Excommunication

Definition and Meaning

The Korean term chulgyo (黜敎) combines the characters chul (黜, "to expel") and gyo (敎, "to teach") and means to drive someone out of the church. In Korean Protestantism it refers to the most severe censure within church discipline, that is, the discipline the church administers to correct a member's sin. A person who has been excommunicated may not partake of the Lord's Supper, loses the rights and offices of church membership, and is removed from the church membership roll. As with other censures, the way is held to remain open for restoration (haebeol, 解罰): once the fruit of repentance has been confirmed, the censure is lifted and the person is received back.

Biblical and Historical Background

In the New Korean Revised Version (Gaeyeok Gaejeong) of the Bible, the word chulgyo is used for expulsion from the Jewish synagogue. In the account of the healing of the man born blind, the Jews "had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue" (John 9:22), and the same expression appears in John 12:42 and 16:2.

The passages most often cited as the basis for excommunication as practiced by the church are Matthew 18:15-17, which teaches that a brother who has sinned and refuses to heed admonition given first privately, then before witnesses, and then before the church is to be regarded "as an heathen man and a publican"; 1 Corinthians 5:13, which commands concerning a man guilty of sexual immorality, "put away from among yourselves that wicked person"; and Titus 3:10, which instructs believers to reject a heretic "after the first and second admonition."

From the time of the early church, the church has exercised discipline that excludes members from the community. In the medieval Roman Catholic Church this was called excommunication (in Korean, pamun, 破門), and Martin Luther himself was excommunicated by the papacy in 1521. Since the Reformation, Protestant churches have regarded discipline as one of the marks of the church and have described excommunication not primarily as punishment but as a last resort for the sake of the sinner's repentance and the purity of the church.

Practice in the Korean Church

In their provisions on discipline, the church constitutions of the various Presbyterian denominations divide censures into several stages, such as admonition, suspension from office, deposition, and suspension from the Lord's Supper, with excommunication as the most severe. Trials of church members are conducted by the session, and a member who contests the verdict may appeal to the presbytery and then to the General Assembly. Methodist and Holiness denominations are also reported to list excommunication among the censures in the judicial provisions of their respective constitutions. In churches with congregational polity, such as Baptist churches, a similar form of discipline is exercised when the members' meeting of the local congregation removes a person from membership.

In practice, excommunication is rarely pronounced. Observers note that the censure is difficult to enforce once a member moves to another church or denomination, and that in some church disputes excommunication has been used as a means of expelling the opposing faction, at times leading to litigation in the civil courts. Because excommunication is discipline directed at an individual member, it is distinguished from a heresy designation, in which a denominational general assembly renders judgment on a particular group or teaching.