On November 7, 2023, my report, ‘The Taiwan Episcopal Church arrives in Hsinchu!’ started with ‘It’s a big month for the Taiwan Episcopal Church 台灣聖公會 as we start a brand-new venture of faith in Hsinchu City 新竹, home of the Hsinchu Science Park, with its 360 high-tech companies, including TSMC, the world’s largest independent semiconductor foundry – which has resulted in Hsinchu’s huge economic success and the highest income levels in Taiwan. But until last month, there was no Episcopal Church. Saturday, November 4, 2023 saw the official opening service of our newest church plant, the result of over 50 years of praying, dreaming and planning. Thanks be to God!’ Below are a few photos taken on that day:

Now, two and a half years after that opening service, I am delighted to report the exciting news of the grand opening and consecration of a brand-new church building in Hsinchu on Saturday, March 28, 2026, to be known as St. Matthew’s Church, Hsinchu.  It was a service with four important parts: church naming, consecration, upgrade to mission district status, and installation of the priest-in-charge. Below are photos taken of the service…

St. Matthew’s Church also has a brand-new emblem (shield), designed by Prof. Shirley Chi-Hui Ke 柯啟慧 from St. James’ Church, Taichung (the original emblem is below on the left, the new one on the right).  The church’s new emblem is centered on a cross, while above are an open Gospel book and a writing pen, symbolizing the ministry of St. Matthew the Apostle as writer of the first Gospel. With Hsinchu being a city centered on the semiconductor industry and full of people working in science and technology, so this also expresses the church’s aspiration to proclaim the Gospel to others in an intellectual and thoughtful way. The entire emblem also takes the form of a face—the face of Jesus Christ. Their hope is that the ministry, liturgy, fellowship, and the lives of every member of the church may enable their neighbors to see Christ in them.

In May 2023, under Bishop Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang, the Diocese of Taiwan annual convention saw the launch of a new diocesan church-planting initiative, with Hsinchu being the first formal location.  As I said above, it has been a dream of the diocese for over 50 years to establish an Episcopal Church in Hsinchu. Our senior clergy long remember in the early days of the Taiwan Episcopal Church, talking and dreaming about setting up a church in Hsinchu. This church-planting initiative is part of a larger vision of the Diocese of Taiwan to grow itself to become a separate Anglican province.  As three dioceses are necessary to form a province, so out of the original two deaneries in northern and southern Taiwan, a third deanery has been carved out in central Taiwan, with the aim of eventually becoming three dioceses, and thus eligible to become a province.  Hsinchu has joined this new central deanery, based at St. James’ Church, Taichung.   In 2023, when the Hsinchu church-planting initiative was launched, it was under the leadership of Rev. Lily Ling-Ling Chang and St. James’ Church, Taichung; and in October 2023, Mr. Shawn Yen-Hsuan Wang 王彥軒傳道 (then a postulant preparing for ordination) was assigned to Hsinchu from St. James’ Church to begin outreach ministry and planning.  Most of the financial support for this church-planting initiative came from the diocese, but we acknowledge with thanks a significant donation and ministry support in the early stages from the Church Planting Office of The Episcopal Church. 

It is very important to note that the early success of this church-planting initiative was significantly helped by the kindness and generosity of Mr. Wei-Hao Cheng 鄭維浩, a good friend of the Taiwan Episcopal Church and former student of St. John’s and St. Mary’s Institute of Technology SJSMIT (predecessor of St. John’s University SJU), who became a Christian through the outreach of the SJSMIT chaplaincy and student fellowship. A very successful businessman, he had opened a cake and dessert shop in Hsinchu, called ‘Aposo2035’ (full name: ‘Apostle2035’, from Acts 20:35: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’), selling exquisite and high-quality cakes, desserts and coffee, and he kindly offered the use of his second-floor premises, the floor above the cake shop, completely free of charge. The plan was to use these facilities for about two years until a church community could be established and a church building bought.  The official opening of ‘The Taiwan Episcopal Church in Hsinchu’ was held on November 4, 2023, with a thanksgiving service led by Bishop Lennon Chang.  Not yet officially a church, it was named 聖公會人文書苑 (tr: Anglican Humanities Study Center), and the following month, it started holding regular Sunday services, with Bishop Lennon Chang and Rev. Lily Chang both visiting monthly to preside at the Eucharist, and on other Sundays, Shawn led Morning Prayer.  He was ordained deacon on March 19, 2024, and priest on February 24, 2025, after which he could preside at the Eucharist himself.  The Aposo2035 second floor, where the services were held, had originally been an Italian restaurant, and was decorated with wall paintings of Italian scenes, which added to the atmosphere!

Through Shawn’s outreach ministry and God’s blessing, new church members started to join the Hsinchu church-plant, the first being Mr. C. C. Chen 陳哲謙, who was received into the Taiwan Episcopal Church in July 2024, followed by Mr. C. C. Duan 段忠志 and his daughter, Ms. K. H. Duan 段瑰欣, who were baptized and confirmed in February 2025. Three more people were confirmed in August 2025, and one was baptized on Christmas Eve.  In his short speech at the end of the consecration service on Saturday, Shawn acknowledged that when they started their ministry in Aposo2035 in November 2023, they had no church members and no church community, and those who came to help were mostly from our other churches, especially St. James’ Church, Taichung. Now, as they open this new church, so they already have church members and a small established church community, meeting faithfully and regularly for worship and fellowship every week.  The church group also sang an anthem during the service on Saturday, accompanied by Shawn on the piano. Thanks be to God!

In May 2025, the diocesan annual convention approved the Hsinchu church-plant to be upgraded to ‘mission district’ status, followed soon after by the official signing for the purchase of a new church building, to be officially named ‘St. Matthew’s Church’.  The funds for the building purchase came from the diocese, but once the building contract was signed, extensive interior renovation and remodeling work were required, and those funds were raised through a major fundraising campaign throughout the diocese in 2025, helped by the support, advice and hard work of many, especially SJU alumni, Mr. Wen-Bin Liao 廖文彬.  Completion of the administrative transition from St. James’ Church took place in November 2025, as well as the formal establishment of the ‘Bishop’s Committee’ to run the church.  On Sunday, March 22, 2026, the final Sunday service was held above the Aposo2035 Shop. On Saturday, March 28, 2026, the day before Palm Sunday, the new church building was officially named, consecrated, and upgraded to mission district status, with Rev. Shawn Wang being installed as priest-in-charge.  Also at the service, the new Bishop’s Committee was formally inaugurated, led by new chairperson, Mr. Calvin Dian-Jui Liu 劉典瑞, resident of Hsinchu for many years and originally a member of St. Mark’s Church, Pingtung, and a recent graduate of the diocesan Trinity School for Christian Ministry TSCM. 

The new St. Matthew’s Church is a 3-storey shop-front-style building, sandwiched right in the middle between 2 huge high-rise buildings, on a road lined with cherry blossom trees, and located in Zhubei City 竹北市, 7 km (4 miles) exactly due north of the previous location at Aposo2035.  Administratively, Zhubei City is a separate city from Hsinchu City, and instead is part of Hsinchu County; they are separated from one another by the Touqian River, the source of which is up in the Xueshan Mountain Range, with its highest mountain, Xueshan 3,886 m (12,749 ft), the second highest in Taiwan. Zhubei City is known as one of the fastest-growing cities in Taiwan, attracting people both because of its proximity to Hsinchu City and the Hsinchu Science and Technology Park, and because the Hsinchu County government has focused most of its infrastructure here. As well as being the county seat of Hsinchu County, it is also the location of the High-Speed Rail’s Hsinchu HSR station, 4.4 km from the new church. Much of the area is residential, and directly opposite the new church is a junior high school, which attracts local businesses involved in after-school education. 

The opening service on Saturday started at 10:30 am.  Most of the clergy from across Taiwan were in attendance, and church members from many churches.  It is not a large church, so livestream was offered on the floors above for those attending.  A group of about 25 of us from St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei, left at 8:30 am in a coach heading to Hsinchu.  Usually, we would expect the drive to be about an hour, but in the event, there was so much traffic that we didn’t arrive until 10:50 am, well after the service had started, so we too watched the first part on the livestream from our bus.  The first weekend of April (coinciding with Easter weekend this year) is always the Tomb-Sweeping Festival in Taiwan, and throughout March and April, thousands gather to visit and make offerings at their family graves, hence the long traffic jams. Others traveling from the north had also been delayed, while those from the south got there on time, and many came by High-Speed Rail to avoid all the traffic.  Despite all the delays, it was well worth going to join all the celebrations! 

I was particularly impressed with the beautiful purple material (see the photo below) used for Lent in the new church as the altar cloth; it is stunning!  Ordered from India via our cathedral church member Xavier Chao and his church supplies company Euяuçs 歐羅斯, and made to measure, I understand the church now has the same material but different colours for all the church seasons, including blue for Advent – so I must go every time to see each one!  The baptism font is also beautiful; I took these font photos from the diocesan Facebook page (ah, we were so late and so busy saying hello to everyone that there wasn’t much time to look around and take photos!) 

I understand that there is still some of the interior work to be done at the new church, including putting in a chairlift, which is important as toilets, kitchen and meeting rooms are all on the floors above. The cross above the altar is a mini version of the Christ the King cross at St. James’ Church, which adds some red and gold colour to the front and matches the gold tabernacle.  There could be more I didn’t see – Shawn has a great interest and a good eye for all things related to church art and church decoration so I expect there is much that I haven’t yet noticed in the church! The St. Matthew’s Church Facebook page is updated regularly, so please follow them for more information, livestream and photos of their activities. We give thanks to God for his many blessings over the years and in making this vision become a reality – and please do pray for Rev. Shawn Wang (he’s getting married in May, so your prayers are appreciated) and pray for all at St. Matthew’s Church, Hsinchu!