Yi Ja-ik

Life

According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, he was born in 1882 in Namhae, South Gyeongsang Province, although the dates of his birth and death vary somewhat among sources. Born into a poor farming family, he lost his parents at an early age. In his late teens he worked as a peddler, traveling from place to place selling goods, before settling in Geumsan, Gimje, North Jeolla Province. There he is known to have worked as a groom and hired hand in the household of the wealthy Jo Deok-sam. Although he is often described as having been a "slave," the sources portray him not as a bondservant but as a hired laborer employed in another family's household.

In 1904 he came to the Christian faith through the evangelism of Lewis Tate (Korean name Choe Ui-deok), an American Southern Presbyterian missionary. He subsequently served as Tate's helper (josa, a Korean worker who assisted missionaries in evangelism and in caring for churches). A widely told story relates that at Dujeong-ri Church (now Geumsan Church), founded by Tate, he was elected an elder before his master, Jo Deok-sam. Jo is said to have accepted the outcome, deferred to him, and paid his tuition and his family's living expenses while he studied at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pyongyang. Sources differ on when he entered the seminary, giving dates such as 1908 and 1910. He was ordained a minister in 1915 and spent his later years in Wonpyeong-ri, Geumgu-myeon, Gimje.

Ministry and Achievements

After completing seminary, he accepted a call from Geumsan Church and became its senior pastor, thus becoming minister of a church in which his former master, Jo Deok-sam, served as an elder. He later also served at Gubong-ri Church (now Wonpyeong Church). He was moderator of the Jeonbuk Presbytery, and at the 13th General Assembly, held in South Hamgyong Province in 1924, he was elected moderator.

Shortly after his term as moderator, at the request of the Australian Presbyterian Mission, he spent about eleven years itinerating among and caring for churches in the Geochang, Hapcheon, and Hamyang areas of South Gyeongsang Province. Sources variously give 1925, 1926, or 1927 as the year he began his ministry in Geochang. During this period he was chosen as moderator of the Gyeongnam Presbytery, and he is said to have mediated conflicts in local churches, including a dispute at Munchang Church in Masan.

After liberation, he was elected moderator at two successive General Assemblies, the 33rd in 1947 and the 34th in 1948, serving as moderator three times in all. This was a time of deepening conflict within the Presbyterian General Assembly over how to deal with the Shinto shrine worship issue and over the theological direction of Kim Jae-jun of Chosun Theological Seminary. These conflicts later led to the schisms in Korean Presbyterianism. He subsequently served as moderator of the Daejeon Presbytery and as the first principal of Daejeon Theological Seminary, the predecessor of Daejeon Theological University, which today belongs to the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Tonghap).

Influence on the Korean Church

The story of Jo Deok-sam and Yi Ja-ik is regarded as an example of placing church office and service above barriers of social status, and it is frequently cited in Korean sermons and in the teaching of church history. The L-shaped (ㄱ-shaped) hanok sanctuary of Geumsan Church, where both men served, is preserved as a historic site that retains the features of the early Korean church, in which men and women were seated separately. The Rev. Moon Sung-mo, a former president of Daejeon Theological University, brought renewed attention to Yi and founded the Rev. Yi Ja-ik Memorial Association. In 2025, marking the centennial of his mission in Geochang, a book was published presenting and interpreting a diary he wrote in 1929.

Assessment

Those who honor him regard him as a minister of integrity who declined calls from large churches in order to remain with rural congregations throughout his life, and as a man who did not yield to pressure to participate in Shinto shrine worship. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, by contrast, states that in the final years of Japanese rule he devoted himself relatively quietly to pastoral ministry alone. Accounts of exactly how he responded during the shrine worship period thus differ among sources. No clear criticism directed at him has been identified. However, because the sources disagree on the dates of his birth and death and of his major ministries, further research grounded in primary historical sources is still needed.