A Catholic archdiocese in South Korea will hold a musical contest with an aim to revitalize church music and to provide the faithful with an opportunity to reflect and practice pastoral priorities of the Church.
The Archdiocese of Daegu, which covers the third largest metropolitan area after capital Seoul and Busan, is launching the Creative Artist Contest that focuses on a 10-year pastoral plan recently adopted by the arch-diocese.
The pastoral plan announced by Archbishop Thaddeus Hwanki Cho is based on the theme “Community living the joy of the Gospel together.”
Any faithful can participate in the contest and all have been asked to submit traditional church music and music on Catholic life with core values of the pastoral plan such as the Word of God, fellowship, liturgy, love of neighbours and missions.
In cases of church music, both single-voice and mixed choral songs with three or more voices that can be used in liturgy are acceptable, while music on Catholic life should be in single-voice form that anyone can sing easily.
The deadline for submissions is Sept. 30 and results of the contest screening will be announced in December. The prizes will be conferred during a grand ceremony next January.
A total of 20 million won (US$17,600) will be awarded to winners — 3 million won for the first prize, 2 million won for second, and 1 million won for others.