House of Daybreak

It was already dark as we walked up to the front door of the red brick house, but warm light shone from the windows and we could hear laughter and cheerful banter inside. We knocked and almost immediately the door was opened by Taegun and Youngmi Moon.

They shouted excitedly to the others, “It’s Toast and Jam!” (Nicknames given thus by the children--Durst sounds like “toast” when pronounced in Korean and “jam” goes with toast.)

“Come on in and join the party!”

In the big front room, we joined in the fun with the rest of the “family”--about 15 in all, including six children and a high school girl. It wasn’t a special party, but one of those spontaneous things that sometimes just happens in the evening after supper (more often, perhaps, because they have no T.V.). Someone had made donuts which everyone was munching, a guitar and piano were accompanying songs on request, jokes were being shared and on-the-spot skits being performed, and finally we were all in the middle of the floor dancing--from the oldest of 50 years to the 2 year old baby.

This kind of evening is not unusual at the House of Daybreak, an intentional community in Seoul, Korea, started five years ago as an experiment in Christian living. Its founder is Dr. Moon Dong Whan (no relation to Moon Sun Myung of the Unification Church), or Stephen Moon, as many Western friends know him, and his wife, Faye, whom he met while studying at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.

The idea for House of Daybreak began in 1971 when Dr. Moon, pastor of Sudo Presbyterian Church in Seoul, gave a series of sermons on Christian lifestyle. He was much concerned about the pattern of daily life that more and more Koreans seemed to be adopting--the materialistic, individualistic, competitive lifestyle which left only marginal concern for the church or the community. Steve’s dream was to make the church into a really Christian community in which human value and meaning is stressed and where authoritarianism, consumerism, and cutthroat competition, are kept in their place.

Some of the church members were much inspired by these sermons and came to Steve saying, “If this is the way Christians should be living, then why aren’t we doing it?” This led to a weekly discussion/planning group which met regularly for nearly a year and culminated in the decision of four families and two single persons to begin living communally, sharing all things together, and putting into practice their beliefs about Christian community.

So in November of 1972, the House of Daybreak was born. At the opening ceremony, all the members laid their hands on the written covenant and committed themselves to trying this new way of life for an initial period of six months. Since that time they have renewed this covenant on a yearly basis.

During the more than four year life of the House of Daybreak, some of its members have moved away for various reasons--to marry, to study abroad, to go back to nuclear family life--but there have always been others ready to move in, so the total number has usually stayed around 15 members. In addition, there are many others who are vitally interested in this idea of Christian community and who keep in close contact with the House of Daybreak. These people make up the “outside family,” meaning those friends who are concerned, but who do not actually live in the House of Daybreak. This larger group is usually invited to important functions and celebrations at the community, and are sometimes called on for consultation or advice.

For the first couple of months of their life together, the members found themselves feeling and acting like guests in someone else’s house. But gradually this feeling wore off and they began to relate to each other more honestly. Looking back, they say that sharing their finances and possessions was the easiest part. The hardest part was working out relationships and personality differences. Participation in their weekly “family meetings” played an important part in working out such problems, as well as being a time for discussing household business matters and planning special activities.

The children seemed to adjust more quickly than the adults to their new lifestyle, and to really thrive in their new family, which now included many more playmates, as well as more adults to relate to than just their own parents. The adults found that it took fewer of them working outside to bring in a sufficient income for their numbers than when they were all living separately in nuclear family units. This freed up those who did not have outside jobs to get involved with the larger community, getting to know the people in the neighborhood and discovering needs there.

One of the important ways they have reached out to this larger community is by starting a kindergarten for the neighborhood children, especially for those who could not afford regular kindergarten. They also began a Sunday School for children through elementary age. In both of these projects, they were able to put into practice some of the theories of education which allow for more creativity and freedom, co-operation and decision-making by the children themselves, something that is rarely found in the traditional Korean school system.

Another activity which was very successful was the forming of a group of older women in the neighborhood who were all “second wives.” These women have no legal rights, are often treated poorly by their husbands, and are looked down on by society. The club, which they named “The Drum Club,” was initiated by one of the members of the House of Daybreak, herself a widow. The group met regularly once a month for a party which usually included much singing and Korean folk dancing, and playing the Korean drum. In this group the women found friendship, fellowship, and a place to share their mutual problems. They were also a great help with the kindergarten and the work when House of Daybreak held special celebrations on Korean cultural holidays for the the entire neighborhood such as Children’s Day, Chusok (Thanksgiving) and New Years.

Worship at House of Daybreak has always been an important part of their life together. When the decision was made to live communally, Steve gave up his pastorate at Sudo Church, and for many months they debated about whether to start a new church in the neighborhood. Finally they decided that they did not want to be in a position of competing with the several already-existing churches in the area, so they just have regular periods of worship for their own family members.

One of the models looked to for inspiration by Steve and others was the Confessing Church established in Germany during the time of Hitler by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others. A comparison to them seems appropriate, for an important part of the worship and daily life at the House of Daybreak is related to the political situation that exists in Korea today. Many of their close friends and relatives, including Steve, have been among the most outspoken against the repressiveness of the Park regime toward the Korean citizens. Consequently House of Daybreak has been under rather constant surveillance by the Korean CIA, almost since its inception. Their movements are monitored, people who come to visit are watched, and even some of their own members have received pressure from the police to become informers.

Then in 1974 Steve was fired from his position as Director of the School of Missiology at Hankuk Seminary due to government pressure on the school board. Early the next year, another of the original members of House of Daybreak, Miss Lee Oo Jung, president of Church Women United, was also fired from her professorship at Seoul Women’s College. And several members of the larger “outside family” have under gone detainment, torture, and imprisonment for various forms of protest. So the political oppression in Korea is far from being a theoretical or academic question for the House of Daybreak--it is something that directly affects their lives every day.

After Steve was fired from the seminary, he began doing more reading, including more about the relationship between affluent nations and the Third World, and he came upon the book Small Is Beautiful, by E. Shumacher. The ideas put forth in that book made a lot of sense to him and to others in the community. They began to contemplate the idea of getting out of the city and into they rural area of Korea. They began to talk about self-sufficiency, organic farming, small-scale industry, medical aid, and the education that is so lacking in rural Korea. They realized that the system operating in Korea is one in which the farmers are breaking their backs to provide food for the city-dwellers, while they themselves continue to live in poverty.

The possibility of a new direction for House of Daybreak--that of moving to the country--dominated their thoughts and discussions more and more. The weekly family meetings were held more often, usually lasting late into the nights, as the members tried to thrash out the pros and cons; for not all the members were as enthusiastic about moving as some. Eventually a family living in a Seoul slum area whom they had come to know expressed interest in joining them to help farm if they decided to move. Then they met an older landowner, Mr. Oh, who had some similar ideas about farming cooperatively. Finally--though certainly not all the problems had been ironed out sufficiently--the decision to move to Mr. Oh’s farm was made. They decided not to postpone the move, but to work on the remaining problems day by day while living communally and farming cooperatively together.

In the meantime, however, Steve had continued his political activities, and just a few weeks after the decision to move had been made, he, along with his older brother and 16 other prominent Korean Christians, signed a statement criticizing the government’s policies and asking for a restoration of democracy--a clearly illegal act under the present laws. This statement was read publicly on March 1st, Korea’s Independence Day. Immediately afterwards, all 18 Christians were arrested and 11 of them, including Steve, were imprisoned.

Back at the House of Daybreak, there were mixed feelings about Steve’s participation in this act. Though every one fully supported his stand opposing the government, this act of protest came at a very crucial time for the community, when they felt they needed all the cooperation and mutual support of each family member.

However, the decision to move had been made, and in spite of the circumstances, it was felt by all that they should go ahead with their plans. The children transferred schools, and the adults who were still working quit their jobs, with the exception of Faye, who continued her job as a social worker in alcohol and drugs with the U.S. Army.

Much of their time in the beginning was spent in fixing a building to live in. Fortunately, one of their members was a carpenter and he almost singlehandedly transformed an old barn into a house for them. By this time summer was fast approaching and there was much work to be done in the fields, so they joined in the farming and gardening.

However, from the beginning they began to hit snags. They mostly had to do with goals, expectations and relationships between themselves and the landowner. Conflicts came between the more democratic, participatory way of working out problems that members of the House of Daybreak were accustomed to, and the more traditional authoritarian, Confucian ways of the landowner. Family meetings were all-important, but with the physical fatigue of the hard daily labor, the meetings were often shortened or postponed, making it even more difficult to work out pressing problems. After about a month, one of the families decided to give up the experiment, and moved out, leaving only three nuclear family units at House of Daybreak, and Steve still in prison.

It was at this point that our own personal involvement with House of Daybreak became deeper. Though we continued to live in Seoul, we began making the two-and-a-half hour trip to the farm once a week to join the family meetings. We did little more than observe and make an occasional comment, but our presence seemed to be appreciated. Being very much interested in intentional Christian community life, we enjoyed the extra time we were able to spend with the members and were grateful for the deepening friendship. We also appreciated the weekly break from city life--crowds, noise, pollution--and the oasis of the few hours each week in the beautiful, quiet, peaceful countryside.

Throughout the summer, the struggle for communication and understanding between the House of Daybreak and the landowner continued, but generally relationships were not improving. It was becoming more and more clear that there were fundamental differences in their goals and methods of doing things. The constant surveillance and harassment of the Korean CIA only made the situation more tense and raised suspicions among the villagers toward the House of Daybreak.

Finally the break came when the landowner decided that he and his family were not suited to the lifestyle of the intentional community, and said that they would live separately, but he hoped that the cooperative farm work arrangement could continue.

At this point the House of Daybreak considered what they should do: they couldn’t move back to their city house because they had rented it out for the year; they weren’t enthusiastic about finding another place to rent or move to, and they had invested a good deal in this year’s crop at the farm, including the purchase of a rice paddy. So they chose to remain on the farm for the rest of the year and try to make the best of the situation. They have tried not to look at it too negatively; they are using the time for evaluation and re-direction. They are trying to see where they have made mistakes; whether the idea of being in the rural area is still a valid one for them; whether they should return to the city, at least temporarily, and if so, what their contribution to the larger community should be; and, in general, where the future should take them. Of course they are all hoping that Steve (now serving a three-year sentence) will soon be released from prison and can join them in planning the next step in their life together.

The purpose, courage, and strength that come from living in community is evident at the House of Daybreak. Being together has certainly made this last difficult year much easier for each of them to bear, and although their problems are far from being solved, they are firmly convinced that their idea of Christian community is right for them, and is a viable alternative for others who are seeking a more meaningful Christian lifestyle. We wish them blessings and Godspeed on their journey--a journey that many of us are on, too, in many different parts of the world.

Louise and Walter Durst were United Methodist missionaries in Seoul, South Korea when this article appeared.