Congratulations to the Taiwan Episcopal Church and to Christ Church, Chungli on becoming a parish, and on achieving this upgrade in status in only 13 years! Thanks be to Almighty God! We celebrated at a Thanksgiving Service at Christ Church on Saturday July 6, 2024, with 150 people coming from all our churches in Taiwan to join the celebration.

Christ Church started out as 中壢關懷中心 Chungli Outreach Center, a church plant and daughter church of Good Shepherd Church, Taipei, then under rector Rev. Lily Chang ~ and officially started ministry with a service on May 1, 2011; here we all are on that day!

Until Christ Church started, there was no Episcopal Church anywhere between Taipei and Taichung, a distance of about 170 km. As land and housing prices in Taipei City have increased over the years, so Taoyuan City and County have developed, offering companies a cheaper alternative to Taipei City for their premises and lots of good housing for their employees. It’s convenient for Taoyuan International Airport and high-speed rail, and it’s also very easy to commute into Taipei. William Pan, his wife, Li-Chun and family were then members of Good Shepherd Church in Taipei, traveling back and forth each Sunday for worship, but they lived in Chungli (Zhongli), a district in Taoyuan City. With their children in local schools, so they had a lot of contact with other young families, and after much prayer and discussion, and with the blessing of Bishop David J. H. Lai and the Diocese of Taiwan, it seemed the right location for Good Shepherd Church to start this new minsitry. They started by renting a building not far from the local elementary school where William and Li-Chun’s children were pupils. William gave the formal welcome and announcements at the service on Saturday – here he is!

In the summer of 2011, Taiwan’s then companion diocese of New Westminster, Canada sent a mission team who helped to lead a children’s holiday club in that first church building, a wonderful way to launch the outreach program, providing impetus and encouragement to the new church plant. Sunday worship started in October 2011 and the church started to grow. In April 2013, the church moved to a different building nearby, just off the main street. On July 7, 2013, Christ Church was officially established as a mission station under the name ‘Christ Church’, and then in March 2015, it was upgraded to a mission church. In 2018, the Diocese of Taiwan, under Bishop Lai, purchased a property for a new church, and this was consecrated on June 23, 2018. My blog post describing that day is here. Below is the group photo taken on that day, inside the church.

The Taiwan Diocesan Annual Convention in May 2024 unanimously confirmed that Christ Church could become a parish. This is a significant upgrade in status and is not an easy step to take, but Christ Church has an average of 40-50 people every Sunday and financial giving is sufficient, which is important as the congregation needs to be self-supporting. Their vicar, Rev. Felix Ming-You Chen, has now become the first rector of Christ Church. He is actually serving as a non-stipendiary priest; during the week, he and his wife run a computer company, they are really quite amazing!

On Saturday July 6, the Thanksgiving Service started at 10:00am. For us, we had a coachful of happy people from St. John’s Cathedral, all gathered at the cathedral gate at 8:30 am. On arrival at Christ Church, they were selling T-shirts, socks and bags, all with the Christ Church logo on them. It was so great to reconnect with friends from all over Taiwan, and some had traveled long distances to be there, including Hualien, Pingtung, Kaohsiung and all over southern Taiwan.

Ah, it’s almost 10:00 am, and the service is ready to start!

Bishop Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang celebrated and preached at the service. He had only returned a few days previously from attending The Episcopal Church General Convention (June 23-28) in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, and, like many others, had gone down with Covid-19 a few days later. Although recovered, he was being cautious and wore a facemask throughout the service. You will see from the photos below that we were all crammed into the small worship space, with half the congregation watching on the live stream upstairs. One of the highlights was the choir, who sang, ‘I the Lord of Sea and Sky’, which was beautiful!

To celebrate becoming a parish, very esteemed Calligraphy Teacher, Mr. Chang 張禹風老師, aged 88, had produced a beautiful piece of calligraphy, now displayed on the back wall of the church. The Chinese characters are 耶穌說: 我就是生命的糧 到我這裡來的不餓 信我的永遠不渴 (Jesus said: ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’ John 6:35). Mr. and Mrs. Chang were at the service and given a special introduction and thanks. What an incredible artwork for such a special occasion!

After the service, we had group photos outside and then off we all went for a formal lunch, with an introduction about the history of Christ Church. It was truly a great occasion!

And there’s more to come! When the Christ Church ministry first started all those years ago, the first local person to become a Christian, Ms. Su-Jen Lee, had hoped that her 2 young sons could be baptised along with her, but it didn’t happen, it was just her. She actually went to Good Shepherd Church for the baptism as Christ Church then was not yet established and set up for baptisms. Fast forward to this coming Sunday, and her oldest son, Wen-Zhe is going to be baptised here at St. John’s Cathedral! Thanks be to God! There’s a whole coachful of people coming from Christ Church to celebrate with him ~ this is Su-Jen and her boys on Saturday, now all grown up, along with Rev. Joseph Ho….

So we give thanks to God for his grace and mercy shown to Christ Church over all these years. And we give thanks for the church today, their rector and vestry members, and all those involved in the church, and for the warm welcome they all gave us on Saturday. They are very active ~ their Facebook page shows photos and news of all their activities. They recently completed their annual Alpha Course and on June 23, 5 new Christians were baptised at the church. Please do pray for their continued ministry as they are fast outgrowing their own church space – so that may be their next challenge!

Thanks be to God, and may He continue to bless all at Christ Church, Chungli!