Congratulations to St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei ~ and to all in the Taiwan Episcopal Church! We celebrated St. John’s Cathedral’s 70th anniversary with a special Thanksgiving Service on Saturday, September 12, 2026, at 2:30 pm, followed by a Thanksgiving Dinner at 6:00 pm.   And what a great celebration it was!  Led by Bishop Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang and attended by over 220 people, with clergy and church members of all ages, including quite a few who were ‘coming home’ especially for the celebration. 

Displayed on the banners on the outside of the cathedral are the words, ‘70 Years of Grace, Coming Home Together’, and we were delighted that many people long associated with the cathedral came back to join us – reuniting with old friends and the cathedral family.  

Also joining us were choirs from the Chinese and English services, the cathedral string orchestra, youth groups, our team of organists, the principal, teachers and staff of St. John’s Cathedral Kindergarten, the Taiko Drumming Team, and many others. Some sang or played in the service, others performed at the dinner in the evening, and I noticed that two of our amazing musicians, Christiana and Sungmin, played at both events on Saturday and also at the English Service the following day! Everyone had been practicing for weeks, and it was all so good! Here is everyone gathering before the service…

The theme of the St. John’s Cathedral 70th anniversary celebrations is: 百年座堂 七十開始, translated as ‘Toward a Century, Beginning at Seventy’. The deeper meaning implies that the church is not just reminiscing about the past 70 years but is actively launching into a new chapter of mission, growth and renewal as it looks ahead to its centenary in 30 years’ time. That was also the theme of Bishop Chang’s sermon at the Thanksgiving Service on Saturday.  He mentioned how he himself had been associated with the cathedral for the past 50 years. In fact, many of our clergy and current church members were brought up at the cathedral, married at the cathedral, served at the cathedral, and their parents’ funerals were held here too.  Dean Philip Lin and his wife were married here, and he also said that this year is his 10th anniversary as dean.  Bishop Chang also talked about reflecting on God’s abundant grace and witnessing the gathering of different generations. Seventy years is not just a memorable history, but also the starting point for taking on a mission and setting out again. May we continue to live under the command of Christ’s love, serving each other with love, and walking forward; even if the road ahead is a path to the cross, we will continue to walk together in faith, relying on God’s deep love.  We give thanks to God for all those who have faithfully served, worshiped and been a part of St. John’s Cathedral over these 70 years, and we encourage those who have ‘come home’ after a time away to stay with us! These are the photos from the service….

And after the service….

One of our church members who has returned recently after nearly 70 years away is the very lively 96-year-old Mrs. Kwai and her son, Charles. They were so excited to be here on Saturday and to meet Bishop Chang for the first time.  Mrs. Kwai and her husband, Peter, were the first couple baptized in St. John’s Cathedral, at Christmas 1955, and then they became the first couple to be married in the cathedral, in January 1956.  Mr. Kwai was a famous F-100 fighter pilot, and after their marriage, he moved to work at the Chiayi Air Base, and together he and his wife helped to establish St. Peter’s Church, Chiayi. Later they moved to Amman, Jordan, where in 1975 they set up Amman’s very first Chinese restaurant with the encouragement of Jordan’s royal family, and which is still going today (yes, you can look it all up; it’s a true story!) After her husband had a stroke, they retired and moved back to Taiwan, and when he died earlier this year, they reconnected with the Taiwan Episcopal Church and have been coming here most Sundays ever since. Mrs. Kwai was delighted to discover that her oldest son was born in nearly the same year as Bishop Chang! 

We had special artwork designed by our church member Pin-Hua for the back of the 70th anniversary service bulletin, as well as the 70th anniversary logo designed by Mr. Michael Dee, cathedral postcards designed by Nadia Wu, fridge magnets, an anniversary book soon to be published, and more souvenirs to come.  I tried to get photos of these talented designers, plus the photographers; see below. A few of the photos below were taken by our official diocesan photographers’ team, led by Vicky; thanks to them and to everyone who worked so hard on Saturday and helped to make the celebrations such a success. 

We had 230 people at 23 round tables for the Thanksgiving Banquet in the evening.  What a great event it was!  And all wonderfully emceed by Sheerah, who kept us all entertained and ensured everything ran smoothly and on time.  In case you’re wondering how the meal was paid for, it’s a fact that Taiwanese people are very generous, and so some of our church members kindly paid for one or more tables, hosting the clergy, choirs, orchestra, servers, acolytes etc etc, while others paid as individuals and gathered with different groups of friends at their own table – so in this way, we hoped that everyone could participate.  One of the highlights was playing the game of Bingo, when we had to find people who fit a certain description to sign their name in the relevant box – one was to find someone wearing red – and although I was in pink, still I signed my name many times!  We had to find someone who was married at the cathedral (Mrs. Kwai signed a lot of boxes too!), someone who had been at the cathedral for over 30 years, someone who was a former Sunday School teacher, was born in the same month as you etc – and the prize for getting a signature in all 9 boxes was 2 drip coffee packets.  It was great fun – the main challenge was finding someone who could lend us a pen or pencil – these days nobody carries such things around with them!

We also showed our 70th anniversary video….

The United Daily News 報時光UDNtime has recently published this old photo of St. John’s Cathedral, newly built in 1955, standing magnificently in splendid isolation in the middle of a field! 

While there might have been a field there then, there certainly aren’t any fields there now.  It might also be a bit misleading because the nearby National Taiwan University was already well-established by then, as was the Teachers College across the road and the neighbouring elementary school – all date back over 100 years to the Japanese Era. 

Anyway, that was then, and this is now.  Now the cathedral is almost swallowed up by neighbouring high-rise buildings; the newest one is 23 stories high and built directly opposite the cathedral, in front of the teachers college.  It makes the cathedral look tiny in comparison to what it looked like in 1955. I’ve taken these photos below of St. John’s Cathedral these last few days – although it’s impossible to take a photo from the same place as that black-and-white one above, due to traffic! It can be quite hard to spot the cathedral behind all the neighbouring buildings and trees. 

My own memories of St. John’s Cathedral only really go back about 10 years, even though I have been in Taiwan longer than that.  In 2016, St. John’s Cathedral celebrated its 60th anniversary with a year of celebrations, starting with a Thanksgiving Service, which took place on May 15, 2016, Pentecost Sunday.  I remember it well (check out my blog post and photos of that event here).  The service was at 4:00 pm, led by Bishop David Lai. Dean Samuel Lin had retired in 2014, and the priest in charge of the cathedral at the time was Rev. Elizabeth Wei. Marjorie Kuo was the senior warden, and it was she, Marjorie, who cut the 60th birthday cake with Bishop Lai. 

Although there had been an English Service in the past, it had closed many years before. In 2018, we officially restarted our St. John’s Cathedral English Service, and I’ve been helping out a little ever since then. Our first service took place on Sunday, May 6, 2018, led by Bishop Lai – and yes, I was there and took the group photo at the end of the service.  

It’s interesting to see that quite a few of the people who came that day are still coming these 8 years later.  It’s also really nice that the core group of people in the English Service are mostly Taiwanese or foreigners married to Taiwanese, so they are here long-term and provide much stability for the growing congregation. Dean Philip Lin had become dean later in 2016, and in 2018, Bishop Lai asked Rev. Antony Liang to move to the cathedral to start an English service. He was ordained deacon only a few days before, on May 1, 2018, and then priest the following year. We were off to a great start, and Antony led much of the way through the pandemic too. Then in 2022, Antony moved to St. Luke’s Church, Hualien; he is now rector of St. Timothy’s Church, Kaohsiung.  Antony came to the Thanksgiving Service on Saturday and stayed for the dinner; everyone was so pleased to see him! Rev. Joseph Ho was transferred to St. John’s Cathedral from Hualien in 2022 to run the English service for 2 years, and then he moved on to St. Stephen’s Church, Keelung, when Rev. Julia Lin retired from there.  He and his family also came to the Thanksgiving Service on Saturday; we loved seeing them all again!  In 2024, Rev. Claire Wang graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in the USA and succeeded Joseph in running the English Service.  She was ordained deacon in July 2024, then priest in 2025, and under her leadership, our Sunday attendance is now regularly in the mid-40’s, often over 50. And in between all these clergy changes, Bishop Lai retired, and Bishop Lennon Chang was ordained bishop and consecrated here in February 2020.  The cathedral is hosting the new bishop’s consecration in November too, so watch this space! We were honoured to have both Bishop Lennon Chang and his wife Hannah, and Bishop-Elect Rev. Keith Lee and his wife, Sindy, with us for the Thanksgiving Service on Saturday….

Yes, the 70th anniversary of St. John’s Cathedral is a highly significant milestone – our platinum anniversary, and platinum is chosen for 70 apparently because it is a highly valuable precious metal.  It signifies endurance, strength, and resilience.  We give thanks to God for the endurance, strength, and resilience that the church here has shown over these 70 years, and long may it continue, with a renewed mission, vision, and growth!

St. John’s Cathedral, heading for a century: GO, GO, GO!