Negotiated or Negotiating Spaces Korean Churches in Flushing, Queens of New York City

Abstract

Negotiated or Negotiating Spaces: Korean Churches in Flushing, Queens of New York City Keun‐joo Christine Pae Introduction Just as Robert Orsi describes that the influx of the post‐1965 immigrants has brought cultural, religious, and demographic changes in Bronx (Orsi 1999),1 so Queens has experienced the drastic changes since 1965. Flushing, the largest urban center in Queens, is well known for its Asian immigrant communities formed by Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Pakistanis, and so on. Every day the New York City Metro 7 Line—“Oriental Express” by its nickname—carries thousands of people in and out of Flushing, the microcosm of the world diversity. As one steps out of the Main Street station, s/he faces the largest Chinatown in the East coast and encounters the non‐English‐speaking crowd on the bustled and whistled streets. The historic St. George’s Episcopal Church neighbors a modern Sheraton Hotel surrounded by Chinese restaurants, clothing stores, groceries, and convenient stores. Downtown Flushing, where Main Street, Roosevelt Avenue, College Point Boulevard, 38th, and 39th street intersect with each other, is filled with tall buildings for office spaces, shopping malls, and apartment complexes. Flushing shares similar urban characteristics with other major cities in the world—transportation, density, diversity, new construction projects, economic injustice, as well as limited spaces for housing, for offices, and for parking to name only a few. The influx of a large immigrant population has accelerated urban development which results in the shortage of residential spaces and in increasing real estate prices. Then, how do religious institutions in Flushing understand and cope with the economic changes in Flushing? More specifically, when ethnically, racially, culturally, and religiously diverse groups of people negotiate with each other for their own worship, communal, and cultural spaces, what roles do religious institutions play in creating and maintaining these spaces when facing the steep prices in the real estate market? And how do these institutions understand their physical spaces? Focusing on Korean Christian communities in Flushing through the ecological frame, this paper contemplates religious organizations’ spaces in Flushing. Particularly, how has Flushing’s urban development affected Korean churches’ understandings of religiously and culturally secured spaces? By the same token, how have the expansion and development of the Korean community and Korean churches affected urban spaces? From the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2008, the Ecologies of Learning Project directed by the late Dr. Lowell Livezey had researched the ecology of the Korean churches in Flushing: mutual influences between the Korean religious institutions and the urban setting. Needless to say, Korean churches have played a pivotal role in constructing the Korean community in Flushing. The history of Flushing’s Koreatown is often equated with that of Korean churches in Greater Flushing. Using a qualitative ethnographic research method, this paper explores the relationships between the urban spaces and the Korean churches. As I mentioned above, these relationships will be analyzed through the ecological frame. The research included interviews with Korean pastors, lay leaders, and local residents (both Koreans and non‐Koreans) and participant observation of worship and community services. Although the Ecologies of Learning (EOL) research widely contacted Korean churches in Flushing, this paper primarily focuses on two congregations: Q Catholic Church and F United Methodist Church (UMC). In spite of the growing number of research projects focusing on ethnic Korean churches in the United States, most scholarly work are focuses on theological issues, identity politics, and cultural locations of these churches rather than addressing regional differences among Korean churches. The relationship between urbanization, especially the changes in the urban real estate market, and Korean Christian institutions is a generally neglected area. I hope this paper will contribute to the future scholarly research about Korean churches, one of the most vital elements of our contemporary U.S. religiosity. Community profile: formation of Flushing Just as many immigrants have found their new homes in Flushing, so their faith organizations—Christian churches, Buddhist temples, Hindu temples, Mosques, and Sikh Temples—have grown up over three decades. Just as newcomers in Flushing struggle to adjust with their diverse neighbors within limited spaces, their religious institutions have attempted to find their locations in vitally changing Flushing. Perhaps it is not...