Deposition (Church Discipline)

Definition and Meaning

Deposition (免職, myeonjik) is one form of church discipline (勸懲). Church discipline refers to the censures a church imposes to bring members to recognize and correct their wrongdoing. Deposition is a sentence that removes the office itself from an officer such as a minister, elder, or deacon.

Suspension (停職) leaves the office intact but halts the exercise of its duties for a set period. Deposition differs from suspension in that the person loses the office itself. Excommunication (黜敎) removes even church membership, whereas a deposed officer generally retains membership. A deposed minister therefore returns to the status of a layperson.

In public administration, the Korean term myeonjik refers to a measure by which a public official loses his or her position. In the church, the term is used only for the loss of church office.

Biblical and Historical Background

The word "deposition" does not appear as such in Scripture. However, the following passages are cited as grounds for disciplining church officers:

• 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1:5–9: these set out the qualifications for church officers.
• 1 Timothy 5:19–20: "Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear."

In the ancient church, church councils likewise removed clergy from office for problems of doctrine or conduct. After the Reformation, the Presbyterian tradition codified its disciplinary procedures in church law and made deposition one of its stages.

Practice in Korean Churches

Presbyterian churches define deposition as one of the censures (責罰, penalties imposed by the church) in the disciplinary provisions of their church constitutions. The Rules of Discipline of the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapdong) and the disciplinary section of the constitution of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Tonghap) provide several levels of censure, including admonition, suspension, deposition, suspension from the Lord's Supper, and excommunication. Suspension from the Lord's Supper bars a person from participating in Communion. Because ministers are members of a presbytery, it is generally the presbytery that deposes them after a trial, while cases involving elders and deacons are generally handled by the session. Some denominations stipulate that even when a censure is lifted (解罰), the office is not automatically restored; the person must go through the process of election and ordination again.

Among Methodists, the Korean Methodist Church likewise lists deposition among the penalties in the judicial provisions of its Doctrines and Discipline. Trials of clergy are handled by judicial bodies such as the annual conference.

In denominations with congregational polity, such as the Baptists, where the congregational meeting of each local church makes major decisions, questions concerning church office are decided primarily by the local congregation.

A well-known historical case occurred in 1939, when the Pyongyang Presbytery, under pressure from the Japanese colonial authorities, removed Ju Gi-cheol, a minister who had refused to take part in Shinto shrine worship, from the office of minister. This decision was later judged to have been wrong, and he was reinstated.

Today, those who receive a sentence of deposition sometimes appeal to a higher church judicatory (a body responsible for church judicial and administrative matters) or file suit in civil court. Civil courts are generally understood to respect the autonomy of religious bodies with regard to internal church discipline.