It will be a good opportunity to take a look into the history of the Presbyterian church to find the roots of our belief. The beginning of the PC in Korea is no different from that of the Protestant church in Korea. The first Presbyterian devotee Suh Sang Ryun spread the seeds of protestantism and prepared the ground for the church. Though not within Korea, he translated the bible into Korean and brought a bible-leaflet with one Gospel in it. Due to him, the first Presbyterians built the first church, also being the first protestant church, the Sorae church in Songchun, Hwanghae Province, in north-eastern Korea. The Chongshin University in Yangji has restored the church and now we can see and feel the faith of our ancestors.

In 1884 H.N.Allen who belonged to the Northern US Presbyterian Church, arrived in Korea to begin work as a medical missionary and in easter of 1885 the Presbyterian missionary H.G.Underwood also entered our country. Not long after his arrival he gave baptism to 23 Koreans at the Abrok river, which means that there were already plenty of Presbyterians in this country before he had come.。 The first Presbyterian churches in Korea were Sorae, Saemunan in Seoul, Yondong, Seungdong, Andong and Jang Dae Hyun in Pyongyang. These churches got more and more important and played an essential role in their regions. In 1889 the missionaries of the PC in Australia preached in the Kyungnam Province, in 1892 instructors from the Southern US Presbyterian Church followed and evangelized in the Honam Province and so did Canadian missionaries in the North Hamkyong Province and in Gando. These four Presbyterian missionary churches who came to Korea this way, did not only work solidly together to establish the Korean PC but also decided to unite on theological education and paper work. They organized the Presbyterian Council to make concrete plans to unify and succeeded together in 1901 to found the Yonhab Presbyterian Seminary, the Presbyterian Seminary in Pyongyang. The PC was been brought up on a strong basis of conservative theology. The Pyongyang Seminary, the only theological school in Korea, had a character which we can assume from the following address of professor Mapo Samyol, the founder of the Seminary. " I decided like apostel Paulo to preach nothing but the gospel of the Cross of Christ." On the first graduation in 1907, 7 students graduated and on the 17. September in the same year 33 missionaries of each sect and 36 Korean Presbyterians gathered at the Jang Dae Hyun church in Pyongyang, established the first Presbytery (Dok Presbytery) and confirmed the 7 graduates to clergymen. Hereby the Korean PC constituted an own organization and the four sects which worked separately until then, were united to one Korean Presbyterian Church. The rehabilitation of Korea reached its top in 1907 and the PC was the main stream of this remarkable change. The PC flourished not only in their belief but also in their strength. At times of Japan's annexation of Korea the PC was urging people's minds to hold together and it contributed to the movement on the 1.March 1919, which was followed by pain and suffering because of the retaliation and restrain from Japan. In the 1920s the PC continued to make progress through missionary work in and outside the country and in agricultural movements, but at the beginning of the 1930s it began to fall into disarray. As referred to before the PC in Korea was been brought up on a conservative theology basis. But after and after it became acquainted with new theologies and theories from abroad. Rising theologians who had studied abroad began to challenge the church. Park Hyung Ryong from the Pyongyang Presbyterian Seminary addressed that times as the following. " The Korean PC had succeeded to adhere the legitimate Presbyterian theology for the first 50 years but could not keep off the liberalism movements. Other sects were already keeping pace with liberal theology movements and implicitly there arose a vigor of dissension within the PC. The liberal theology at that time insisted on high criticism of the bible and its partly erroneous. It denied the birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary, the sacredness of Christ, the atonement and the reincarnation. This kind of challenge lead to theological conflicts within the General Assembly and threatened the peace of the church. At that time the worship at the Japanese shrines became a very difficult problem for the Korean church and the position of the conservatism and the liberalism was not the same. Due to this the Presbyterian Seminary voluntarily closed the school temporarily. On the other hand the liberalists established the Chosun Seminary(1940) in Seoul and it worked for itself before and after the liberalization of Korea. At the end of the Japanese imperialism the clergymen in prison and the church leaders exiling abroad gathered together and decided to establish a conservative Seminary to inherit the tradition of the Pyongyang Seminary, the fort of the conservative church. Therefore a Seminary named Koryo was built in Pusan and the principle of the school professor Park Hyung Ryong coped with the challenges of liberalism. Later he came to Seoul and established the Presbyterian Seminary(1948). One year later on the 19. April 1949 at the 35th General Assembly in Seoul the Presbyterian Seminary was recognized to the school under direct management of the General Assembly. It was the victory of conservative theology to preserve the purity of the church. However the General Assembly went through another conflict as it was split into pro and contra on the issue of the relation to the World Council of Churches (WCC). The dissenting opinions began to disclose referring to the WCC conference in Evanstone USA in 1954. The denominations were split on the issue of withdrawal from the WCC as ot was theologically liberalized. After all the General Assembly was divided into an assembly supporting the WCC and one against it. In 1959 the supporter of the WCC resumed the General Assembly at the Yondong church to establish the Tonghap Assembly and professors and students who were servile to the Tonghap separately established their Seminary. The opposites of the WCC who worked at the Seungdong church withdrew from the National Association of Evangelism (NAE) and incorporated with the Hapdong group to establish the Hapdong General Assembly, which is working ever since. The professors and students who remained in the Hapdong group to preserve the antecedents of the Pyongyang Seminary were united with the Koryo Seminary in 1961 and after the withdrawal of the Tonghap in 1965 they moved to Sadangdong (Sadangdong San 31-3, Kwanakgu Seoul) and the Ministry of Culture and Education authorized it to the 'Korean Presbyterian General Assembly Seminary'. Later in 1975 it was renamed to the Chongshin college and in 1995 until now it is the Chongshin University. Important organs under the influence of the General Assembly are the Protestant Daily, the school under direct management like Chongshin University, Chongshin Graduate School, Chongshin Graduate School of Education and Chongshin Graduate School of Missionary. Recognized Seminaries are Calvin, Daeshin, Kwangju, Seoul, Pusan, Taejon, Jonbuk, Incheon, Chongju, Suwon. In 2003 the General Assembly had 7105 churches, 2,348,420 members and send worldwide 1,101 missionaries abroad. It it sending out the most missionaries and is the biggest association in Korea. We hope to be the leading church in the 21. century.