Presbyterian Church of Korea

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The Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK), also abbreviated as Yejang (Korean: 예장), is a Protestant denomination based in South Korea that follows Calvinist theology and the Westminster Confession of Faith. Since the 1950s, the denomination has separated into various branches of the same name due to theological and political disputes. As of 2019, 286 branches in South Korea, many of which have separated from the PCK, use the title 'Presbyterian Church of Korea'.^[1]

Some biblical historians consider the Sorae Church, which was established in the early 1880s by Seo Sang-ryun, as the origin of Korean Presbyterianism. Others consider the Saemoonan Church, established by American missionary Horace Underwood in 1887, as the true birthplace of the PCK. However, the PCK was first organized as an independent Korean church in 1907.^[2]

Horace Newton Allen

Horance Grant Underwood

Calvinism first arrived in Korea in 1865 when pastor Robert Jermain Thomas was captured and martyred during the General Sherman incident.^[3] The first Korean Presbyterian church was founded by Seo Sang-ryun, who was converted into Christianity by Scottish pastor John McIntyre in Manchuria,^[4] in Hwanghae province in 1884.^[5]

Full-scale missions took place twenty years later when Horace Newton Allen of the Northern Presbyterian Church was admitted into the royal court of Joseon as a physician.^[6] In 1885, Horace Grant Underwood and John W. Heron [ko] arrived and established the Korean mission church for the Northern Presbyterian Church. The Korean edition of the Bible was first translated by John Ross during the 1870s. The edition was first printed and published by the British and Foreign Bible Society and the Scottish Bible Society in 1886.^[7]

Subsequently, more Western missionaries set foot in Korea with Canadian missionary James Scarth Gale and Australian Joseph Henry Davies arriving in 1889, and American missionary Samuel Austin Moffett in 1890. In 1891, female teachers such as Isabella Menzies, Jean Perry and Mary Fawcett arrived from Australia. Dr. James MacKenzie arrived in 1893, and in 1898, Dr. Robert Grierson, pastor W. R. Foote, and Duncan MacRae of the Presbyterian Church in Canada arrived to serve as missionaries.^[8]

McKenzie died after a year and a half while working in evangelism and medical care in Sorae Church, Hwanghae Province. His efforts led to the organization of the Korean mission church for the Presbyterian Church in Canada (캐나다장로회조선선교회) in Wonsan. In the Southern Presbyterian Church, pastors William D. Reynolds and Lewis B. Tate arrived in 1892 and organized the Korean mission church for the Southern Presbyterian Church (남장로회조선선교회) in Jeolla Province.^[8]

In 1889, the Northern Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church of Victoria created The United Council of Presbyterian Missions (장로교선교연합공의회; 長老敎宣敎聯合公議會), with John W. Heron as chairman, to settle issues over the unification of churches. In 1893, the United Council of Presbyterian Missions became the Council of Missions Holding the Presbyterian Form of Government^[2] (Korean: 장로교선교공의회, also succinctly known as the Council of Missions). The two councils consisted only of foreign missionaries.^[8]

Elections for the first Korean presbyters for the council began in 1900. Sŏ Kyŏng-cho [ko] (Hwanghae), Kim Chong-sŏp, and I Yŏng-ŭn (both South Pyongan) were elected as elders in 1900.^[a] The following year, Kil Sŏn-chu and Pang Kich'ang [ko] were elected as elders. On September 20 of the same year, three Korean presbyters and six ministers organized the Council of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Chosun)^[spelling?] (조선예수교장로회공의회; 朝鮮예수敎長老會公議會) with 25 missionaries in a missionary council held at the Saemoonan Church in Seoul, with missionary William L. Swallen inaugurated as the first chairman. However, as the Council of Missions had jurisdiction over church affairs, the Presbyterian Church of Korea was then only a fraternal organization. In 1902, Yang Chŏn-paek [ko] was appointed as an elder, and more people were elected as elders in 1903.^{[needs copy edit][9]}

In 1901, Samuel Moffett established the Pyongyang Theological Seminary and became its first principal. The spread of Presbyterianism was further intensified by the Great Pyongyang Revival of 1907. On June 20, 1907, Kil Sŏn-chu, Yang Chŏn-paek, Han Sŏk-chin [ko], I Kip'ung [ko], Sŏ Kyŏng-cho, Song In-sŏ [ko], and Pang Kich'ang became the first graduates of the Pyongyang Theological Seminary. The same year, the United Council decided to select^{[needs copy edit]} a party committee member to handle church affairs for the five local councils of Pyeongan, Gyeongseong, Jeolla, Gyeongsang, and Hamgyeong.^[10]

On September 17, 1907, under the approval of four presbyters from the Mission Council, 33 missionaries and 38 presbyters organized the Presbyterian Church of Korea into an independent church. The five local councils were re-organized into the seven sub-presbyteries (Korean: 대리회; Hanja: 代理會)^[11] of Pyongbuk, Pyongnam, Hwanghae, Chungcheong, Jeolla, Hamgyong, and Gyeongsang.^[10][12] The PCK was also known during this era as the "Independent Council" (Korean: 독노회; Hanja: 獨老會; RR: Dongnohoe). On September 17, 1911, during an assembly at Nammoon Church, Daegu, the Independent Council agreed on creating a General Assembly, and converting the seven sub-presbyteries into official presbyteries. On September 1, 1912, the first General Assembly of the PCK took place in Pyongyang.^[9][13] In 1916, the Presbytery of Gyeongsang was divided into the presbyteries of Gyeongnam and Gyeongbuk, and the presbytery of Pyongseo(west Pyongan) was separated from the presbytery of Pyongbuk.^[10]

Korean Presbyterians were advised to stay uninvolved with any political cause even after the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910. Thus, initial relationships between the colonial government and the Presbyterians were peaceful. Missionaries accepted Japanese rule as "the powers that be," and asserted a position of "loyal recognition" of the Japanese occupation.^[14] Nevertheless, many Korean Presbyterians were suspected of being political agents by the colonial government and were arrested, often without proper explanation or trial. In one incident, a group of Presbyterians was accused of plotting an assassination of then-Governor-General of Korea Terauchi Masatake in Sonchon. Missionaries were also accused of distributing firearms for the alleged assassination plot.^[15]

The Government-General of Chōsen actively sought policies that oppressed Christianity. A set of restrictions established in 1915 limited evangelist activities and placed sermons under police scrutiny. The same year, the colonial government further demanded that all schools in Korea discontinue all courses on Bible studies within ten years.^[16] Tensions between Christians and the colonial government led many Korean Presbyterians, such as Kil Sŏn-chu, to become closely involved in the March First Movement of 1919.^[16][17] Of the thirty-three representatives [ko] of the movement, sixteen were Christians,^[18] and seven were Presbyterians.^{[citation needed]}

The persecutions of Christians were exacerbated as a result of the movement. Presbyterians frequently saw their properties destroyed by police forces; many missionaries were put under scrutiny. 1,461 Presbyterians were arrested by Japanese police by the end of June 1919; in less than four months, the total number of Presbyterian arrests increased to 3,804. 41 Presbyterian leaders were killed, and 12 churches were destroyed.^[19] Horace Underwood made detailed accounts of the Jeam-ni Massacre^[20] during a trip to Suwon with his colleagues.^[19] The March First Movement did not end in complete vain, however, as the movement led to the resignation of Governor-General Hasegawa Yoshimichi on August 4, 1919, and the nomination of Saitō Makoto as his successor. Saitō accepted the Korean representatives' demands and agreed to alleviate restrictions on protests and the press.^[16] In September, a complaint documenting the requests of the church to the colonial government, which included an end to the ban on Bible study courses, was drafted among six missionary councils. The complaint was submitted to the Government-General, which accepted the requests.^[16]

By 1937, the Presbyterian churches were largely independent of financial support from the United States.^[21] Presbyterianism in Korea was reconstructed after World War II in 1947. The church adopted the name the Reformed Church in Korea.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1950s, the Presbyterian Church of Korea suffered from a series of schisms over issues of theology, ecumenism, and worship.^[22]

The first of these divisions was connected to a controversy that began in the 1930s, when Korea was still under Japanese rule. During that time, university students were instructed to bow to the shinto shrine in worship. This was controversial for Christians, theologically and politically. While many acquiesced to this, there were Christians at Pyongyang Theological Seminary who adamantly opposed it, holding that the Bible prohibited such actions. After Korea was liberated from Japanese rule, Korea divided and many Koreans from the north of the country moved to South Korea. Those who formerly opposed the shinto shrine worship created a new seminary, Koryo Theological Seminary (today's Kosin University) in 1946, and eventually a new denomination, Presbyterian Church in Korea (Kosin) in 1951.^[23]

The second division occurred in 1953 when progressives separated, forming the Presbyterian Church of the Republic of Korea (KiJang). In the 1970s, the KiJang Presbyterians would produce some of the key leaders of minjung theology who advocated for social justice issues under the dictatorship of Park Chung Hee.^[24]

In 1959 at the 44th General Assembly, a third schism resulted in the divide of the Presbyterian Church of Korea into two equal sections: the Presbyterian Church of Korea (TongHap) and the Presbyterian Church in Korea (HapDong). The main issue related to whether or not the Presbyterian Church of Korea should be a part of the ecumenical organization, the World Council of Churches (WCC). Park Hyun-nyon, president of the Presbyterian Seminary of the General Assembly, led the formation of the evangelical "HapDong" (the union body), whereas those who supported relations with the WCC formed the ecumenical "TongHap" (the united body). Today, the TongHap and HapDong represent the largest factions of Korean Presbyterianism.^[22]

• Christianity in Korea
• Presbyterianism
• Presbyterianism in South Korea

• Clark, Donald N. Christianity in Modern Korea (University Press of America, 1986)
• Grayson, James H. Korea—A Religious History (Routledge Curzon, 2002)
• Kang, Wi Jo. Christ and Caesar in Modern Korea: A History of Christianity and Politics ( State University of New York Press, 1997)
• Latourette, Kenneth Scott. Christianity in a Revolutionary Age: Vol. 5: The Twentieth century outside Europe (1962) pp 412–23
• Lee, Timothy S. "A Political Factor in the Rise of Protestantism in Korea: Protestantism and the 1919 March First Movement," Church History 2000. 69#1 pp 116–42. in JSTOR
• Mullins, Mark, and Richard Fox Young, eds. Perspectives on Christianity in Korea and Japan: The Gospel and Culture in East Asia (Edwin Mellen, 1995)
• Park, Chung-shin. Protestantism and Politics in Korea (U. of Washington Press, 2003)
• Harry Andrew Rhodes (1934). History of the Korea mission: Presbyterian church U. S. A., 1884-1934. Chosen mission Presbyterian church U. S. A.
• Koon Sik Shim (2008). Rev. Sang-Dong Han, The Founder of the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Koshin): A Biography. The Hermit Kingdom Press. ISBN 978-1-59689-073-2.