The Lutheran Church in Korea or LCK ( ko, 기독교한국루터회) is a

confessional A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall in which the priest in some Christian churches sits to hear the confessions of penitents. It is the usual venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Churches, but sim ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

denomination in the

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its east ...

and the only

denomination in South Korea. Unusual for a confessional Lutheran church, the LCK is not just a member of the confessional

International Lutheran Council The International Lutheran Council (ILC) is a worldwide association of confessional Lutheran denominations. Member bodies of the ILC hold "an unconditional commitment to the Holy Scriptures as the inspired and infallible Word of God and to the Lu ...

but also the mainline

Lutheran World Federation The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; german: Lutherischer Weltbund) is a global communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish ...

. The LCK has 2,271 baptized members, 5,210 communicant members, 37 congregations, 42 active pastors and a seminary. The current president of the LCK is the Rev. Dr. Chul-Hwan Kim, first elected in 2013.

History

Early history

Early Lutheran mission work in Korea can be traced to the initial effort by the German missionary, Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff, who also worked for the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

as a translator. Gützlaff arrived 1832 in Wonsan Island off the west coast of Korea as part of a fact finding mission and good will tour of the different countries of the Far East to collect information about the reactions in official circles, the business community and the population at large to the petition requesting opening the harbors and initiating free-trade and missionary activity. Sent by the

Netherlands Missionary Society The Netherlands Missionary Society (Dutch: ''Nederlandsch Zendelinggenootschap'') was a Dutch Protestant missionary society founded in 1797 in Rotterdam that was involved in sending workers to countries such as Indonesia during the Dutch occupation ...

, Gützlaff visited the western provinces of

Hwanghae Hwanghae Province (''Hwanghae-do'' ) was one of the Eight Provinces of Korea during the Joseon era. Hwanghae was located in the northwest of Korea. The provincial capital was Haeju. The regional name for the province was Haeseo. History In 139 ...

and

Chungcheong Chungcheong (''Chungcheong-do''; ) was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Chungcheong was located in the southwest of Korea. The provincial capital was located at Gongju, which had been the capital of the kingdom o ...

(today located within

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

and South Korea respectively), sending gifts and a petition to the Korean king requesting an opening for trade and mission work. While waiting for a reply, he distributed Bibles and tracts in the regions he visited. The petition and gifts were returned with a hesitant attitude of the Korean government ending the initial failed effort by Gützlaff to start a mission work in Korea and forcing him to return to

Macao Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

. Lutherans would not start any sustained mission work in Korea until after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Lutheran mission and the establishment of a national church

Sustained Lutheran mission work in Korea began in 1958 with the arrival of three missionary families and a Korean national worker, Dr. Won-Yong Ji, sent by The

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The LC ...

(LCMS). The Korea Lutheran Mission, as it was known then, used mass media techniques as an outreach tool and by 1971, was reorganised as a national church known as the Lutheran Church in Korea. Since then, the LCK has been a partner church of the LCMS.

Beliefs and practices

The LCK is a member church of the

and the

. As a church in the Lutheran tradition, it accepts the teachings found in the unaltered

Augsburg Confession The Augsburg Confession, also known as the Augustan Confession or the Augustana from its Latin name, ''Confessio Augustana'', is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Protestant Re ...

Luther's Small Catechism ''Luther's Small Catechism'' (german: Der Kleine Katechismus) is a catechism written by Martin Luther and published in 1529 for the training of children. Luther's Small Catechism reviews the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Pr ...

and other confessional articles and symbols of the

Book of Concord ''The Book of Concord'' (1580) or ''Concordia'' (often referred to as the ''Lutheran Confessions'') is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since t ...

Ministries & social services

The LCK operates the Luther University, which includes a seminary through one of its graduate programs, with an enrollment of approximately 600 students. In recent years, the LCK expanded the programs offered through Luther University which was fully accredited by the Ministry of Education of South Korea in 2006 and offers degrees in seven departments. The Korea Lutheran Hour radio programme continues to broadcast weekly over six stations. The Korea Bethel Series correspondence course and seminars was started in 1974 and has been attended by more than 6,500 clergy and have enrolled more than 450,000 people throughout Korea. Currently, the LCK is focusing on starting new congregations and gaining membership as well as reaching out to the Korean diaspora, particularly in China and the currently inaccessible North Korea.

Affiliations

The LCK participates actively in

ecumenical 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 ...

relationships through: * National Council of Churches in Korea *

** Asia Lutheran Communion The LCK also works in partnership with: *

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (german: Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern) is a Lutheran member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany in the German state of Bavaria. The seat of the church is in Munich. The ''Landesbischof' ...

References

External links

*
International Lutheran Church, Seoul
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