Haepyeong Church

History & origins

The Catholic community in Haepyeong did not begin as an independent parish. According to records of the Archdiocese of Daegu, Haepyeong Mission Station grew under Seonsan Parish and was elevated to parish status on November 7, 1969, when Haepyeong Parish was established. The new parish was dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity and took pastoral responsibility not only for Haepyeong but also for nearby mission stations.

After the parish was established, it continued to care for several mission communities spread across the rural districts. Among them, Jangcheon Mission Station grew sufficiently to be elevated to a separate parish in 2010 and was divided from Haepyeong. This development shows how a rural parish could nurture smaller mission communities across a wide territory until changes in population and pastoral conditions made a new parish possible.

Following the separation of Jangcheon, Haepyeong Catholic Church has continued to care for Naksan and Dogae mission stations. The course by which a community that began as a mission station in the 1960s became an independent parish and later helped another mission community grow into a parish shows that the history of Haepyeong has been shaped by the expansion and reorganization of the Church in northeastern Gumi rather than by one fixed local boundary.