HomeMARTYR SUKBAKNAM'S HERMITAGE (SKETE)
After thirty-nine years of active ministry of spreading the gospel, Brother Alex decided to move on by using his gift: teaching adjudicated youth in a juvenile detention setting. It is a privilege and challenging calling, but with a spirit of martyrdom, he has decided to give all he has. He has also been received well by students who are learning from him. It is a win-win combination.
To focus on the new journey, Martyr Sukbaknam Monastery's name will be changed to Martyr Sukbaknam Hermitage (in Korean 순교자 석박남 허미티지). Religiously, a hermitage is a place where a person or group live and prays. The tradition goes way back to the fourth century in the desert of Egypt. There pious hermits and monks gathered around Nitria and Kllia, where they lived and struggled with asceticism perfection and spiritual battles. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, hermitage is called Skete.
Unlike a monastery, a hermitage does not have permanent buildings or artifacts nor many rules or structures. It can be found in a desert, rural area, or in large cities as well. It can be flexible depending on one's means.
In the website contents wise, there will be more articles and writings about prison life and experience. We have added the Paper and Writings from Prison section that is dedicated to the subject.
Thanks to all those who visited and benefited from the Martyr Sukbaknam Monastery website. And we hope and wish that you continue to visit and pray for the new journey with us.
Best Regards,
Brother Alex
Welcome to Martyr Sukbaknam Monastery • EWBI(EastWest Bible Institute)
It is a great pleasure to share with you about who we are and what we do.
We began as Korean American immigrants and children who cam to America to make a better living and prosper while contributing to America. Allow us to illustrate how we begun.
As the name of our ministry indicates, we identify saints and martyrs with our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not only God/ Man; he lived and showed us how to be holy and die for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
One of the literal followers of Christ was Sukbaknam. She was a Korean woman Christian warrior who, in her youth, dedicated her life to following the footstep of the Savior. During the annexation period, she traveled to Korea and Japan to spread the Gospel to the Koreans and miners. After the independence she came back to Korea and served churches; she also taught Korean women. At the outset of the Korean War in 1950, she was martyred at the hands of North Korean soldiers; even though her life on earth was taken away soon, her legacy of serving and helping the marginalized lives on.
Since 1968, Dr. Hak To Pak (M.D.), who was a martyr Sukbaknam's nephew, in a spirit of philanthropy, abandoned practicing medicine instead started EastWest Translation Service in Koreatown in Los Angeles in order to help and settle recent Korean immigrants, who were struggling to settle in the newly adopted country. Dr. Hak To Pak worked on translating the Official California Drivers’ Handbook into Korean in 1970’s along with helping setting up immigrant churches around Los Angeles area to help immigrants with their spiritual needs. He also taught classes to help Korean nurses with their state’s license preparation and also served as an advisor to Korean American Nurses Association of Southern California in the 1970’s. He was the one of the pioneers in Korean American immigration experience in America.
After studying at Calvin Theological Seminary (Grand Rapids, MI) and Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, brother Alex worked and ministered in mainly Korean-speaking congregations and established English ministries for the next-generation believers in Philadelphia, San Jose, and Los Angeles. Today, these English congregations are still worshiping and growing. In 2003, brother Alex's wife passed away due to ovarian cancer; rather than remarry and continue with a ministry, he left pastoral ministry and focused on teaching and monastic spirituality. He is attracted to Eastern monastic theological traditions, such as Dorotheos of Gaza, St. Anthony, Dionysius of Aeropagite, Origen of Alexandria, and St Benedict of Nursia in the Western monastic tradition. He attracted like-minded believers and formed an informal Bible study gathering. The informal gathering became virtual martyr Sukbaknam monastery.
In 2015, after many years of prayers and consultations, we launched the website in order to reach and connect with peoples around the world. We wanted to serve Lord Jesus Christ and whomever He sends to us. Service First is our motto. Jesus came to serve not to be served (Matt. 20: 28), so we want to imitate His footsteps till we reach our goal: to be a man (Ecce Homo) (John 19: 5).
On Martyr Sukbaknam monastery-EastWest Bible Institute (MSBN-EWBI), We share a Protestant branch of Christianity. We exist to pursue and research lives, teachings and theology of mystics, martyrs and Church Fathers.
In the Protestant tradition, the word “monasticism” had a negative connotation, for it is associated with an indifferent reality and anti-social institution. But the concept of monasticism and monastic tradition go beyond organizations and institutions. It started with men and women who dwelled in wildernesses and deserts to find solace and peace in God. The word “monk” came from the Greek word “monachos” means “alone.”
Our Lord Jesus also showed his disciples how to live as the salt and the light of the world (Matt. 5: 13-14) yet without any attachment of it while in the world. (Matt. 6: 25) So the early Christians began to live, held and shared everything in common as they began to transform the societies around them. They claimed not their possessions (Acts 2: 44), yet some chose even to go further- to worship and pray without ceasing apart from the community to pray for the world and their souls. Thus, they decided to live alone and focus on God.
As late as In the 4th century, we find that early followers of Christ chose to devote their life and time on meditating and praying. And even today we see there are many believers and followers in Christ choosing to do just that: worship and pray without ceasing.
Today, there are cenobite communities and nunneries around the world, who dwell as community settings in order to do greater goods for the Kingdom of God.
With God’s help, we hope to help the needs of such disciples by spiritual exercises and corporate worship. We are not into creating another organization structure nor institution, rather we just want to share who Jesus is and what are his teachings are on worship, prayer and life of believers.
Moreover, we not only pray and worship, but we also go out into the world to provide Christian services, such as teaching, medical translation and interpretation in a hospital and rehabilitations center, and evangelizing in street corners and market places.
We invite and challenge all of you to do the same and do more for our Savior.
And we hope and pray that the ministry will touch and (re) connect you with the Savior and His church.
In October 2020, EastWest Institute (EWBI) was established as an extension outreach of the MSBN monastery. Its aim is to share and propagate Christian teachings by means of education by offering online classes presence.
In January, 2021, EastWest Bible Institute (EWBI) was registered as a Non-Profit Organization in the state of California and continues the Christian tradition of serving, witnessing, and fulfilling the Great Commission of Lord Jesus Christ.
Regards,
Brother Alex Pak
*Hebrew text and Syriac text (Peshitta) under the title are from the book of The Song of Songs 8: 6 "For Love is strong as Death."
The Book of Song of Songs is used as a book for mysticism and spirituality since the early period.
-On the Logos: Martyr Sukbaknam Monastery-EastWest Bible Institute in Latin, Martyr Sukbaknam Monasterii oriens Occidens Biblia Institutum, and in Korean along with the date of the establishment in 1968 and with the silhouette of martyr Sukbaknam in the center with EWBI letters on the bottom.
rev.02.23