Seoul Holy Spirit Renewal Center

History & origins

Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Seoul began to take an organized form in the early 1970s as Life in the Spirit seminars and prayer groups were introduced into the Korean Church. According to the organization’s official history, a “Holy Spirit Movement Council” was formed on December 5, 1973, and in 1974 seminars and prayer meetings were conducted for Korean Catholics. As the movement spread through the dioceses, the Seoul Archdiocesan Catholic Charismatic Renewal organization was established in May 1978, and the first national charismatic renewal convention was held at Jangchung Gymnasium that same month. A founding general assembly in December 1979 further clarified the organization and its statutes at the archdiocesan level.

The movement expanded beyond prayer meetings and seminars into formation and youth ministry. A house of prayer was opened in Seongsan-dong in 1986, and a youth service organization was formed in 1991. As the apostolate grew, the need for an independent service center became more pressing. In 1999, plans to secure a center were discussed and approved at the archdiocesan level. A building in Sillim 8-dong was acquired in January 2000, the transfer of ownership was completed later that year, and in November the office was moved from Myeongdong to the Sillim-dong center.

The Sillim-dong building subsequently became the permanent hub of the Seoul renewal movement, bringing together prayer meetings, formation, retreats, and administrative functions. The facilities were renovated in 2009. The present Seoul Catholic Charismatic Renewal Service Center is therefore the result of a history that developed from a small council in 1973 into an archdiocesan organization with an independent space connecting numerous prayer communities and educational activities. The process shows how Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Seoul became a sustained archdiocesan apostolate rather than remaining a series of occasional gatherings. Securing the center was also an important change because it gave the organization a permanent pastoral space where prayer and formation could be carried out together, beyond the earlier office functions in Myeongdong.