The Presbyterian Church in Korea (HapDong) is an

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...

denomination, which is the biggest

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

church in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. The headquarters of the church is in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

History

In 1959 at the 44th General Assembly of the

Presbyterian Church of Korea Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) was a Protestant denomination based in South Korea; it is currently separated into many branches. History The first Korean Presbyterian church was founded by Seo Sang-ryun in Hwanghae province in 1884. Sho ...

the denomination divided for the third time (1951, 1953, and 1959) into two equal parts due to the church's view of the issue of

ecumenism Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

and the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

. The church was divided for and against Park Hyun-nyon, president of the Presbyterian Seminary Society of the General Assembly. The anti-Park party is called 'Tonghap' (the united body) and the pro-Park party is called 'Hapdong' (the union body). The divisions from all three splits during the 50s still exist. The divisions from the third split between Tonghap and Hapdong respectively are still the largest Presbyterian dominations in South Korea. The HapDong section represented more theologically conservative wing than the

TongHap The Presbyterian Church of Korea (TongHap) is a mainline Protestant denomination based in South Korea; it currently has the second largest membership of any Presbyterian denomination in the world. It is affiliated with its daughter denomination ...

. The Tonghap group maintained its affiliation to the

and the

National Council of Churches The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, usually identified as the National Council of Churches (NCC), is the largest ecumenical body in the United States. NCC is an ecumenical partnership of 38 Christian faith groups in the Un ...

and allowed relatively wide range of theological positions. The Presbyterian Church in Korea (HapDong) was the more conservative group in the schism. Its conservative doctrinal basis made it possible to unite later with the

Presbyterian Church in Korea (Koshin) The Kosin Presbyterian Church in Korea, also called Korea-pa, is an Evangelical Reformed and Presbyterian denomination in the Republic of South Korea. Although, congregations have spread all over North America and in many other countries. ...

in 1960. But this union did not last and a group of Koshin churches separated a few years later, although about 150 Koshin congregations stayed with HapDong. In 1961, another group separated to form the Bible Presbyterian Church, later to be called the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Daeshin). At the 64th General assembly in 1979 the church suffered another division. Kim Hee Bo the President of the ChongShin Seminary advocated for the historical-critical approach to the

Pentateuch The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...

. The church divided into a mainline and non-mainline groups. The debate centered about two issues: the authorship of the Pentateuch and the relationship with the ChongShin Seminary. The non-mainline section fragmented in the following years. In the 1990s the current HapDong experienced phenomenal growth. By the early 2000s, HapDong developed into the largest denomination in

with more than 2.2 million communicant members, 5,123 congregations, and 6,300 ordained pastors. These figures differ from the statistics offered by Chongshin Seminary, which claims the church has 11,000 congregations and about 3 million members. In South Korea there are about 15 million

Protestants Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

, about 9 million are

s in more than 100 denominations.

Doctrine

The Presbyterian Church in Korea (HapDong) is a theologically conservative denomination. The Hapdong group subscribe the historic Presbyterian Confessions like:

Creeds

Apostles' Creed The Apostles' Creed ( Latin: ''Symbolum Apostolorum'' or ''Symbolum Apostolicum''), sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is a Christian creed or "symbol of faith". The creed most likely originated in 5th-century ...

Confessions

Westminster Confession of Faith The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the "subordinate standard" o ...

* Westminster Larger Catechism *

Westminster Shorter Catechism The Westminster Shorter Catechism is a catechism written in 1646 and 1647 by the Westminster Assembly, a synod of English and Scottish theologians and laymen intended to bring the Church of England into greater conformity with the Church of Sco ...

According to the Apostle Paul's instructions, there are no women ordinations.

Theological Education

The

Chongshin University Chongshin University is a Christian university in Seoul, South Korea. It has deep historical ties to conservative Presbyterianism, reformed theology, and belongs to the Presbyterian Church in Korea (HapDong). The current president is Jae Seo Le ...

an
Chongshin Seminary
are the only official educational institutions of the HapDong Church to train pastors.

Missions

The Presbyterian Church in Korea HapDong created the Global Missions Society (GMS) in South Korea for supporting evangelism and missions. The Global Mission Society, the missionary body of the Hapdong General Assembly of Presbyterian Churches of Korea, is the single largest Presbyterian

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

organization in South Korea and the world with over 2,500 missionaries working in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Christianity in Korea Presbyterian denominations in South Korea Christian organizations established in 1959 Evangelical denominations in Asia