Hae-Jong Kim

Hae-Jong Kim (1935–2020) was a Korean American United Methodist pastor, church planter, bishop, writer, artist, and translator. Born in Korea in 1935, he became a Christian during the Korean War while still a teenager. Working with a United States Marine Corps chaplain as an interpreter, he translated sermons for Korean audiences and decided to enter Christian ministry. He studied at Methodist Theological Seminary in Seoul and moved to the United States in 1961, earning the Master of Divinity degree from Methodist Theological School in Ohio in 1964.

Kim began pastoral ministry in the North New Jersey Conference and became a pioneer in Korean immigrant United Methodism. United Methodist News reports that he planted the first Korean church in New Jersey and helped establish or support numerous other Korean congregations. He became the first Korean district superintendent in the conference in 1984 and, in 1992, was elected the first Korean American bishop of The United Methodist Church. He served episcopal areas in New York and western Pennsylvania and remained active in ministry after leaving the episcopacy.

Alongside preaching and administration, Kim wrote, painted, photographed, and worked with hymn texts. His translations helped English-speaking congregations encounter Korean Christian song. An earlier English translation of Ok In Lim’s harvest hymn appeared in Hymns from the Four Winds in 1983. Kim prepared a new translation in 1988 for The United Methodist Hymnal, which Hope Omachi-Kawashima then versified for congregational singing. Kim died in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on November 3, 2020.