On Wednesday May 1, 2019, the Feast of St. Philip and St. James, at 7:00 pm in St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei, Rev. Antony F. W. Liang (梁凡偉) was ordained priest by the Bishop of Taiwan, David J. H. Lai…

Exactly a year ago, on May 1, 2018, Antony was ordained deacon, also in St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei, by Bishop Lai (see that post and photos here). This time, as is the tradition for the ordination of a priest, all the clergy joined Bishop Lai in the laying on of hands…

In the year since his ordination as deacon, we have watched as Antony’s family have settled into the busy life of Taiwan’s capital city, his children have grown taller and stronger, and both have settled into new schools, with the younger one in the cathedral kindergarten. Antony himself has grown and matured into the role of curate at St. John’s Cathedral, helping and learning from our dean, Rev. Philip L. F. Lin; and as always assisted by his lovely wife, Anita. Antony has special responsibility for the English service at the cathedral, which also started in May 2018, and it now has a small but committed congregation, meeting each Sunday at 9:00 am for an hour, followed by coffee time. A great blessing to all of us is that Antony has inherited his father’s eloquent and gracious style of speaking and writing English, and his mother’s friendliness and caring way of making everyone feel at home in her presence! We were especially pleased to meet the family again, his parents, Jerry and Jean from St. James’ Church, Taichung, and his parents-in-law, who had come from Changhua. Jerry read the second lesson in English, and Anita gave a very beautiful speech thanking everyone for coming, and introducing all her family…

At the ordination service, we were also very honoured to welcome Dr. Gareth Jones, principal of Ming Hua Theological College, Hong Kong, where Antony did his theological training – having been kindly invited to study there by Archbishop Paul Kwong. Our 2 seminarians currently at Ming Hua also came home especially for the occasion, plus 3 other HK friends. We also welcomed Warren Wong, chair of Province VIII of the Episcopal Church, visiting from San Francisco. Nearly all our clergy participated in the service, and lots of church friends came from all over Taiwan. This is the official group photo, taken by one of the cathedral congregation…

And all the clergy in the group photo below ~ along with Canon Chancellor Herbert H. P. Ma and Mrs. Ma, plus Dr. Gareth Jones, seated either side of Bishop Lai…

I took a lot of photos, over 600 in total, these are the best ones! Before the service began….

During the first part of the service…

The Holy Communion…

The end of the service…

It is so lovely to see so many students and young adults in our cathedral congregation, led by Philip and Antony. Here they are. We pray that some of them may also receive a call to ordination in the Taiwan Episcopal Church!

The Diocese of Taiwan is indeed blessed to have Antony and his family serving at St. John’s Cathedral. Please do pray for them, and for Antony in his new role as priest.

And yes, as always, thanks be to Almighty God!