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History & origins

The roots of Sinsa Peter Catholic Church go back to May 1, 1983, when the Sillim 4-dong mission station opened under Sillim-dong Parish. The parish history preserved by Seoul Archdiocese GoodNews explicitly identifies this date as the opening of the mission station. The community was created so Catholics in Sillim 4-dong could attend Mass and receive formation closer to home. In April 1988 it purchased land and a building at the present site, and in September of that year its jurisdiction was transferred from Sillim-dong Parish to Nangok-dong Parish, while the community itself continued without interruption.

On August 22, 1990, the Archdiocese of Seoul elevated the Sillim 4-dong mission station of Nangok-dong Parish to an independent parish. The former mission community thus acquired the full liturgical and pastoral organization of a parish. In subsequent years parishioners acquired neighboring properties for a larger church site, and in 1995 a building subcommittee was organized to advance plans for a new church. The chronology therefore needs to distinguish clearly between 1983, when the mission station opened, and 1990, when it was elevated to parish status.

For many years the parish served the area under the name Sillim 4-dong Catholic Church and later came to use the present name Sinsa Peter Catholic Church. The change did not sever the community's history; it expressed the same parish's continuing identity more clearly through its local name and patron, St. Peter. Today's parish is the result of a sequence of mission opening, land acquisition, jurisdictional change, parish elevation, and preparation for a permanent church. Remembering the mission years together with the parish years emphasizes that the current community was built gradually rather than created all at once, and that continuity remains part of its identity.