Seoul (AsiaNews) – "I wish you a blessed Sunday with the love and the peace of God" or "God of love is always waiting for you in love" are among the blessings from Fr Gabriel Jun Chang-mun, a parish priest in Imundong (Seoul), that his parishioners are sending via short message service (SMS) as part of the "Sending mission messages through cellphone" campaign.

Currently, 80 per cent of the parish residents own a cellphone and just about every young person has one.

The brainchild of this Seoul parish priest, the initiative wants to evangelise among non Catholics and lapsed Catholics.

In the beginning, parishioners did not know what to write and to whom send the messages. Hence, the parish priest suggesting to use his parish's Sunday newsletter.

In addition to words of friendship and hope, the lyrics of songs are sent.

Four months after the launch, the faithful feel more comfortable with this form of evangelisation and the responses to SMS messages have been satisfying.

Father Gabriel is planning to use the initiative in other programmes, always from the point of view of reaching out to others.