Anglican Church of Korea
province of the Anglican Communion in North and South Korea
The Anglican Church of Korea (Korean: 대한성공회) is the province of the Anglican Communion in North Korea (de jure) and South Korea (de jure and de facto). Founded in 1889, it has over 120 parish and mission churches with a total membership of roughly 65,000 people in South Korea. In 2017, there were 80,100 Anglicans in South Korea.
History
Birth of the Anglican Church of Korea
The Anglican Church of Korea can be traced back to November 1, 1889, when Bishop Charles John Corfe was ordained at Westminster Abbey and inaugurated as the first diocesan bishop of Joseon (Korea). With his colleagues who had been invited to join the mission, he arrived in Incheon Port on 29 September 1890. Nae-dong Anglican Church which is the first Anglican Church in Korea was established by him and Eli Barr Landis (1865–1898) on September 30, 1891 at Nae-dong, Jung-gu, Incheon. He initiated his work in the Seoul area, including Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces. He first opened a number of educational institutions, medical facilities and social work centers across the country, such as the Sinmyeong (Faith and Enlightenment) schools and the hospitals in the vicinities of Incheon, Yeoju and Jincheon as well as orphanages in Suwon and Anjung. The Anglican missionaries also sought possible ways for the church to be integrated into Korean culture. As a result of that effort, there are several Anglican Church buildings which were constructed in the traditional Korean architecture and which survive today such as Ganghwa Anglican Church.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Anglican Church of Korea” is province of the Anglican Communion in North and South Korea. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Anglican, Church and Korea, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “province of the Anglican Communion in North and South Korea” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q351005. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1889, 2017, 1890 and 1865.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Anglican Church of Korea”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Anglican Church of Korea primary sources, Anglican Church of Korea archive and Anglican research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Anglican Church of Korea”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Anglican Church of Korea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.