of prayer, it is
used both in public and private settings of prayer
intentionally. Whether practiced in a setting of personal
prayer or in public worship,
tongsung kido is
offered in a loud voice.
Tongsung kido has value as an example of a fervent, persistent and
earnest way of crying out to God. It is
a prayer experience of completely liberating oneself to God in total surrender,
and in unflinching desperation
giving to God anything and everything that can be expressed to
Him.
The
person praying is freed from any awareness of his surrounding
and relinquishes his
sufferings and joys to God, who hears his voice.
The purpose of tongsung
kido can be crystallized in two functions: First, as
tongsung kido is
defined as a passionate form of individual and communal prayer
of lament, tongsung kido
functions as a practice of confession of one’s sins and an
assurance that sins are forgiven. Second, as
tongsung kido has a
biblical character of a visceral struggle with God,
tongsung kido embodies a radical channel for transforming one’s
prayer life into the life of a new creature requiring the
discipline of the body as well as the mind.
The spiritual and cultural reference of
tongsung kido is
anchored to the idea of
Han, which
is
unique to the experience of Korean
people;
in particular in a socio-historical context, including the experiences of
Japanese colonization (1909-1945), the Korean war (1950-1953),
the
institutionalized oppression caused by the military
dictatorship (1961-1992) in the
history of Korea.
In a special way, Han is significant in relation to the
suffering experience of
Korean
women who are economically oppressed, politically
repressed, and socio-culturally victimized under the "age-old
Confucian system of ethics, which inculcates male domination."
Andrew S. Park defines
Han as "frustrated hope, the collapsed feeling of pain,
letting go, resentful bitterness, and the wounded heart"
(Andrew S. Park, The
Wounded Heart of God, 1993, 15-30.).
James H. Cone attempts to compare
Han
with the concept of
blues.
For him, the experience of
Han as "the crystallization of suffering and unresolved
feelings owing to injustice" might be compared to the
blues in the U. S.
Afro-American experience (The
Commission on Theological Concerns of the Christian Conference
of Asia,
ed. ‘Minjung’ Theology: People as the Subjects of History , 1981,
xi.).
There is no one way to practice
tongsung kido, but
there are certain patterns one can observe. Individual
tongsung kido may take place in a private place or in a church
sanctuary when no one is around in order to allow oneself to
be immersed into fervent prayer with a loud cry to God. As a
public collective prayer,
tongsung kido might
be practiced in various places such as in early Morning prayer
meeting, regular Sunday worship service, revival meetings, and
group prayer meetings. During worship, usually at the time of
special prayer request, the minister or the worship leader
will call the congregation to pray in unison. The whole
congregation joins together to pray aloud individually but
spontaneously at the same time in unison. Some time, in the
beginning of prayer the congregation may shout,
"Lord! Lord! Lord!" in unison as a corporative sign of
engaging the prayer warfare.
Usually the congregation is given
a specific time period, with a
common
theme of petition or supplication.
Some Biblical References on
Tongsung Kido:
* Tongsung kido as a
lament:
Isaiah 29:13-14
Jeremiah 33:3
Lamentation
2:11-12
Joel 2:12
Rachel’s cry – Jeremiah
31:15; Matthew 2:18
*Tongsung
kido as a passionate faith practice:
The Israelites’ experience of
the Exodus - Exodus 2:23b-25
Jesus’s example – Luke 22:44
*Tongsung
kido as a unique form of fervent prayer:
Jacob’s wrestling with Angel
– Genesis 32:22-32
Acts 4:23-24
James 5:13-15, 17a, 18a
References:
Chapter 4, “Fervent Prayer: The Practice of Praying Together”
in Sing the Lord’s Song in a New Land: Korean American Practices of Faith.
Eds. Pak, Su Yon, Kim Jung Ha and Cho, Myung Ji. Westminster
John Knox Press, 2005, pp. 35-44.
Kevin Park, “Tongsung
Kido (Unison Prayer) in
Hungry Hearts: Solemn
Assemblies, Special Edition, Vol. 17, No. 5, 2008.
John
Wesley’s emphasis on prayer, especially in his book,
A Plain Account of Christian
Perfection.
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