Good Shepherd Church, Taipei officially has a new rector, the Rev. Keith C. C. Lee ~ and All Saints Day, Tuesday November 1, 2016 was THE day!  Here is Bishop David J. H. Lai and Keith the moment after the official installation!

And with all the clergy who came too!

The installation service was held at 7:30 pm, and on a drizzly cold evening as well ~ but while the weather may have been miserable outside, inside was so warm and cosy!  Good Shepherd Church is built in a Chinese style, and is a fine church whatever day, whatever time, but it’s even more beautiful in the dark with all the lights shining.  The light is a bit of a challenge for taking photos, but well, I took over 600 (now reduced to just over 100 here) ~ with special thanks to Mr. C. C. Chang, one of the Good Shepherd choir members for taking this group photo….

Many congratulations to Rev. Keith C. C. Lee, the new rector of Good Shepherd, and many prayers for him and his family as they settle in.  There’s a lot to take care of!  Good Shepherd Church has 2 thriving congregations, one Chinese and one English, a community service project for local elderly people, and a wonderful kindergarten ~ so it’s a very busy place.   Our delightful English Chaplain at Good Shepherd, Rev. Herbert Barker is now working with his third Good Shepherd rector, the one before Rev. Keith C. C. Lee was Rev. Philip L. F. Lin who is the newly-installed dean of St. John’s Cathedral, and before Rev. Philip L. F. Lin was Rev. Lily L. L. Chang, who is now rector of St. James’ Church, Taichung.  Here’s Herbert and the 3 rectors, all smiling away ~ and yes, you’ll notice that they are getting progressively taller – source of many laughs!

Rev. Keith Lee started work at Good Shepherd on August 1, having moved to Taipei from Grace Church, Tainan.  He and his family have spent the last 12 years in various churches all in southern Taiwan, so it’s a bit of a culture and temperature shock to move to the far north.  The pace of life in Taipei is fast and furious, and the weather colder and wetter, so there’s a lot to adapt to!

Both Keith and Herbert are pretty amazing when it comes to preaching ~ Keith can speak and preach in 4 languages, Chinese, Taiwanese, English and Japanese ~ and Herbert has a real gift for preaching, no notes and yet he keeps the congregation laughing and completely spellbound and enthralled to the very end!  Keith’s Japanese just improved a whole lot after he spent April to July this year visiting our companion diocese of Osaka, Japan, preaching most Sundays there – and improving each week I’m sure, with much help from our dear friends in Osaka, especially their dean, the Very Rev. Peter Akira Iwaki. The only sad news for us is that Herbert is finally retiring next summer, when he gets to 75, so the search is on for a new priest for the English congregation.  We’ll miss him so very very much!

We were delighted to see Keith’s family here on Tuesday at the installation.  Keith’s parents are from Kaohsiung, and many years ago (at least 10, maybe 12!) his father served for a while as an evangelist in the Church of the Leading Star, Taichung, and I think this may be the first time I’ve seen him since.  Still looking as young and energetic as ever! Keith’s wife, Sindy is a gifted musician and played the piano for the service and conducted the church choir, and their 2 lovely children, Joseph and Angela told me they’re settling in well into Taipei.  And that despite the cold!  Here’s Keith and his family….

For the Taiwan Episcopal Church, this is our second installation service in 5 days ~ last Friday the Very Rev. Philip L. F. Lin was installed as the new dean of St. John’s Cathedral. That day was the last day of our Indian summer in northern Taiwan and it was very hot – with temps in their 30’s for days, but over last weekend, the rain and wind returned and the temperatures went down to about 19-20°C.  Feels cold and damp ~ winter is here!

Despite the weather – and that it was a midweek evening – we had many friends and church members attending the installation service at Good Shepherd, in fact one church member, Ms. Kuo from far-away St. Mark’s Church, Pingtung came to both installation services and made a weekend of it, staying in Taipei for 5 days in-between services! Ms. Anny Chen came all the way from St. Peter’s Church, Chiayi for the occasion, and even joined the Good Shepherd Grace Fellowship Group as they sang a beautiful song in the middle of the service.  We were also pleased to welcome Mr. Chuang Hsiao-Wu, warden of St. Timothy’s Church, Kaohsiung, and Mr. Di Yun-Hung, member of the Standing Committee and from St. Paul’s Church, Kaohsiung.  Y’know, Kaohsiung and Pingtung are quite some distance! Here they are – Mr. Di on the left, and Mr. Chuang on the right.

The 2 congregations at Good Shepherd Church, both Chinese and English have their own wardens, and so Keith was presented to the bishop by both Mr. Jake Hung and Mr. Mark Ohlson at the beginning of the installation service…..

The service proceeded in both Chinese and English ~ and it was quite a challenge to keep up with the hymns, singing alternate verses in each language!  Mr. Warren Chuo as lay leader did a great job trying to keep us all on track!  Here he is with his parents and older brother, they are such a faithful and lovely church family!

The induction part of the service, when representatives of the congregation and clergy presented different items representing different aspects of Keith’s ministry, also included representatives of both Chinese and English congregations.  There was a Bible, water, a stole, prayer book, olive oil, church keys, a copy of the Constitution and Canons, and finally bread and wine.  Then Rev. Michael T. H. Liu read the Letter of Institution, and we all applauded and cheered ~ of course!

One of my favorite church members at Good Shepherd is Linda, principal of the Good Shepherd Kindergarten ~ she was previously at St. James’ Church Kindergarten in Taichung when I was there.  Her husband, Christopher is a professor here at St. John’s University, and he also happens to be the younger son of Rev. Charles C. T. Chen, Rector Emeritus of St. James’ Church, Taichung.  My challenge was to get a good photo of Linda and Christopher together ~ ah, they are such a lovely couple…. and here they are!

Plenty more Good Shepherd Church members were there too ~ all our good friends, thanks to them all for their warm welcome and the friendly atmosphere!  After the service finished soon after 9:00 pm, we were all given boxes of yummy breads and cakes to take home. Spent all day yesterday enjoying them!

A great occasion, and a wonderful welcome for Rev. Keith C. C. Lee.  In his short speech during the service, he asked the congregation to continue to pray for him in his new ministry ~ so please do ~ and please pray for Herbert in his last year at Good Shepherd as he prepares for retirement, and also for the search for a new English chaplain.  Pray for Linda and the kindergarten and their kindergarten supervisor, Mrs. Lily Lai, wife of Bishop Lai, also the ministry with the seniors in the community, and all the church members and those associated with Good Shepherd.  And thanks be to God again for His many blessings, and His love and mercy upon us!