On the 23rd they broke ground on St. Michael's Cathedral (성미카엘기념대성당) and facilities in Mokpo's Sanjeong-dong. They say about a thousand people showed up for the eleven o'clock ceremony at the site of the former St. Columban Hospital.
Do you know Hogwart's? It is kind of traditional Korean building.
I'll have more on this church a little later. I was doing a much longer post about this but got bogged down with too many links when all I really wanted to do was post that picture.
Catholic churches in Korea used to be a lot more subdued, but lately, St. John's Cathedral in Pundang, they're looking like they're ripped from the Sim City 2000 box.
What a waste of money. Instead of trying to outdo other churches (churches competing against each other? ? that's gotta be a sin!) or trying to get more people (for more donations, add another sin to the list) why wouldn't they do something MODEST instead? Make a modest church and take the rest of the funds and give those back to those in need? I suppose it all went downhill after they started putting up the neon crosses...@@
ummm...I know the Korean Catholics aren't the most practising of the Catholics but surely they should realise that Lust (namely extravagance) and Greed are against the seven virtues.
It looks almoust excactly like the cathedral in Limburg, Hesse, in Germany : Limburger Dom The church has the same number of towers and shape and similar color. Google images and Limburg Dom as surch word.
Brian, would you be able to look into if all Korean churches are requiring foreigners to register when they attend? At least one Gwangju church that has services for foreign workers is requiring that they regisiter if they attend the church.
Whenever I see someone building a giant $$$$ church, I'm always reminded of Leacock's story from Sunshine Sketches about the pastor who wanted build a "greater testimony".
http://www.classicreader.com/book/1530/5/
Presently the church was opened and the Dean preached his first sermon in it, and he called it a Greater Testimony, and he said that it was an earnest, or first fruit of endeavour, and that it was a token or pledge, and he named it also a covenant. He said, too, that it was an anchorage and a harbour and a lighthouse as well as being a city set upon a hill; and he ended by declaring it an Ark of Refuge and notified them that the Bible Class would meet in the basement of it on that and every other third Wednesday.
In the opening months of preaching about it the Dean had called the church so often an earnest and a pledge and a guerdon and a tabernacle, that I think he used to forget that it wasn't paid for. It was only when the agent of the building society and a representative of the Hosanna Pipe and Steam Organ Co. (Limited), used to call for quarterly payments that he was suddenly reminded of the fact. Always after these men came round the Dean used to preach a special sermon on sin, in the course of which he would mention that the ancient Hebrews used to put unjust traders to death,--a thing of which he spoke with Christian serenity.
I don't think that at first anybody troubled much about the debt on the church. Dean Drone's figures showed that it was only a matter of time before it would be extinguished; only a little effort was needed, a little girding up of the loins of the congregation and they could shoulder the whole debt and trample it under their feet. Let them but set their hands to the plough and they could soon guide it into the deep water. Then they might furl their sails and sit every man under his own olive tree.
Meantime, while the congregation was waiting to gird up its loins, the interest on the debt was paid somehow, or, when it wasn't paid, was added to the principal.
I don't know whether you have had any experience with Greater Testimonies and with Beacons set on Hills. If you have, you will realize how, at first gradually, and then rapidly, their position from year to year grows more distressing. What with the building loan and the organ instalment, and the fire insurance,--a cruel charge,-- and the heat and light, the rector began to realize as he added up the figures that nothing but logarithms could solve them. Then the time came when not only the rector, but all the wardens knew and the sidesmen knew that the debt was more than the church could carry; then the choir knew and the congregation knew and at last everybody knew; and there were special collections at Easter and special days of giving, and special weeks of tribulation, and special arrangements with the Hosanna Pipe and Steam Organ Co. And it was noticed that when the Rural Dean announced a service of Lenten Sorrow,--aimed more especially at the business men,--the congregation had diminished by forty per cent.
17 comments:
That is insane!
Holy f**k, it's Neuschwanstein Castle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle
Do you know Hogwart's? It is kind of traditional Korean building.
I'll have more on this church a little later. I was doing a much longer post about this but got bogged down with too many links when all I really wanted to do was post that picture.
that is disgusting...
Catholic churches in Korea used to be a lot more subdued, but lately, St. John's Cathedral in Pundang, they're looking like they're ripped from the Sim City 2000 box.
What a waste of money. Instead of trying to outdo other churches (churches competing against each other? ? that's gotta be a sin!) or trying to get more people (for more donations, add another sin to the list) why wouldn't they do something MODEST instead? Make a modest church and take the rest of the funds and give those back to those in need?
I suppose it all went downhill after they started putting up the neon crosses...@@
ummm...I know the Korean Catholics aren't the most practising of the Catholics but surely they should realise that Lust (namely extravagance) and Greed are against the seven virtues.
The neon crosses are the purview of the Protestants (especially the Presbyterians), not the Catholics.
And it's not like the Catholic church (in Korea and elsewhere) doesn't do a lot of charity and other stuff "for those in need."
necrone666, what do you mean "the Korean Catholics aren't the most practising of the Catholics"? Compared to whom?
It looks almoust excactly like the cathedral in Limburg, Hesse, in Germany : Limburger Dom
The church has the same number of towers and shape and similar color.
Google images and Limburg Dom as surch word.
Brian, would you be able to look into if all Korean churches are requiring foreigners to register when they attend? At least one Gwangju church that has services for foreign workers is requiring that they regisiter if they attend the church.
Whenever I see someone building a giant $$$$ church, I'm always reminded of Leacock's story from Sunshine Sketches about the pastor who wanted build a "greater testimony".
http://www.classicreader.com/book/1530/5/
Presently the church was opened and the Dean preached his first sermon in it, and he called it a Greater Testimony, and he said that it was an earnest, or first fruit of endeavour, and that it was a token or pledge, and he named it also a covenant. He said, too, that it was an anchorage and a harbour and a lighthouse as well as being a city set upon a hill; and he ended by declaring it an Ark of Refuge and notified them that the Bible Class would meet in the basement of it on that and every other third Wednesday.
In the opening months of preaching about it the Dean had called the church so often an earnest and a pledge and a guerdon and a tabernacle, that I think he used to forget that it wasn't paid for. It was only when the agent of the building society and a representative of the Hosanna Pipe and Steam Organ Co. (Limited), used to call for quarterly payments that he was suddenly reminded of the fact. Always after these men came round the Dean used to preach a special sermon on sin, in the course of which he would mention that the ancient Hebrews used to put unjust traders to death,--a thing of which he spoke with Christian serenity.
I don't think that at first anybody troubled much about the debt on the church. Dean Drone's figures showed that it was only a matter of time before it would be extinguished; only a little effort was needed, a little girding up of the loins of the congregation and they could shoulder the whole debt and trample it under their feet. Let them but set their hands to the plough and they could soon guide it into the deep water. Then they might furl their sails and sit every man under his own olive tree.
Meantime, while the congregation was waiting to gird up its loins, the interest on the debt was paid somehow, or, when it wasn't paid, was added to the principal.
I don't know whether you have had any experience with Greater Testimonies and with Beacons set on Hills. If you have, you will realize how, at first gradually, and then rapidly, their position from year to year grows more distressing. What with the building loan and the organ instalment, and the fire insurance,--a cruel charge,-- and the heat and light, the rector began to realize as he added up the figures that nothing but logarithms could solve them. Then the time came when not only the rector, but all the wardens knew and the sidesmen knew that the debt was more than the church could carry; then the choir knew and the congregation knew and at last everybody knew; and there were special collections at Easter and special days of giving, and special weeks of tribulation, and special arrangements with the Hosanna Pipe and Steam Organ Co. And it was noticed that when the Rural Dean announced a service of Lenten Sorrow,--aimed more especially at the business men,--the congregation had diminished by forty per cent.
And wait. Where does the Emart and It's Skin store go in this design?
Wow, Jens-Olaf, you're right they really do look similar. Especiall this picture:
http://fotografiert.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/ansichtssache-der-dom-zu-limburg/dsc07786/
Great, a reverse-engineered cathedral!
Korean Christianity: the last bastion against the domination of Islam.
Korea: the Hub of Christianity
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