Resurrecting Missionaries for the Korean Christian Nation

Abstract

Starting in the summer of 2007, a legal battle erupted between the Hundredth Anniversary Memorial Church (HAMC) and Seoul Union Church over the proper ownership of Yanghwajin Foreigner’s Cemetery. The former was a predominantly Korean congregation, which claimed that the latter, a church comprised mostly of Westerners, had been lax in overseeing Yanghwajin. This debate garnered media attention both domestically and internationally in part because Yanghwajin was the final home of many of the first and second-generation Protestant missionaries to Korea. In fact, Seoul Union Church traced its founding to 1885, and a number of its former members had been buried at Yanghwajin. Regardless, the court system declared the HAMC as the rightful owners of the cemetery. Today, Yanghwajin exists as an important space for Korean Christians, visited by various Korean churches and related organizations regularly throughout the year. This paper questions why the HAMC and Korean Christian community has appropriated Yanghwajin from Western control and sought to cast it as one of Korean Christianity’s “holiest sites.” Through an examination of the narrative of missionary sacrifice that are presented to visitors, this paper highlights how the HAMC has sought to transform these foreigners from dubious cultural imperialists to individuals who so “loved” Korea that they died for the Korean nation while in the service of God.