Sangam-dong Church

History & origins

Sangam-dong Parish was established on February 11, 2010, by separation from Susaek Parish. Its official history records that the new community began with 1,462 Catholics in 561 households. After the first pastor arrived, the first Mass was celebrated in a container on February 23, and beginning on February 28 Sunday Mass was held in the auditorium of Sangji Elementary School. The parish existed independently, but it did not yet have a permanent church.

Ownership of the future church site was transferred in July of that year, and the community began preparing for construction. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on January 11, 2011. The new church was completed and approved for use on April 19, 2012, and two days later, on April 21, the parish moved into the building and celebrated its first Mass there.

Preparation for the formal dedication continued after the building came into use. On November 9, 2014, the church was dedicated with Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung presiding. A community that had begun in temporary spaces thus obtained a fully established liturgical home a little more than four years after its foundation. The process shows a new Catholic community taking root alongside the development of Sangam New Town, moving step by step from temporary worship sites to construction and finally to dedication. For roughly two years between the parish’s foundation and its move into the new church, the community used temporary worship sites while at the same time securing land and pursuing construction. The organization of the parish and the building of its church therefore overlapped rather than occurring as separate stages. The additional period between beginning use of the church in 2012 and its formal dedication in 2014 also shows a gradual completion in which the physical building and its liturgical dedication were treated as distinct steps.