Anglican Church of Korea

The Anglican Church of Korea is a Christian denomination belonging to the Anglican Communion, the global family of churches with roots in the Church of England. Among the many Christian bodies in South Korea, the Anglican Church ranks among the smaller denominations, though it has experienced steady growth in recent years. The current membership numbers around 65,000 communicants. The Anglican Church is distinctive in incorporating both Roman Catholic and Protestant elements in its theology, organization, and worship. The church is divided into three dioceses, Seoul, Busan, and Daejeon, each headed by a bishop, and the three bishops rotate the national leadership as archbishop. Worship in the Anglican Church is similar to Roman Catholic practice, with ornate clerical vestments and said or chanted prayers. It also has monastic orders of monks and nuns. And yet, like other Anglican bodies, it is officially Protestant. The church does not recognize the authority of the pope and departs from Roman Catholic tradition in other ways, as in the ordination of women. Moreover, the Anglicans are different from both the Roman Catholics and Protestants in Korea in embracing more open and progressive views on such social issues as LGBTQ rights. In the past, church members have been active in the democratic movement, and one of the priorities of the church today is the reunification of the Korean peninsula. The first Anglican missionaries arrived in Incheon in 1890, under the leadership of Bishop Charles John Corfe. In laying down the church’s foundation in Korea, they established churches, as well as schools and hospitals throughout the country. The Anglican missionaries and clergy emphasized sensitivity to Korean culture. They built many churches in the traditional Korean style, and two of their bishops, Mark Napier Trollope and Richard Rutt, were pioneering scholars in Korean studies. During the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), the Anglican Church was unique among Protestant bodies in having both the Koreans and the Japanese, as well as the English, work together with equal rights. In 1923, the church established St. Michael’s Theological Institute to train its clergy; it later expanded to become Sungkonghoe University, a major institution of higher learning in South Korea. In 1924, the cathedral Church of St. Mary the Virgin and St. Nicholas, the only example of Romanesque architecture in East Asia, was erected in Seoul. The first native Korean priest, Mark Kim (Kim Huijun), was ordained in 1915, and the first Korean bishop, Cheonhwan Lee, was installed in 1965. From its founding, the Anglican Church in Korea had been under the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Then, in 1993, the church became an independent national church, an autonomous province within the Anglican Communion.Non UBCUnreviewedFacult