The Presbyterian Church of Korea or PCK is a mainline Protestant denomination based in South Korea and currently has the second largest membership of any Presbyterian denomination in the world. It is affiliated with its daughter denomination, the Korean Presbyterian Church in America (KPCA) in the United States, which has adopted the "Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad" as its new name in 2009. The church, while primarily made up of Korean-speakers, welcomes people of all nationalities.
The first Korean Presbyterian minister was Suh Sang-Ryun, who founded a church in Hwanghae province in 1884. Shortly thereafter, several foreign Presbyterian missionaries arrived on the peninsula, including Horace Allen, Horace G. Underwood, and Henry Davies.
Like other Christian groups, the Korean Presbyterians were closely involved in the peaceful March first movement for Korean independence, in 1919.
By 1937, the Presbyterian churches were largely independent of financial from the United States.
In the 1950s, the PCK was cut off from any remaining believers in North Korea, and three schisms occurred. In the first of these, in 1952, the Gosin group split off. In the second in 1953, the "Presbyterian Church of the Republic of Korea" separated from the PCK. In the third, and thus far final, schism, the Hapdong faction separated in 1959.
Famous quotes containing the words presbyterian and/or church:
“What I often forget about students, especially undergraduates, is that surface appearances are misleading. Most of them are at base as conventional as Presbyterian deacons.”
—Muriel Beadle (b. 1915)
“Eddie Felson: Church of the Good Hustler.
Charlie: Looks more like a morgue to me. Those tables are the slabs they lay the stiffs on.
Eddie Felson: I’ll be alive when I get out, Charlie.”
—Sydney Carroll, U.S. screenwriter, and Robert Rossen. Eddie Felson (Paul Newman)