Page 75 - 영문 이성필성지순례여행

72 Gangwon-do Gangwon-do 73

57 Chuncheon Central Church 58 Cheorwon Methodist Church

30 Yeongseo-ro 2151beon-gil, Chuncheon www.chmchurch.org 219-1 Geumhak-ro, Dongsong-eup, Cheorwon-gun http://철원감리교회.com

Cheorwon Methodist Church was the first church to be established in Cheorwon. Although
it remains as a ruins now, it retains the tragic division of the country and makes visitors
feel the devastation of war. The first chapel was built with red bricks in 1920, but some of
the remaining chapel is a stone structure built in 1936 with one basement and three floors
above ground stacked with volcanic and granite.
The chapel was designed by Merrell Vories Hitotsuyanagi, an American architect who had
taught at the architecture department of the Osaka University of the Arts in Japan since
1905, and it is registered cultural property No. 32. At that time, it was a large church with
about 500 members, but it was closed after the Korean War. Cheorwon Methodist Church
was also the base of the first independence movement in Gangwon-do during the March
1st Movement in 1919. During the Korean War, young Christian students’ anticommunist
Chuncheon Central Church
movement developed around Cheorwon Methodist Church. Unfortunately, it was also used
as a place to torture anti-communist fighters while being in the hands of the North Korean
People’s Army and used by them during the war.
“the Protestant Methodist Church, founded in 1898.”
“The site of the anti-communist movement and a repository
The missionary department that first preached the of memories with the scars of the Korean War.”
gospel in Chuncheon, a lakeside city, was American
Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission. American Chuncheon Art Museum
Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission decided on Cheorwon Methodist Church
with only ruins left
missionary work in Gangwon Province in December
1897 and sent scholars, Na Bong-sik and Jeong Dong-
ryeol, to Chuncheon in 1898 to open the door of
missionary work. Around 1900, it was possible to obtain
40 to 160 believers from 20 villages in Chuncheon, and
Grave of Yi Deok-su
some believers were baptized. Missionary Moose, who
was in charge of missionary work in Gangwon-do, began worshiping in Toesonggol (current Cheorwon Methodist Church's
Seoksa-dong) , a town about 6km from downtown Chuncheon, in April 1900 with Bible original appearance
salesmen who were touring Gangwon-do. In 1902, Yi Deok-su, a native of Gorangpo,
Gyeonggi-do, moved to Chuncheon and devoted himself to local missionary work. He
entered downtown Chuncheon with a lot of Bible and evangelized, set up a four-room
thatched house in Bongui-dong, downtown Chuncheon and used it as a chapel. This is
the beginning of Chuncheon Central Church. He toured all parts of Gangwon-do until
his death in April 1909 after suffering from tuberculosis due to overwork, and the fruit of
his work is Chuncheon Central Church. Yi Deok-su’s grave is located in the graveyard of the Cheorwon Korean Workers’
Cheorwon Methodist Church Restoration Memorial Hall Party Headquarters
Chuncheon Central Church.