Yoon attends Christmas services at church he attended as a child

Dec 26, 2022, 09:00 am

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President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee attend a Christmas service at Youngnam Church in Seongbuk District, northern Seoul, on Dec. 25, 2022./ Source: Presidential Office

AsiaToday reporter Kim Na-ri & Lee Ha-eun

“Love our neighbors will be the way to realize the will of Jesus who came to the world,” President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Christmas.

“On Christmas, Jesus came to the lowest place in the world to save the poor and the weak,” Yoon said after attending a Christmas service with his wife Kim Keon-hee at Youngnam Church in Seoul, where he attended when he was a child.

The seat where Yoon sat at the worship service on Sunday became a hot topic as it was reportedly the same seat where he prayed at the service 49 years ago.

“Studying law, I realized that the constitutional system and all orders and institutions came from the words of the Bible. All the civilization and orders we now enjoy came from the words of Jesus,” the president said.

“The first thing for loving your neighbor is to work hard and fulfill your responsibilities,” he said. “As the pastor said, I will do my best as president.”

“Youngnam Church is the church that President Yoon attended since he was the first grade of elementary school to the first grade of middle school, and he returned to the church after 49 years,” Lee Jae-myung, deputy spokesperson for the presidential office, said in a briefing. “President Yoon met his elementary teachers today. It is his reunion with the teachers in half a century after becoming president.”

“It’s like a dream to see Teacher Son Gwan-shik and Teacher Lee Sun-gil, who guided me to be a boy scout in elementary school,” Yoon said. “It feels like going back 50 years in a time machine.”

Yoo Sang-jin, senior pastor of Youngnam Church, unveiled a church school certificate issued to President Yoon in February 1973 and a picture of Yoon’s elementary school graduation during the worship service. “After successfully completing the administration of state affairs, I hope President Yoo begins his religious life again at Youngnam Church,” the pastor said.

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The church school certificate issued to Yoon Suk-yeol when he was an elementary school student is revealed during the Christmas service held at Youngnam Church on Dec. 25, 2022./ Source: Presidential Office