Korean Hymnal Society

Overview

The Korean Hymnal Society is a joint body established to consolidate, publish, and manage the hymnals that individual denominations had previously used separately. As a result of the hymnals it has published, many Korean Protestant churches, regardless of denomination, have come to use the same hymnal in worship. In the late 2000s, a dispute over converting the Society into an incorporated foundation led to conflict and a series of lawsuits.

Founding and History

During the 1960s and 1970s, Korean churches were divided among three hymnals: the Union Hymnal (1949), the New Hymnal (1962), and the Revised Hymnal (1967). On February 3, 1977, the New Hymnal Committee, which held the publishing rights to the New Hymnal, and the Korean Hymnal Committee, which held the publishing rights to the Revised Hymnal, formed the Joint Hymnal Promotion Committee. On April 9, 1981, this committee changed its name to the Korean Hymnal Society. Nine denominations are reported to have taken part in its founding.

In 1983 the Society published the Unified Hymnal (558 hymns), which merged the three hymnals into one. More than 80 percent of its contents were translations of American and British hymns. In 1996 a Hymnal Development Committee was formed, composed of representatives appointed by the denominations together with theologians, church musicians, and writers. After more than ten years of work, the committee published the 21st Century Hymnal in 2006, which is commonly known as the New Hymnal. Its distinctive features include the addition of 128 hymns written by Koreans and the arrangement of hymns according to the church year.

Principal Activities

• Compiling and revising a hymnal used jointly by multiple denominations
• Managing hymnal publishing rights through contracts with publishers
• Managing the rights to the hymns included in the hymnal

Member Denominations and Organization

The Society was originally formed by the two hymnal committees pooling their publishing rights. It is governed by committee members and directors appointed by the member denominations, and for many years it operated under a system of co-chairpersons. The current list of member denominations has not been confirmed for this article.

Incorporation Dispute and Copyright Litigation

Around 2007–2008, the Society obtained authorization to establish an incorporated foundation. Proponents of incorporation explained that the Society had resolved at its founding to become a legal entity. They further argued that incorporation was necessary because, while operating as an unincorporated association without legal status, the Society had faced concerns over denominational self-interest and financial transparency. By contrast, the New Hymnal Committee and the Korean Hymnal Committee stated that they had never consented to the establishment of the foundation and did not recognize the transfer of rights and assets to it. In June 2008 they launched a separate, unincorporated Society. The Christian Council of Korea and the National Council of Churches in Korea also formed response committees and called for the foundation to be dissolved. Later, however, the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Tonghap) shifted to supporting the foundation, and at the end of 2009 the committee members appointed by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapdong) also recognized the foundation, after which the activities of the unincorporated Society declined significantly.

The foundation filed a copyright lawsuit against five individuals, including the composer Park Jae-hoon, and against the Korea Music Copyright Association. The foundation partially prevailed at first instance. The Seoul High Court, however, found that it could not readily be concluded that the foundation had lawfully acquired the copyrights held by the original Society, and around 2011 the Supreme Court upheld this ruling. In subsequent damages suits filed by the Korea Music Copyright Association, courts repeatedly found the Society liable. In 2016 the Seoul Southern District Court ordered damages of 90 million won, and in 2018 the Seoul High Court, in a separate case, ordered the Society and several publishers to pay damages.

On February 5, 2016, the opposing parties agreed to normalize the Society's operations. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Society announced a policy of collecting copyright fees for worship videos that used hymns from its hymnal. Some denominational media outlets criticized the policy, arguing that the copyrights to the hymnal belonged not to the Society but to the individual denominations.