The Marmot’s Hole

You might not necessary associate Insadong with modern architecture, but right before you get to the Nakwon-dong end of Insadong, there’s an alleyway leading to Seung Dong Presbyterian Church, designated Intangible Cultural Properties No. 130 by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and an important piece of the history of Korean Christianity.

The forerunner of Seung Dong Presbyterian Church, Gondanggol Church, was established in what is now Taepyeong-no by American missionary Samuel F. Moore in 1893, some nine years Korea’s first Presbyterian missionary, Horace N. Allen, arrived in Korea.

Moore was a rather interesting character — he was very passionate about his work, he learned Korean in about six months by living away from the usual foreigner haunts of the day, and he put a lot of his effort into spreading the word among Korea’s social underdogs, including women and baekjeong, the “untouchable” class of Joseon society.

A year after the church was founded, a baekjeong by the name of Park Seong-chun joined the congregation. This didn’t sit too well with the church’s yangban members, who protested that Park should either be expelled or forced to sit in the back. Moore said there would be no class discrimination in his church, and the yangban members walked out, forming their own church in Hongmun-dong (now Samgak-dong).

In 1898, however, a fire destroyed the Gondanggol Church, but by that time, the yangban had gotten with God’s program and accepted its now-homeless baekjeong followers into the Hongmun-dong church.

Interestingly, after the Seung Dong Church was founded, it first two elders were baekjeong Park and Yi Jae-seon, a member of the royal family.

A cute little animation about the Moore can be found here. Jesus people will love it.

Moore had his detractors, however. Horace Allen (who in addition to being a missionary was also a doctor, businessman and diplomat, and ran in somewhat more rarefied circles) apparently found Moore a troublesome bastard. In 1900, Moore, a premillennialist, sent a rather rude letter — by mail — to Emperor Kojong requesting an audience to convert him, an incident cited by some as an example of the early missionaries’ ignorance and arrogance regarding Korea’s politics and culture. He is also reported to have damaged a Buddha statue at a temple in Bukhan Fortress. If you read Korean, be sure to check out this thesis on Moore and his detractors — fascinating stuff. Not as fascinating as the Baby Riots, perhaps, but fascinating none the less.

In 1905, however, the Hongmun-dong church ran into trouble. Independence activists in the congregation wanted to make the church more socially activist, while the missionaries who ran it wanted it to remain a spiritual community. The independence activists made a move to expel the missionaries, but the missionaries preempted them, closing the church. The more socially minded founded Seung Dong Church in Insadong, while the rest gravitated to Namdaemun, where they formed Namdaemun Presbyterian Church (a very beautiful church built by the architect who designed Korea University and Choong Ang High School).

Moore meanwhile died of an illness in 1906 at the age of 46. He’s buried in Seoul’s Foreigner Cemetery with a whole bunch of other Dead White Guys.

The church later became a major center of the March 1 Independence Movement. It was in the basement of the church that college student leaders met on Feb. 28, 1919 to prepare for the reading of the Declaration of Independence at nearby Pagoda Park the next day. The basement meeting hall is still there — I would haven take a picture, but there were people praying in there at the time.

The church produced a number of independence activists, perhaps none more famous than Lyuh Woon-hyung, who was apparently close with Seung Dong’s pastor, American missionary and scholar Charles Allen Clark.

The Korean YWCA was founded at the church as well, giving it a special place in the history of the Korean women’s movement and social activism.

As for the building, the church attained its present form — for the most part — by 1912. It’s an imposing, red brick Romanesque structure, although the white entrance area was added on in 1959. The interior has managed to maintain much of its original look. Although it’s dwarfed by the skyscrapers that now dominate the skyline, you can get a feel for just how impressive the church must have been in its heyday by looking at how it dominates the hanok homes that surround it.

Interesting Links:

Seung Dong Presbyterian Church official webpage
Seoul Shinmun article on Seung Dong Presbyterian Church
Article on early Presbyterian mission history from Presbyterian Church USA (great photos)
Did You Know: The Presbyterian Church of Korea has the largest membership of any Presbyterian denomination in the world?