Omokcheon-dong Church

History & origins

Omokcheon-dong Parish was established on June 25, 2013, after separating from Gosaek-dong Parish. The following year, Saint John the Baptist was formally approved as its patron, and the new community began the work of building an independent parish base and its own church.

After ground was broken in 2015, construction continued for a little over a year, and the first Mass in the new church was celebrated on October 2, 2016. An entrance Mass followed in 2017 as the center of parish life moved into the new building. The construction process also faced difficulties, including the removal of buried waste from the site and the acquisition of additional land.

On May 14, 2023, the parish's tenth-anniversary year, Bishop Mathias Lee Yong-hoon presided at the formal dedication of the new church. The roughly ten-year sequence—from parish establishment to groundbreaking, the first Mass, entry into the building, and final dedication—shows a community completing its place of worship step by step. The parish accompanied this period with the Rosary and efforts toward the spiritual renewal of the community, linking the completion of the building with growth in faith.

Omokcheon-dong is notable because its foundation, the main stages of church construction, and the final dedication are recorded with unusual clarity in a single retrospective account. Its early history can therefore be described more precisely than a generic move from temporary worship to a permanent building: after becoming independent, the community dealt with site problems and construction, began using the new church, and only later reached formal dedication. The coincidence of the tenth anniversary with the dedication also made the period a symbolic point where the formation of the parish community and the completion of its church came together.