Seokchon-dong Catholic Church

History & origins

Seokchon-dong Parish grew out of the rapid population increase in Songpa during the 1980s. As Jamsil Parish became very large, plans were made to divide it, and in 1987 preparations began to secure land for a new church in the Samjeon-dong area. On August 22, 1988, Seokchon-dong Parish was established with territory taken from Jamsil Parish in Samjeon-dong and part of the Jamsil area, together with Seokchon-dong territory from Garak-dong Parish. The parish’s official history records that the new community began with 1,236 households and 3,560 Catholics.

After Fr. Kim Seung-gu Martin arrived as the first pastor, the new parish celebrated its first Mass outdoors on the church property on September 11, 1988. In December, Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan presided over the blessing of a 100-pyeong prefabricated temporary church, and a temporary education building followed in 1990. The first property, however, was not suitable for a permanent church, so the parish secured the present site through a land-exchange arrangement in 1991. The new community thus developed its worship and formation facilities step by step from the moment of its establishment.

Construction of the present church began in October 1992. The Encyclopedia of Korean Catholicism records that after roughly three years of work, a complex with two basement levels and five floors above ground, including the church, rectory, and convent, was completed and dedicated on October 28, 1995. The parish’s own introduction gives June of the same year as the building’s completion, indicating that physical completion and liturgical dedication occurred several months apart. A fellowship room was added in 1997, and in 1998 the parish published a ten-year history. The development of Seokchon-dong thus traces the passage from subdivision of very large mother parishes, through temporary worship, to the acquisition of a permanent site and the completion of a stable parish complex in the growing city of Songpa.