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Ambiguities in the Search for Christian Unity: The General Council of Protestant Evangelical Missions in Korea, 1905–1912
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2022
Abstract
The formation of the General Council of Protestant Evangelical Missions in Korea in 1905 with the ultimate objective of achieving church union beyond denominational boundaries is a significant but neglected episode in the twentieth-century ecumenical movement. The council was reorganised in 1912 as the Federal Council of Protestant Evangelical Missions in Korea, which marked a significant shift of ecumenical objectives from institutional union to missionary cooperation. This article examines why and how this change happened and its implications for interpretations of the wider ecumenical movement in the twentieth century.
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- World Christianities Prize Essay
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2022
Footnotes
CCC = Church of Christ in China; CPMK = Council of Presbyterian Missions in Korea; FCPEMK = Federal Council of Protestant Evangelical Missions in Korea; GCPEMK = General Council of Protestant Evangelical Missions in Korea; KMF = Korea Mission Field; MEC = Methodist Episcopal Church; MECS = Methodist Episcopal Church South; MRW = Missionary Review of the World; PCC = Presbyterian Church in Canada; PCUS = Presbyterian Church in the United States; PCUSA = Presbyterian Church in the United States of America; PCVA = Presbyterian Church of Victoria in Australia
I am grateful to Professor Brian Stanley for his warm encouragement and advice. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for this Journal for their helpful comments and suggestions.
References
1 Neill, S. C., ‘Plans of union and reunion, 1910–1948’, in Rouse, R., Neill, S. C. and Fey, H. E. (eds), A history of the ecumenical movement, 1517–1948, Geneva 1993, 449–54, 496–7Google Scholar.
2 D. H. Yoder, ‘Christian unity in nineteenth-century America’, ibid. 254–5.
3 B. Stanley, Christianity in the twentieth century: a world history, Princeton 2018, 132–3. The foundation of the Church of South India on 17 September 1947 was perhaps the most notable achievement of the quest for institutional union: B. Sundkler, Church of South India: the movement towards union, 1900–1947, London 1954.
4 Kinnamon, M., ‘Assessing the ecumenical movement’, in Briggs, J., Oduyoye, M. A. and Tsetsis, G. (eds), A history of the ecumenical movement, 1968–2000, Geneva 2004, 56–7Google Scholar.
5 The first constitution officially adopted at the first annual meeting of the council named this council as the General Council of Evangelical Missions in Korea. However, from the second annual meeting, at which the name was amended to GCPEMK, the latter name was used until the change of the council's name to FCPEMK. Thus, this council's official name should be GCPEMK and this article will refer to it as such: Minutes of the first annual meeting of the General Council of Evangelical Missions in Korea, Seoul 1905, 6 (hereinafter cited as GCPEMK, annual minutes, with year: likewise for the minutes of other missionary societies); GCPEMK, annual minutes (1906), 33.
6 K. S. Latourette, ‘Ecumenical bearings of the missionary movement and the international missionary council’, in Rouse, Neill and Fey, A history of the ecumenical movement, 1517–1948, 389–90.
7 W. R. Hogg, Ecumenical foundations: a history of the international missionary council and its nineteenth century background, New York 1952, 1–97; J. Wolffe and R. V. Pierard, ‘Europe and North America’, in D. M. Lewis and R. V. Pierard (eds), Global Evangelicalism: theology, history and culture in regional perspective, Downers Grove, Il 2014, 114–17.
8 Latourette, ‘Ecumenical bearings’, 353.
9 The list of denominations and missionary societies which sent missionaries to Korea and the year of first entrance of missionaries of those is as follows: MEC (1884), PCUSA (1884), PCVA (1889), Anglican Church (1890), PCUS (1892), Ella Thing Memorial Mission (Baptist Church background, 1895), MECS (1896), Plymouth Brethren (1896), PCC (1898), Seventh-day Adventist (1905), Oriental Missionary Society (1907), Salvation Army (1908), Congregational Church in Japan (1909): Society of the History of Christianity in Korea (ed.), 한국 기독교의 역사 [A history of Christianity in Korea], i, Seoul 2011, 135–44.
10 Kim Sung-tae and Park Hye-jin (eds), 내한 선교사 총람 [A list of missionaries to Korea, 1884–1984], Seoul 1994, 4–5.
11 Byun Chang-uk, ‘Comity agreements between missions in Korea from 1884 to 1910: the ambiguities of ecumenicity and denominationalism’, unpubl. PhD diss. Princeton 2003, 300. The rest were from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (Church of England), Salvation Army, Seventh-day Adventists, Oriental Missionary Society and so on.
12 Ibid.
13 Ryu Dae-young, 초기 미국 선교사 연구, 1884–1910 [Early American missionaries in Korea, 1884–1910], Seoul 2001, 91–103; Rhie Deok-joo, 한국 토착교회 형성사 연구, 1903–1907 [A study of the formation of the indigenous Church in Korea, 1903–1907], Seoul 2001, 69–77.
14 Kim Seung-tae, ‘한말 일제침략기 일제와 선교사와의 관계에 대한 연구 (1894–1910)’ [A study of the relationship between the Japanese Empire and Protestant missionaries during the Japanese occupation, 1894–1910], Christianity and History in Korea vi (1997), 69–72.
15 'The time opportune', KMF ii (1905), 29–30.
16 ‘Movement for church union in Korea’, MRW xxviii (1905), 796.
17 Minutes of the thirteenth annual meeting of the CPMK, Seoul 1905, 20.
18 Rhie Deok–joo, 스크랜턴: 어머니와 아들의 조선 선교 이야기 [Scranton: the mission of mother and son in Korea], Seoul 2014, 639–40.
19 Moore, S. F., ‘An epoch-making conference in Korea’, MRW xxviii (1905), 691Google Scholar.
20 Ibid. 692.
21 CPMK, annual minutes (1905), 20–1; Official minutes of the first annual session of Korea mission conference of MEC, Seoul 1905, 20–2.
22 Moore, ‘An epoch-making conference', 692.
23 The CPMK was originally founded in 1889 by missionaries of the PCVA and PCUSA. However, it was dissolved in 1890 because of the death of Joseph H. Davies, solely representing the PCVA. As missionaries of the PCUS came to Korea, it was reorganised in January 1893: Society of the History of Christianity in Korea, A history of Christianity in Korea, i. 163–4.
24 CPMK, annual minutes (1905), 12–13.
25 GCPEMK, annual minutes (1905), 1.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid. (1906), 34.
28 Reynolds, W. D., ‘Minutes of the first meeting of the executive committee of the General Council of Evangelical Missions’, KMF ii (1906), 112Google Scholar.
29 GCPEMK, annual minutes (1907), 7.
30 Byun, ‘Comity agreements’, 300.
31 MEC, annual minutes (1905), 21.
32 S. F. Moore, ‘Steps towards missionary union in Korea', MRW xxviii (1905), 903.
33 Ibid. 903–4.
34 GCPEMK, annual minutes (1905), 6.
35 Ibid. 5.
36 Ibid. (1906), 23–6.
37 Ibid. (1907), 25.
38 Ibid. 25–31.
39 Ibid. (1908), 4.
40 Rhodes, H. A., ‘The church union question in Korea’, KMF xvi (1920), 96Google Scholar.
41 A. J. Brown, Report of a second visit to China, Japan and Korea 1909 with a discussion of some problems of mission work, New York 1909, 94.
42 Ahn Kyo-seong, ‘Mission in unity: an investigation into the question of unity as it has arisen in the Presbyterian Church of Korea and its world mission', unpubl. PhD diss. Cambridge 2008, 42.
43 On this attitude and concern see Ryu, Early American missionaries in Korea, 197–206, and Min Kyung-bae, The Church History of Korea, 2nd edn, Seoul 2017, 319–20.
44 ‘하나가 될 것’ [To be united], 그리스도 신문 [Christian News] x (1906), 772.
45 ‘외국 형제 중에 합하기 어렵다고 생각하시는 이가 혹 있으니 … 주의 성신이 전능하신 권력으로 모든 사람의 마음을 감동 시키사 합하기 어렵다 하는 생각은 다 없이하여 주옵시기를 원하며 구주님과 아버지께서 하나되신 것처럼 우리 교회도 하나되기를 위하여 간구하옵시다’: ibid.
46 GCPEMK, annual minutes (1910), 14–15.
47 Ibid. 21–2.
48 Ibid. 18.
49 Ibid. (1911), 22, 39–41
50 Ibid. 39.
51 Ibid. 40.
52 A. F. Walls, ‘The eighteenth-century Protestant missionary awakening in its European context', in B. Stanley (ed.), Christian missions and the Enlightenment, Grand Rapids, Mi 2001, 30.
53 M. A. Noll, A history of Christianity in the United States and Canada, London 1992, 179.
54 ‘A notable movement in Korea’ and ‘Missionary union in Korea’, Korea Review v (1905), 249–50, 343–4.
55 Moore, ‘Steps towards missionary union’, 904.
56 Lee Jae-keun, ‘American southern Presbyterians and the formation of Presbyterianism in Honam, Korea, 1892–1940: traditions, missionary encounters, and transformation’, unpubl. PhD diss. Edinburgh 2013, 47–72.
57 CPMK, annual minutes (1907), 6.
58 Ibid.
59 Ibid.
60 Minutes and reports of the twenty-second annual meeting of the Korea mission of PCUSA, Seoul 1906, 26.
61 Society of the History of Christianity in Korea, A history of Christianity in Korea, i. 213–14; L. George Paik, The history of Protestant missions in Korea, 1832–1910, 4th edn, Seoul 1987, 382.
62 H. A. Rhodes (ed.), History of the Korea mission Presbyterian Church USA, 1884–1934, Seoul 1934, 453–4.
63 Moore, ‘An epoch-making conference', 692.
64 ‘Missionary union in Korea', 344.
65 S. H. Chester, ‘Church union in Korea', The Missionary (1906), 207–8.
66 Ibid. 208.
67 Ibid. 207–8.
68 Rhodes, History of the Korea mission, 453–4.
69 C. A. Clark, The Korean Church and the Nevius methods, New York 1930, 135.
70 A. B. Leonard to S. A. Beck, 22 Nov. 1905, cited in Byun, ‘Comity agreements’, 225.
71 GCPEMK, annual minutes (1911), 39.
72 Rhie, Scranton, 639–43, 665–80.
73 MEC, annual minutes (1906), 81.
74 Ibid.
75 World Missionary Conference, Report of commission, VIII: Co-operation and the promotion of unity, Edinburgh 1910, 194–5.
76 'The quarter centennial', KMF vi (1910), 17.
77 Rhie Deok–joo, ‘한국 교회 연합운동의 역사적 흐름’ [The history of the union movement of the Korean Church], Institute of the History of Christianity in Korea Newsletter xxiv (1996), 9–10.
78 Society of the History of Christianity in Korea (ed.), 한국 기독교의 역사 [A history of Christianity in Korea], ii, Seoul 2011, 73.
79 This ecumenical organisation lasted only until 1946 when the decision to restore each of the previous denominational systems was made by Korean Protestant leaders after independence from Japanese imperialism in 1945. For this organisation see Suh Jeong-min, ‘일제 말 일본기독교조선교단 형성과정’ [The formation of the Chosen Division of the United Church of Christ in Japan during the late Japanese colonial period], Christianity and History in Korea xvi (2002), 71–100.
80 O. Cary, A history of Christianity in Japan, New York 1909, 193–5.
81 Ibid. 414.
82 Neill, ‘Plans of union’, 460–1; Ebisawa Arimichi and Miyakoda Tsunetaro, ‘Japan, movement toward church union in’, in S. W. Sunquist, D. Wu Chu Sing and J. Chew Hiang Chea (eds), A dictionary of Asian Christianity, Grand Rapids, Mi 2001, 414.
83 On this organisation see Xiaojing Wang, ‘The church unity movement in early twentieth-century China: Cheng Jingyi and the Church of Christ in China’, unpubl. PhD diss. Edinburgh 2012.
84 On the full process of comity agreement in Korea and its ecumenical implications see Byun, ‘Comity agreements’.