Seoul Anglican Cathedral

This is an article that I wrote for my church newsletter back home.

Greetings Church Family!

Korea is nice, but there are some things about the States that I just can’t forget. One of them, of course, is the church. I’ve been here over a month now but have only had the opportunity to attend church three times. I always take the hour-long subway ride to the Anglican Cathedral Church of Sts. Mary and Nicholas.

The first week, I attended service in Korean. I have been going to different Episcopal churches for at least 20 years, and I have seen my share of church bulletins, so I felt pretty certain that I would understand the verse numbers of the readings and the page numbers from the hymnal, even if the whole bulletin was in Korean… but I stand corrected. As you can see, you can’t read it, unless you know Korean. In fact, I’m not sure if this is the service or the announcements. But I let it go and just enjoyed the service. One thing I noticed, was that even here in Korea, where sermons at other churches usually last longer than an hour, the sermon here was 15 minutes. I have never read it in the Book of Common Prayer, but I think there is some kind of unwritten rule. And when it was time for Communion, the priest sang the service (beautifully, I might add)/; it was as if he had been singing in English. The melody was the same, the pitch was the same, I knew when to kneel; I finally felt a little at home. I think THAT is the power of our religion.

As I was leaving that day, I heard singing: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of power and might... .” It was coming from an open window. I ran around that whole little chapel looking for the hidden door; talk about feeling at home. That’s OUR song. Yeah, I know they use it at other churches, but you understand the feeling. I went in, but I was already late for an appointment, so I left after asking the service time. I decided that I would definitely attend the English service the next weekend. And I did.

English service is held in the St. John the Baptist Crypt Chapel, where the Rt. Rev. Mark Trollope is interred. This brass monument of The Rev. holding the cathedral marks his remains. There are about 50 attendees every week and it is nice. The service feels very familiar, but no one kneels and they don’t sing all the “good” hymns, just about 1 good hymn a week. They do have an organ though, but they only have a four-member choir.

I hope to be the fifth member soon.

At the Korean service, when it is time to give the peace, everyone just bows at each other, no hand shaking whatsoever. On the first day that I went to the English service, I didn’t know what to do. The first person I made eye contact with was the Korean guy sitting next to me. I didn’t know whether to bow or shake his hand. I bowed. Then I shook other people’s hands. Now that I know, I will definitely shake his hand if I ever see him again.


While I definitely think my home church is at Messiah, I think the Seoul Anglican Cathedral is like me. It’s a mix of west (the church architecture) and east (the architecture of the archbishop's residence).

Above: this is the Seoul Diocesan Bishop’s Residence, Anglican Church of Korea.