Bongsu Church
About Bongsu
There are two Protestant churches in Pyongyang. These are the Bongsu Church and the Chilgol Church. Both have ministers and were opened in 1988. In addition there is the Changchung Roman Catholic Church, and the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church.
About 300 persons attend the regular Sunday morningat Bongsu. . The church has quite an extensive welfare programme. The Presbyterian Church of the United States of America PC(USA) has a supplied wheat flour to support noodle production. The PC(USA) has also supported the Bongsu Church's orphanage with donations of grain, medicine and diapers, and because of the shortage of milk cows in North Korea, it supplies soy milk to supplement the diet of babies and children. It has opened a bakery and noodle factory in Pyongyang as a humanitarian project. In 2010 the NZ DPRK Society donated 3,000 Euros for purchase of raw materials. you can read more about this project on:
The below photos were taken in 2005.
Since the above photos were taken, the church has been rebuilt in a partnership with the Presbyterian Church of Korea in the South.
Following in the footsteps of his father Billy Graham (who twice preached at Bongsu 1992 and 1994), Franklin Graham preached at Bongsu 3rd August 2008. As a young girl in the 1930's, Franklin's mother attended a Mission High School in Pyongyang.
Korean Christian Federation.
The official national Christian body in North Korea is the Korean Christian Federation.
The KCF has stated:
“The most important task of the federation is to lead Korean Christians to work for the construction and reunification of our country. In order to promote the reunification, we maintain close relations with many organizations including the World Council of Churches and Christian associations in foreign countries to ensure their support for the peaceful reunification of the Korea Peninsula. As the solidarity of the whole nation is the only way to realize a lasting peace in our country, Christians in north and south Korea and overseas should be united first.”
The KCF states that freedom of worship is guaranteed under the Constitution and that more than 50,000 copies of the Bible have been printed in the DPRK, which have been translated into Korean by members of the federation. On an official DPRK website, the KCF states there are more than 10,000 Protestants and about 5,000 Catholics in the DPRK, ranging in age from 30 to 60.