Jindong Church

History & origins

Jindong Parish traces its origin to the Geumsan mission station established in Geumsan-ri, Jinbuk-myeon in 1950. It was initially under Wanwoldong Parish and consisted of a small community in a remote valley. As the need for a more accessible center of faith grew, a new site was secured in Jisan-ri, Jinbuk-myeon, in 1981, and the mission station was moved there and reorganized as the Samjin mission station.

At Samjin, Mass was celebrated with the help of an assistant priest from Wanwoldong Parish and priests from the Carmelite monastery while the community prepared for parish status. In 1990 the diocese purchased rice fields in Jindong-ri, providing a site for an independent parish church. Catholics seeking parish status worked to strengthen the community and, following encouragement from the bishop, took turns by household in a novena that continued for 108 days, building both numbers and communal unity.

After this preparation, Jindong was elevated to a parish on August 17, 1993. Because a permanent church had not yet been built, the community cleared a donor’s yard and erected a tent church for temporary use. The sequence from Geumsan mission station to Samjin mission station and then to an independent parish shows how Catholics across a broad rural area prepared over many years and gradually built the community that became Jindong Parish.

The original Geumsan mission station was located in an inconvenient valley and began with only a small group centered largely on relatives of the mission leader. Moving the mission to a more accessible place was therefore more than a change of building; it meant creating a pastoral center where Catholics scattered across a broad area could realistically gather. The 1981 move and formation of the Samjin mission station became an important preparatory stage for the later establishment of Jindong Parish.