Youngnak (YN) Presbyterian Church was founded in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

on 2 December 1945 by 1992

Templeton Prize The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest quest ...

recipient, Kyung-Chik Han. Inaugurated by twenty-seven refugees from Soviet-occupied Korea, Youngnak steadily increased in membership as more refugees sought religious freedom below the 38th parallel. On 24 March 1949, ground was broken for a new facility to replace the building and tent that had become too small for the growing congregation. By the time the new church building was completed in May 1950, membership had increased to over 4,000. By 1992, when Rev. Han was awarded the

for Progress in Religion, membership had grown to 60,000 (making it, at that time, the largest Presbyterian congregation in the world), excluding 500 sister churches planted by members of the original congregation. In 1998, under the auspices of Rev. Han, who at the time was a Pastor Emeritus, Youngnak gained an English language ministry, International Worship in English, which was founded by an American missionary to Korea, Bill Majors. For his efforts, Majors was made an Honorary Citizen of Seoul in 2005.">Seoul Metropolitan Government - "A Clean, Attractive & Global City, Seoul!"
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Senior pastors

*1949-1973: Han Kyung-chik *1973-1985: Park Cho-joon *1985-1997c: Kim Yoon-guk *1988-1997c: Lim Young-soo *1997-2018: Lee Chul-shin *2018-present: Kim Woon-sung

References

External links

*
International Worship in English of Youngnak Church

Photos of Youngnak Presbyterian Church
{{Korean Churches 20th-century Presbyterian churches Presbyterian churches in Seoul