Neon crosses atop churches have long been a feature in the night scenes across the country.

It suddenly came to the mind of Yoo Mi-ho, a researcher of the Korean Church Institute for Ecology, last July that they might be symbolic of the civic movement for abolishing nuclear power through electricity saving and other means.

“Most of the rooftop crosses, installed three or four decades ago, were illuminated with neon lights, which consume about the same amount of electricity as each household,” she said.

Yoo made a proposal at a workshop that churches set an example by replacing neon crosses with LEDs or lighting them with pedaling power or other environment-friendly sources of energy.

In a survey of about 20,000 churches last November, nearly half had changed their rooftop crosses to LEDs or kept them switched off at night, she said.

“Some pastors initially expressed displeasure with my idea but I persuaded them to take the lead in protecting the environment for God’s creatures,” she said.

By Kim Kyung-ho (khkim@heraldcorp.com)