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| The buildings of Sarang Church in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul. The Supreme Court recently ruled the district office abused its power to illegally lease the underground space to the church. / Korea Times file |
By Lee Suh-yoon
Sarang Church, a brick-and-glass behemoth planted over Seocho Station on Seoul Metro Line 2, may lose its biggest chapel hall.
Built in 2013, the 9,380-seat chapel is underground. Much of it lies underneath a public road behind the main building. Guinness World Records recognized the chapel in 2015 as the world's largest underground church.
On Oct. 17, the Supreme Court annulled a 10-year lease given to Sarang Church for the 1,077-square-meter underground space ― the size of 1.5 football fields ― beneath Chamnari Road. The court sided with the local residents who claimed Seocho-gu officials abused their power to grant an illegal lease of a public space.
Though underground in the first place, the chapel created a space that was "socially, economically, and culturally limited in access ― unable to serve public purposes for nearby residents," according to a 2017 Seoul Administrative Court ruling upheld by the top court.
Seocho-gu Office said it would abide by the Supreme Court decision. To do so, it would have to withdraw the lease and order the church to remove a section of the underground chapel extending under the public road, filling it back in with soil and utilities. The process will cost an estimated 39 billion won ($33 million), church authorities say. A failure to comply will result in large yearly fines.
Sarang Church, on the other hand, said it would negotiate with the municipal office to figure out a "reasonable and legal purpose" for the chapel.
"We would not have built the chapel in the first place if the district office had not authorized the lease," the church said in a statement published on its website shortly after the ruling. "Restoring the site to its formal state at this stage incurs massive losses to our property and wealth."
The church added it would take "all legal, administrative measures" if Seocho-gu Office refuses to extend its lease, which expires this year. As the lease was given at the district office's discretion, the office and relevant officials could also face a compensation suit from the church.
Founded as a small community church in 1978, Sarang Church now boasts 90,000 members. Like other megachurches in Seoul, it yields significant influence in Korean society. Critics accuse the church of pulling political strings to secure the lease for a permanent structure under public land.
In an interview with an MBC investigative journalism TV show in 2011, former district office head Park Sung-joong said powerful political figures reached out to him while the district office was reviewing Sarang Church's request to lease the underground space, including a former Cheong Wa Dae official.
Park, now a Liberty Korea Party (LKP) lawmaker for the district, granted the lease in 2010, after the church offered part of its building space for the municipal office to run a daycare facility. The church also claims it paid the municipal office around 400 million won each year as rent.
In December 2011, around 300 local residents requested a city government audit into Seocho-gu Office, saying the district office was granting illegal favors for the construction of the new chapel ― including the lease of public land and the closing down of exits 3 and 4 of Seocho Station, which reopened later as entrances to the church. Following the audit, Seoul Metropolitan Government ordered the district office to revoke the lease, saying a chapel could not count as a public facility and therefore had no legal grounds to occupy a public space. The district office ignored the city's order. Sewage pipes, phone lines and gas pipes were all cleared and diverted from beneath Chamnari Road and the chapel was completed in 2013.
Hwang Il-geun, a former Seocho-gu council member who filed the administrative suit against the lease with local residents, welcomed the ruling.
"It is the right decision to set right the violation of local residents' rights and public interest," he told local press outside the courtroom last Thursday. "If the church fails to restore the site to its former state, additional lawsuits demanding legal accountability from the district office head will also have to be considered."
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