Jinsari Church

History & origins

Jinsari Parish was established on January 30, 1998, when it was separated from Bijeon-dong Parish. The new parish chose the Holy Family of the Child Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph as its patrons and began as an independent community for Catholics in the Gongdo area. Securing a permanent church quickly became an important task, and the first pastor and parishioners began preparing for construction soon after the parish was founded.

Ground was broken for the church on September 4, 1999, and on June 24 of the following year the first Mass was celebrated in the new building while work was still progressing. The dedication of the church took place on November 7, 2001, completing the basic liturgical and pastoral setting of the independent parish. The rapid sequence of separation, construction, entrance, and dedication reflects the need for a stable Catholic community in the growing Gongdo area. Around the new church, parish organizations, the choir, and youth groups gradually developed and gave the parish a more settled pastoral structure. The fact that the church was dedicated little more than three years after the parish was founded shows that securing a stable liturgical home was one of the central tasks of the early community.

The parish marked its tenth anniversary in 2008 and continued its work in parish organizations, evangelization, youth ministry, and community fellowship. On December 31, 2023, it celebrated a Mass for the twenty-fifth anniversary of its establishment and remembered those who had worked to build the church and form the early community. The Diocese of Suwon describes those twenty-five years as a history in which successive priests, volunteers, and parishioners helped the parish grow after the construction of the church. Whereas the first major task was to secure an independent church, the later history increasingly centered on widening the parish’s internal foundations through evangelization, youth ministry, service, and fellowship.