The
Presbyterian Church in Korea
History
The Presbyterian
Church in Korea (¡°Kosin") is a branch of the true church of
Jesus Christ, founded on God's Holy Word, and holds to the Reformed
Faith. Since the coming of Protestant missionaries to Korea in 1884,
the Korean church has had an astonishing development unparalleled
in mission annals. The Presbyterian Theological Seminary was founded
in 1901 in Pyongyang, and by 1912, a General Assembly was organized.
For about half a century from the first entry of
the Gospel, the Korean church grew steadily. But under Japan's imperialistic
domination the church underwent many difficulties. In this period
two kinds of problems afflicted the Korean church: First, the infiltration
of theological liberalism. And second, the Japanese Shinto shrine
issue.
Finally, on September 10, 1938, the yet
undivided Korean Presbyterian Church, at its 27th General Assembly
meeting at the Pyongyang Westgate Church, broke down under this
repression, and approved shrine observance. Both before and after
this tragic decision, ministers, elders, deacons, and ordinary believers,
who merely wished to live according to the Bible and so refused
shrine worship, were arrested in large numbers. Eventually some
fifty became martyrs of their faith under this terrible persecution.
On August 15, 1945, Japan was defeated, Korea was
liberated, and on August 17, those who had been imprisoned for their
opposition to Shinto shrine observance were released. Two among
them, Rev. Joo Nam-Sun and Rev. Han Sang-Dong, founded Korea Theological
Seminary a year later in Pusan on September 20, 1946, to train church
leaders in order to reform the erring Korean church. This action
began anew the training of church leaders in the historic Presbyterian
tradition.
However, the still undivided church's
General Assembly would not recognize the new Korea Theological Seminary.
The delegates from the Kyun
gnam Buptong (legal) Presbytery
supporting the new Korea Theological Seminary spent three years
trying in vain to normalize their relationship with the General
Assembly. But the seminary continued not to be recognized and they
were refused membership. Accordingly, on September 11, 1952, organizing
its own General Assembly, the ¡°Korea Pa (group)" or ¡°Kosin"
church was instituted. It is true that in December 1960, the church
united with one of the mainline Presbyterian churches, the ¡°Seungdong"
group (later called ¡°Hapdong") which is an anti-ecumenical
group. But unfortunately this union did not last for very long and
in September 1963, the church returned to its original form and
continues until this day as the Presbyterian Church in Korea (¡°Kosin").
Currently, the PCK, as a member of the universal church, continues
the ongoing fight against the worship of idols and other ¡®gods'
in Korean society. Especially the nationalistic indigenous religion,
which worships Tangun (the ancient bear-man believed to be the founder
of Korea) as a national god, has become a great challenge to the
Korean churches. They have erected statues of Tangun at many public
parks and schools in order to get people pay homage and worship
it. Kosin is the main denomination actively engaged in public demonstration
and appeals to the government not to allow the placement of ¡®idols'
in public places.
The Church's Organizational
Principles and Standards
At the 26th General Assembly in 1976
the church's principles were recorded as follows: ¡°We believe in,
preach, and live by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament
and the original Presbyterian standards (The Westminster Confession
of Faith, the Larger and the Shorter Catechisms, the Form of Government,
the Manual of Discipline and the Directory of Worship) following
Reformed Theology." Our church's doctrinal standards are the
Westminster Confession of Faith, with the Larger Catechism and the
Shorter Catechism. With the addition of the 1903 American Presbyterian
chapters on ¡°The Holy Spirit" and ¡°The Mission of the Church"
to the 17th century Westminster Confession of Faith, our confession
now numbers 35 chapters. Also, as administrative standards we have
the Form of Government, the Manual of Discipline, and the Directory
of Worship. These standards have been published (in Korean) in a
book entitled ¡°The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in Korea."
Constituency
Our denomination
is now established in every area of the country, with 34 presbyteries,
1,577 churches, and a total of 230,000 baptized members. There are
2,300 ordained pastors, 430 candidates for pastor (licensed for
preaching) awaiting ordination, and 4,000 elders throughout the
denomination.
Denomination Headquarters
The Presbyterian Church in Korea (¡°Kosin") national denominational
headquarters facility is located in Seoul, Korea. This building
houses a variety of offices including: the General Secretary, the
main publishing house for the denomination which produces books
and Sunday school curriculum as well as other materials, the Department
of Church Education, Students for Christ (SFC) national headquarters,
The Herald of Christianity (the weekly newspaper), the Corporation
of the National Assembly which facilitates the registration of all
member churches and their properties with the Korean government,
the Department of Historical Documents as well as other general
administrative offices, the Research Center for Christian Cultic
groups, and the office for the campaign against Tangun movements.
The facility also has 15 guest rooms, which can accommodate more
than 40 visitors. The Missionary Training Institute (MTI) is located
on the 5th floor in the Bruce Hunt Memorial Hall. This Hall is named
in memory of Missionary Bruce Hunt with gratefulness to the Orthodox
Presbyterian Church of America who donated the major funds for this
facility through the sale of their former property here in Korea.
Institutions
Kosin University
Kosin University was started in 1954 with a 4-year pre-seminary
course in Korea Theological Seminary and then it separated from
the Seminary for ten years under the name of Calvin College. However,
due to the difficulties in maintaining its independence, it later
merged again with Seminary. In 1970 it was authorized by the Ministry
of Education to become Korea Theological College. In 1981, with
the opening of the medical college, the name of the college was
changed from Korea Theological College to Kosin University. In 1985
the campus was moved from Songdo to Youngdo. At present, the University
has 22 departments with 221 professors (including 138 at the medical
school) and 4,373 students.
www.kosin.ac.kr
Korea Theological Seminary
Our Seminary was founded on September 20, 1946 as the primary training
institute of the PCK for the formation of church workers. The seminary
actually gave birth to the PCK. However, in the course of time,
the seminary has undergone changes from seminary to theological
college to university. These changes have been understood by the
denominational churches as steps towards eventually becoming separated,
so the seminary has become independent from the university in administration.
In 1998 KTS moved to its present location in Chonan with the purpose
of fully spreading ¡°Kosin" churches nationwide.
The faculty
consists of 15 full-time pro-fessors and several adjunct professors
and lecturers with 400 full time students. The M.Div. degree is
authorized from the Ministry of Education along with the Th.M. degree
in missiology. The seminary's new Chonan campus is spacious and
well organized. The churches financially and spiritually support
the administration and maintenance of KTS and the pastoral internship
of the students. Recently the seminary started English programs.
www.kts.ac.kr
Kosin University Graduate School
With the purpose of giving continuity and deeper content to
its education program, Kosin University Graduate School, on February
15, 1978, received authorization from the Ministry of Education
to establish the Graduate school in which they can offer master
and doctorate degrees. In addition to the main graduate school,
there are the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School
of World Missions, the Graduate School of Public Health, and the
Graduate School of Human Life and Information. Concerning the doctoral
degree, they offer Ph.D.'s in Theology, Medicine, Christian Education
and Public Health. In the graduate school we have some international
students.
Kosin University Hospital
The Kosin Hospital began in 1951 as a tent hospital called the ¡°Gospel
Clinic" which cared for refugees during the Korean War. It
has grown into a large hospital, which presently has over 1,110
beds. The hospital now is serving the Kyong-Sang province as well
as the city of Pusan. In October 1980 after the medical department
of Kosin College was established with the affiliated hospital, the
rate of growth rapidly increased. There are presently 25 specialized
departments and related research and test centers, a tumor research
center, and a cancer treatment center. There have been many achi-evements
through the treatment of cancer patients and various cancer prevention
research programs. Furthermore, through the establishment of hydrotherapy
even greater scholarly research is being accomplished. Also, there
have been many successful results with kidney transplants and heart
surgery. There are also three specialized clinics, which are now
being opened: a diabetes, an allergy, and a hearing impairment clinic.
It is our hope that through the hospital even greater efforts will
be made to proclaim the Gospel as we carry out our medical research.
Currently, the medical school is sending several medical doctors
and nurses to the mission field as missionaries.
www.kosinmed.or.kr
cys@kosinmed.or.kr
Home Missions
From the 1990's
The PCK has become more active in home missions by strengthening
the Committee for Evangelism. Starting this year, we will have a
full time general secretary for home missions and a full time staff
for the Youth Groups in PCK. The PCK is involved in military evangelism,
which is called the ¡°Golden Fisheries for Evangelism," by
sending 30 chaplains to the Korean army. Also, under the general
denominational umbrella, Students For Christ, Christian Endeavor,
the Sunday School Association and other groups are zealously spreading
the truth. The Students for Christ Movement (SFC) is a unique organization
for campus evangelism, in which 100 full-time staff are serving
for evangelism and discipleship. The Committee of Evangelism of
Rural Areas is in charge of helping the churches in the rural areas
and fishing villages, and the Committee of Evangelism is in charge
of planting and helping new churches.
Foreign Missions
The foreign
missions of the PCK began in 1957 by sending the late Rev. Kim Young-Jin
to Taiwan as a missionary. However, the churches have not been actively
engaged in foreign missions until Rev. Yoo Hwan-Joon joined Rev.
Kim in Taiwan in 1974. In 1979 the Mission Board stated the mission's
principles and regulations by which the churches can carry out the
Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ, and established the Mission
Research Center. During the 1980's the PCK has emphasized foreign
missions and expanded the mission fields by sending 220 missionaries
to 46 countries around the world. The Mission Board also set up
the Missionary Training Institute (MTI) to train missionary candidates.
We are much indebted to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the
Presbyterian Church in America both in terms of mission training
and mission properties. The aims of the Kosin missions are to plant
self-supporting, self-propagating and self-governing churches in
the mission fields based on the Reformed faith and theology with
the Presbyterian form of government.
www.kpm.org kmission@chollian.net
Church Education
Church education
has always been a strong part of the PCK. For years now we have
been developing good curriculum and producing a variety of Sunday
school materials. The Board of Church Education consists of pastors
and elders with 10 full-time staff to serve the church's educational
programs and the development of educational materials for the denomination.
The board operates the Bible Correspondence School, Sunday school
teacher training and laymen training programs. They also publish
the Christian Education Journal and various other magazines.
www.edpck.org edchurch@chollian.net
Literature Activities
From the beginning, our church has placed special emphasis on literature
ministries. Beginning in 1955, "The Christian Reporter"
(weekly) was for a while our denominational paper. Also, publications
centering on Korea Theological Seminary appeared: ¡°The Watchman",
¡°The Reformed View", ¡°Church Life," and ¡°The Reformed
Faith." Now, however, ¡°The Herald of Christianity and Kosin
Monthly" serve as the denominational magazines.
www.kspress.co.kr
ksnews@kidokkyobo.com
International Relations
Our
denomination earnestly seeks to maintain close relationships with
other churches and organizations taking a Reformed stance around
the world, for the sake of more fruitful ministries worldwide. As
a member of the International Conference of the Reformed Churches
(ICRC), we maintain a sister or fraternal relationship with most
member churches of the ICRC, including The Orthodox Presbyterian
Church (in America), the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated),
The Reformed Church in Japan, Canadian Reformed Church, and Christian
Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. We want to extend sister and
brother relations with other member churches of the ICRC in Asia.
Most notably we exchange seminars every year with the Reformed Church
in Japan. The Fraternal Relations Committee of the PCK is in charge
of international relations.
Address : Rev. Chong Soo Lim,
Dr. Min.
General SecretaryPresbyterian Church in Korea
(PCK: Kosin)
58-10 Banpo-Dong Seocho-Ku Seoul, Korea 137-803
Office: 82-2-592-0433 / FAX: 82-2-592-5468
ekosin@hanmail.net
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