Sinnam Church

History & origins

The predecessor of Sinnam Parish, Bupyeong-ri Mission Station, already had seven or eight Catholic households around 1923. A priest from Hongcheon Parish visited during the spring and autumn seasonal confession periods to administer the sacraments. A mission chapel was later built with assistance from U.S. troops stationed at Gwandae-ri, but in 1972 the area was submerged as a result of the Soyang Dam project and the chapel was removed.

After losing the earlier mission station, the community secured land at the site of the present church. The pastor of Inje Parish, with help from an Irish benefactor, constructed a chapel, and the faithful again used it as their mission station. The community became a quasi-parish in December 1990 and was elevated to a full parish on April 19, 1994.

The former mission building continued to serve the parish after its elevation, but it gradually deteriorated. Construction of a new church began in 2006, and on November 25 of that year Bishop Chang Yik presided at the blessing of the completed church. The history of Sinnam Parish is therefore closely tied to a community displaced by inundation that rebuilt its place of faith and gradually developed from a mission station into a quasi-parish and then a parish.