Hwalcheon Church

History & origins

The background to the formation of Hwalcheon Parish was the growth of the Catholic community in Gimhae and the resulting need to divide the older parish territory. The Catholic Encyclopedia of Korea records that the increasing number of Catholics in the late 1980s created a growing need for parish division and that, after Jangyu Parish had been separated, preparations were under way in February 1995 for the separation of Hwalcheon. The Catholic Church directory in Korea records February 4, 1995, as the formal establishment date of Hwalcheon Parish.

After becoming independent, the parish took root as a Catholic community serving eastern Gimhae. In time it also became involved in the creation of another parish in the surrounding area. A notice from the Diocese of Busan states that Jinae Parish was created by separating territory from Hwalcheon and Ulman parishes. This shows that Hwalcheon, after developing its own community, became one of the mother parishes from which a new local parish was formed as Catholic demographics continued to change.

In 2015 the parish marked its twentieth anniversary with a commemorative prayer, a photo exhibition, a pilgrimage involving the whole parish, a time capsule, and a special Mass. The anniversary was not treated only as a single celebration but became the occasion for a sustained effort to organize and preserve the parish’s history.

That effort resulted in the publication, at the end of 2016, of the roughly 470-page twenty-year history Behind the Twenty Years of Hwalcheon Parish, reported by the Catholic Times in January 2017. The volume organized the parish’s development by the periods of its pastors and documented changes in lay apostolic groups. Hwalcheon thus developed from a parish formed in response to the growth of Gimhae into a community that later contributed to the creation of another parish and consciously recorded its own history. The appendix also preserved photographs and annual records of parish statistics and sacramental life, showing an intention to conserve the community’s memory as documentary material rather than only as commemorative events.