Okgye Catholic Church

History & origins

The Catholic community in Okgye began as the Namyang-ri mission station. According to the Diocese of Chuncheon, around 1955 land was acquired for the present church site and the mission station was moved there, becoming Okgye Mission Station. It was first under Seongnae-dong Parish, and after Mukho Parish was established on May 20, 1962, jurisdiction over Okgye was transferred to Mukho.

In the early 1990s, the arrival of Halla Cement stimulated the local economy and brought increases in population and the number of Catholics, strengthening the need for an independent parish. Okgye Mission Station was therefore elevated to a parish on April 19, 1994. In June of the same year, Anin Mission Station, previously under Noam-dong Parish, was transferred to Okgye Parish.

After the parish was established, changes in local industry directly affected the community. The 1997 financial crisis and restructuring at Halla Cement led workers and Catholic families to leave the area, reducing both the number of faithful and the parish's financial resources. Even through these difficulties, Okgye Parish continued the faith life that had grown from its earlier mission-station community.

The history of the Okgye community is therefore more than an administrative transition from mission station to parish. The arrival of industry and the later economic crisis directly changed the composition of the Catholic population and the conditions under which the parish operated. Through those changes, the parish still had to sustain the liturgical and sacramental life of the faithful who remained. The sequence of relocation, jurisdictional changes, parish elevation, and economic crisis shows how closely Okgye Parish developed alongside the changing local community.