Robert Brennan (born 1941) is a New Zealand priest of the Missionary Society of St. Columban in South Korea. He is a social activist.
He spent his childhood in Auckland and was educated at St Peter's College, Auckland. He trained as a priest in Australia and was ordained a priest on 3 July 1965. [1]
Brennan was sent to South Korea in 1966 and spent 12 years in the poor coal mining mountainous area of Kang Won Province; In 1980 he moved to Seoul where he has been involved in housing rights, fighting for the people being dispossessed of their homes in the name of re-development; On 4 September 2012 he was awarded the City of Seoul's Grand Prize for Social Welfare in recognition of his 32-year fight for and on behalf of evictees in the city of Seoul; The Mayor of Seoul, Park Won-soon made the award at a public ceremony; In his address of congratulation the Mayor said: "The blue-eyed foreigner is a model of selfless dedication and sacrifice on behalf of the poorest members of our city"; Since 2004 Brennan has also run the Samyang Resident Solidarity which works for those looking for jobs and also provides small loans. [2] In 2012 Brennan was granted honorary citizenship of the city of Seoul in recognition of his community services including financial services, job counseling, and housing for the homeless and evictees. He was quoted as saying: "I, myself, have been evicted from my house three times and I will go anywhere if someone without a home needs my help." In identifying with his Korean mission, Brennan adopted the Korean name Ahn Gwang-hoon. [3]
The Anglican Church of Korea is the province of the Anglican Communion in North and South Korea. Founded in 1889, it has over 120 parish and mission churches with a total membership of roughly 65,000 people.
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Ahn Changho, sometimes An Chang-ho was a Korean independence activist and one of the early leaders of the Korean-American immigrant community in the United States. He is also referred to by his pen name Dosan. A protestant social activist, he established the Shinminhoe when he returned to Korea from the US in 1907. It was the most important organization to fight the Japanese occupation of Korea. He established the Young Korean Academy in San Francisco in 1913 and was a key member in the founding of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai in 1919. Ahn is one of two men believed to have written the lyrics of "Aegukga", the South Korean national anthem. Besides his work for the Independence Movement, Dosan wanted to reform the Korean people's character and the entire social system of Korea. Educational reform and modernizing schools were two key efforts of Dosan. He was the father of actors Ralph, Philip Ahn, and US Navy Lieutenant Susan Ahn Cuddy, who also later worked for the Office of Naval Intelligence, the National Security Agency, the Library of Congress, and the US Department of Defense. He also founded the Moongate Chinese restaurant.
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