The Diocese of Seoul has elected an evangelical clergyman to be its seventh bishop. The Rt. Rev. Elijah Kim Jang-whan (金長煥) was consecrated on 26 Sept 2024 at the Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin and St Nicholas in Seoul as the seventh bishop of the diocese and third bishop of the missionary district of North Korea.
Bishop Kim (60) was ordained in May 1998 in the diocese of Seoul and served his title as Assistant Priest of Suwon Church in Seoul. In 1999 he became the assistant, and then the rector in 2001 of Dongsuwon Church in Seoul before becoming priest in charge of Osan Seoma Church in 2005 – the largest evangelical parish in the diocese. In 2017 he moved to Bundang Church, and in 2022, became priest in charge of Daehakro church. On 13 April 2024 he was elected bishop of the Anglican Church of Korea’s largest and oldest diocese.
Traditionally Anglo-Catholic in churchmanship, Bishop Kim’s election as an evangelical marks a change in the leadership of the Korean church’s largest diocese.
