Overseas Personnel in Current Service

• Saskatchewan Conference
• Serving The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea
• July 2010 to present

Catherine Christie was born in Bedford, Nova Scotia, and attended Carleton University in Ottawa. She received a B.A. in Anthropology and married George Pell, who was preparing for the Anglican priesthood. George attended Huron College in London. Their son, Tim, was born at that time, and their daughter, Sue, during his first parish of Oxford Centre. They served in Lennoxville, Quebec, and in St. Clement's Mission, 300 miles east of Sept Isles, Quebec.

When Catherine felt called to ministry, it was back to the United Church. She graduated from the Atlantic School of Theology, and was ordained by Maritime Conference in 1988 and settled in Redcliff, Alberta. After five years in Redcliff, she served as youth and outreach minister in Lethbridge.

Catherine answered a call to Abbey-Lancer/Portreeve in Saskatchewan Conference in 1997. While there, she was deeply involved in rural ministry, helping to found the Canadian Rural Church Network, was a participant at International Rural Church Association quadrennial conferences in Chennai, India, and Brandon, Manitoba, and participated in a Council for World Mission ministry exchange in the traditional farming area of Orissa, India. While in Saskatchewan, Catherine also had the delight of watching her family grow with birth of granddaughter Becky.

As overseas personnel appointed to serve the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK), Catherine is assigned to the PROK General Assembly office in Seoul. Among other tasks, she will assist with English-language communication work to facilitate PROK relationships with its partner churches around the world. She also looks forward to participation in the life and work of a local PROK congregation in Seoul, and involvement in wider church work. Her first challenge, however, is full-time language study for six months!

The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea has a central focus of working for justice and peace. This is defined as justice for all, particularly for those most vulnerable and those who are marginalized; gender justice; justice for the earth, reconciliation and reunification of the divided Korean people; and peace for the Korean peninsula, Northeast Asia region, and wider world. Deeply committed to the international ecumenical movement, the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea works in active solidarity with some 30 partner churches and organizations around the world. The partnership between the PROK and the United Church began in 1955. Recent work has included a joint study group on the issue of empire and economic justice.

• Read Catherine's Letters from Overseas