Songguyeongsin Service

Definition and Meaning

Songguyeongsin (送舊迎新) is a Sino-Korean expression meaning "sending off the old and welcoming the new." The Songguyeongsin service is a worship service in which a congregation gathers on the last night of the year and greets midnight together. It is not a feast or season of the traditional liturgical calendar of the Western church. In Korean Protestantism, however, it has become a customary observance kept by nearly every church, regardless of denomination.

Biblical and Historical Background

No passage of Scripture directly commands a Songguyeongsin service. Korean churches frequently read the following texts at this service:

• Psalm 90:12: a prayer for wisdom to number our days
• Isaiah 43:18-19: the promise that God will do a new thing beyond the former things
• 1 Samuel 7:12: the confession that "hitherto hath the LORD helped us"

Its historical roots are commonly traced to the watch night service of the eighteenth-century Methodist movement led by John Wesley. A watch night service is one in which worshipers keep watch through the night in prayer. Wesley is said to have adopted this practice from the Moravians. The tradition is believed to have reached Korea through missionaries and to have developed into the Songguyeongsin service, but when and where it was first held has not been firmly established.

Practice in Korean Churches

Many churches begin the service around 11 p.m. and greet midnight together. The order of worship typically consists of praise, testimonies and thanksgiving reflecting on the past year, a sermon, corporate audible prayer for the new year, and the benediction. Some churches also celebrate Holy Communion. Many people attend as families, and in some churches the pastor offers a prayer of blessing over each household.

A widespread custom is "drawing a Word" (malsseum ppopgi), in which each person draws a card bearing a Bible verse and adopts it as a word of promise for the new year. Some regard this as an occasion to begin the new year with Scripture. Other pastors and theologians, however, are concerned that it can lead people to treat verses detached from their context as though they were fortunes.

Practices also vary according to denominational tradition. Some Methodist congregations, including those of the Korean Methodist Church, hold a covenant renewal service at the new year, a practice that originated with Wesley. The Anglican Church of Korea, following the liturgical calendar, traditionally observes January 1 as the feast of the Naming of Jesus.

In recent years, a growing number of churches have moved the service to an earlier evening hour or replaced it with a New Year's Day service on January 1, citing the burden of returning home late and the aging of congregations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many churches held the service as an online worship service. It is also common for churches to follow the Songguyeongsin service with a New Year special early-morning prayer series in early January.