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Home | News > Fellowship Of Asian Americans Greeted New Year

Fellowship Of Asian Americans Greeted New Year

02/18/2011
By: Nancy L. Vidad

2011 gathering
On Saturday, January 15, 2011, the Fellowship of Asian Americans celebrated their unique identities at   a recent gathering.  Cosmopolitan United Church in Melrose Park, IL and their pastor, Rev. Kye Hong, hosted the annual celebration.  The purpose of the gathering was to foster relationships, fellowship and camaraderie among the various Asian American communities in the Northern Illinois District.  Martin Lee, Director of Congregational Development and Redevelopment, was one of the 65 guests that feasted on various cuisines provided by each Asian American community, such as: spicy noodles, chicken tandoori and, of course, rice. 

After dinner, the crowd gathered at Cosmopolitan’s sanctuary to watch as each Asian American community took turns to exhibit a cultural presentation.  The Indo-Pak community set the joyful tone of the night with their upbeat musical numbers.  Those in their seats were invited to join their singing after being cued as to when to shout out the new Hindi words that were taught.   The Korean community shared their culture, history and accomplishments through a video presentation, followed by a humorous act of “The Mask Dance.”  There are rumors that Rev. Kye Hong was the person flailing his arms wildly under the mask, but he will probably deny those rumors.  The last to exhibit a cultural presentation was the Filipino community.  The youth group from Elston Avenue UMC, called MYX (which stands for Methodist Youth for Christ), performed an interpretive dance after leading the congregation in singing “Alive, Alive Forever More” in Filipino.  St. John’s UMC then performed the “Malong Dance.”  Malong is a long shawl, sewn together at its ends, and the dancers showed various ways it can be used, such as: a dress, a skirt, a shawl, a mantle and a headpiece.

After the cultural presentations, there was a worship service that celebrated the uniqueness of each Asian American community by having each community read the scripture passage in their own language.  The night was a success in terms of establishing interdependence among the Asian American community and strengthening a distinguished community of faith.  Rev. Ernest Singh of West Ridge UMC would like to express his thanks for the officers of FAA for all their hard work that made the gathering a huge success, namely:  Pastors Noah Panlilio, Reuel Talapian, Kye Hong, and Nancy Vidad.

Indo-Pak Worship Musicians
The Indo-Pak Community leads the congregation in upbeat musical numbers.  Note our President, Rev. Ernest Singh, on the floor banging the drums.  

  Koran Mask Dance -
Who was that masked man?
Korean Mask DancerSt. Johns UMC - The Malong Dance
Molong Dance