Tag Archives: Good Shepherd Church Taipei

Taiwan Episcopal Church, Diocese of Taiwan

Diocese of Taiwan New Friendship Magazine Just Published!

June 10, 2022 Catherine Lee 1 Comment

The latest edition of our diocesan Friendship Magazine, June 2022, is just published online, and the printed version will be coming out soon. I’m the editor of this publication, so please read ~ and pray for us! It contains news of all our 15 churches, photos, updates, and articles. We really appreciate all your support. Thank you!

It’s published under Friendship Magazines in the English section of the diocesan website: https://episcopalchurch.org.tw/ and also here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18uNKbrMb29LkohavgYF0NbvHBkmVzsEz/view

Blog posts always look better with a photo – so this is from Advent Church last Sunday, red for Pentecost!

Happy Pentecost to you all ~ and coming up, Trinity Sunday too!

Faith

Advent Word 2020, Day 24 ‘Wisdom’

December 22, 2020 Catherine Lee Leave a comment

#AdventWord #Wisdom

The wisest path is to surrender to the will of the “only wise God” when it is revealed to us. Mary was confused by her encounter with the angel Gabriel but wisely said, “Here am I” nevertheless. Indeed, having wisdom does not mean having all of the answers. Wisdom resides in actively waiting for the word of God to come to us at the appointed time. It involves trusting enough in God’s provision that we can say “yes” to God’s call.

Full of wisdom, compassion, energy and fun ~ this is our very lovable Herbert, now at the distinguished age of 78, celebrating his 10th anniversary as priest-in-charge of the Good Shepherd English Congregation, Taipei on November 22, 2020. He spoke of having saved the best till last, meaning of all the churches and ministries he’s served in over the last 50+ years, this one is the one he loves the best ~ so here’s to the next 10 years, Herb!

Taiwan Episcopal Church, Diocese of Taiwan

Consecration of the new Christ Church, Chungli (Zhongli), Taoyuan 聖公會基督堂祝聖新堂感恩禮拜!

June 23, 2018 Catherine Lee 7 Comments

Today was THE day! Christ Church, Chungli finally has a real home to call its own! Yes, after 7 years of using rented buildings for worship and outreach, Christ Church now has its own building. Today we all gathered for the consecration. Thanks be to God!

To finally own your own building – your own church – is really a great blessing from God. Today the emphasis and atmosphere in the whole service was one of deep thanksgiving and appreciation to God for his many blessings to Christ Church.

Christ Church has some very talented church members, and Jeff and Janey have designed the most beautiful logo, which was printed on the service books, on the magnet that came attached as a gift, and on their T-shirts. It incorporates the Chinese characters for ‘Christ Church’ 基督堂. I totally LOVE it!

The new Christ Church is actually the ground-floor of an apartment building, and the floor above. Upstairs, where the overflow seating was today, there’s also rooms for the Sunday School and accommodation for the vicar, Rev. Tsai Ching-Yi 蔡靜儀. Downstairs, most of the space is taken up with the church, the worship area ~ beautifully designed and decorated. I like it! These are the views from higher up on chairs and stairs…

Christ Church is really the daughter church of Good Shepherd Church, Taipei, part of the outreach and church planting program initiated by their rector at the time, Rev. Lily L. L. Chang. Until Christ Church started, there was no Episcopal Church anywhere between Taipei and Taichung, a distance of about 170 km. Then, maybe about 20 years ago, as land and housing prices in Taipei City started to increase dramatically, so Taoyuan started to develop ~ cheaper in price, near Taoyuan International Airport, the high-speed rail station, and easy to commute into Taipei itself. So lots of new housing was built all over Taoyuan County, including Chungli, attracting lots of young families.

One of these families was the Pan family, or I should say, one branch of the Pan family. They live in the Pingzhen 平鎮 area of Chungli 中壢, and at the time, they were driving an hour to Good Shepherd Church every Sunday to attend the worship there. William Pan (see the photo above – taken as he shared his story today) has the kind of job which involves lots of international travel, and it was actually his wife who was the one with all the local contacts. She was very involved in helping at her daughters’ elementary school and had many friends among the other mothers. They all had children the same age, and some of the mothers were interested in the Christian faith. With that impetus, so Good Shepherd Church started renting a building very near that elementary school, and outreach work officially began in May 2011. That summer, our then companion diocese of New Westminster 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.

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. Until then it was just known as the 中壢關懷中心, Chungli Outreach Center. On July 7, 2013, the building was consecrated, and Christ Church was officially established as a mission station.

In their hearts though, what the congregation really wanted was a church building of their own. The one eventually chosen, which Bishop Lai and the Diocese of Taiwan have recently bought, has cost NT$ 20 million. Although the worship area of the church is ready, the rest is still a work in progress.

Today’s consecration service took place at 10:30 am, and was attended by nearly all our clergy, coming from all over Taiwan, plus church members from all over, too. Rev. Joseph Ho (one of the clergy formerly assigned to Christ Church) and his group from St. Mark’s Church, Pingtung had left at 5:00 am this morning to get to Chungli on time!

Good Shepherd Church choir sang, as did Christ Church choir. We had a beautiful solo from one of the church members. One young man was confirmed during the service, another played the piano, others were servers. The different items in the church, the font, lectern, altar etc were all consecrated in turn. And we had Holy Communion. At the end, a presentation of a Bible was made to the interior designer of the new building, he did an amazing job. And finally, well, we had a delicious lunch!

Today was a day of great blessing and great rejoicing. God is gracious and faithful.

Thanks to Rev. Tsai Ching-Yi and all at Christ Church for their warm welcome and all their hard work to make today so special.

Please do pray for Christ Church as they settle into their new building and as they plan their summer outreach program. It was wonderful to see so many teenagers there today – and their mothers, many of these are members of the original families who got involved way back in 2011 when they were just elementary school children. Now they are serving in the church and will be helping to run the summer camps ~ ah yes, thanks be to God!

Taiwan Episcopal Church, Diocese of Taiwan

Yes, we love you all in the Diocese of Osaka! Welcome to Taiwan!

May 11, 2017 Catherine Lee Leave a comment

The Dioceses of Taiwan and Osaka, Japan have been linked as companion dioceses for the last 12 years ~ and we’ve signed the official agreements to renew the partnership every 3 years. So this week Bishop David J. H. Lai and the Diocese of Taiwan welcomed a group of 26 from the Diocese of Osaka, led by Bishop Andrew Haruhisa Iso, here to sign the agreement for the 5th time – for another 3 years. YES! See the smiling faces of Bishop Lai and Bishop Iso just after the grand signing!

Actually, our link with Osaka really goes back much further than just 2005. Way back in colonial times, 1895-1945, the Japanese Anglican Church (Nippon Sei Ko Kai) in Taiwan was under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Osaka. The Taiwan Episcopal Church was founded much later, in 1954, and when we celebrated our 60th anniversary in 2014, we were honored that Bishop Iso’s predecessor, Bishop Osamu Onishi brought a group from Osaka to attend. Then last year, Bishop Iso visited Taiwan for the first time as bishop, bringing a group from Osaka to attend the opening service of our convention.

And now, we welcome this year’s group from Osaka, plus everyone who came to the service on Tuesday afternoon!

Yes, we love our friends from Osaka! Over the years, some have come to Taiwan many times. We were delighted that our good friend, Rev. Akira Iwaki, retired dean of the cathedral in Osaka, was able to join us, and it’s his birthday this week ~ cake and candles were all ready for him! Here he is enjoying a chat with Bishop Lai….

The Osaka group arrived on Tuesday and we held a service at Good Shepherd Church, Taipei to sign the agreement. Rev. Keith C. C. Lee visited Osaka for 3 months last summer, and when he returned to Taiwan, he became rector of Good Shepherd Church. So he worked very hard and made many of the arrangements for this visit – and his wife Sindy played the piano for the service. Also involved in organizing everything were Linda, principal of Good Shepherd Kindergarten, Mrs. Lily Lai, kindergarten supervisor, and Linda, wife of Rev. Philip Lin ~ she is also the drumming teacher ~ and so the children sang and drummed, as did some of the adults, to give a really enthusiastic welcome as the visitors arrived. Oh and the children had made lovely little gifts for the visitors. I even got one too, thank you!

Many of our clergy came from all over Taiwan, plus church members and friends, all to welcome our lovely Osaka friends. Here we all are! And Mrs. Masako Kawamura from Osaka came in her kimono. Here she is with Rev. Keith Lee – isn’t she beautiful?!

During the service, Bishop Lai presented Bishop Iso with a Kinmen Artillery Shell Cross, and Bishop Iso presented Bishop Lai with a beautiful and very special chalice and paten, made by one of the Osaka church members. All mother-of-pearl ~ it’s gorgeous!

The service was also attended by a group of 9 lady visitors from St. Patrick’s Church, Tawau, Sabah, E. Malaysia. They are visiting St. Stephen’s Church, Keelung for a week on a mission exchange trip, and Rev. Julia Lin has been taking them around visiting our churches for outreach. Here they are with Rev. Julia Lin and Rev. Joseph Wu!

And so to the service, which was bilingual – Chinese and Japanese, with Bishop Iso preaching…..

After the photos, off we went for the formal welcome dinner, hosted by Bishop Lai and the Diocese of Taiwan, and very delicious ~ and followed by a birthday celebration for Rev. Iwaki!

The Osaka group left on Wednesday early morning for a visit to St. James’ Church, Taichung, then to Sun Moon Lake. Today they are visiting Alishan, and tomorrow they go to St. Peter’s Church, Chiayi, before leaving tomorrow night. A flying visit, but oh, so meaningful, and so wonderful to see them all!

For Jerry Liang’s report on the service, check out his blog post and photos here.

And finally a group photo of all the clergy who attended the service, including Bishop Iso, Rev. Akira Iwaki, Rev. Kiyomi Senmatsu and Rev. Warren Wilson from Osaka. Most of our clergy from northern Taiwan attended too, plus…..

Plus…. what? What else can you spot in the above photo?

Just check out Rev. Elizabeth Wei, on the front left, and what she is standing next to. Ha ha! Yes, it’s a frog! Presumably from the Good Shepherd Kindergarten. That was a surprise ~ I love it!

So please do pray for the next 3 years of our partnership with Osaka, and especially for our plans for a 3-year mission training and outreach program involving young people from both dioceses, starting this summer. It’s the vision of our Advent Church rector, Rev. Lennon Y. R. Chang, supported by Shu-Jing from our chaplaincy, in partnership with our Osaka friends. It’s still very much in the planning stages, and there’s lots to do!

And finally, a big welcome to all our Osaka friends ~ and thanks to Good Shepherd Church and the Diocese of Taiwan for all the arrangements. And thanks be to God for such a great partnership between our 2 dioceses ~ YES!

Taiwan Episcopal Church, Diocese of Taiwan

St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei 60th Anniversary Thanksgiving Concert!

November 27, 2016 Catherine Lee Leave a comment

A whole year of 60th anniversary celebrations at St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei was brought to a very fine and very fitting end yesterday afternoon ~ with a special thanksgiving concert, with choirs and music groups from Good Shepherd Church, St. James’ Church, Christ Church, and of course St. John’s Cathedral.

There was St. John’s Cathedral Choir….

Good Shepherd Choir….

St. James’ Church Choir…..

And Christ Church….

We had short 3-minute speeches (well, 3 minutes was the allocated time, which caused much laughter – as some definitely went on just a bit longer!) from former deans and clergy in charge of the cathedral, Rev. Michael Liu, Rev. Samuel Lin, Rev. Elizabeth Wei and last of all, Bishop David J. H. Lai. VIPs were all sitting in the 2 front rows ~ this was the front right row, with Rev. Samuel Lin in the foreground, then senior warden Mrs. Marjorie Kuo and her husband, Mr. Winston Yu, then Rev. Elizabeth Wei and her husband Rev. Peter Chen, and Dr. Huang!

Visitors came from all over, including a special group from the Gideons, here they are with our new dean, Very Rev. Philip Lin and his wife, Linda.

All the choirs and musicians had put in hours and hours of practice, and in the case of St. James’ Church, hours of travel too – despite leaving at 8:00 am, with 2+ hours of travel, 2+ hours of rehearsing – all wonderfully conducted by Rev. Lily Chang, and still they were so awake and full of energy!

All the choirs and groups deserve medals for producing the most beautiful music and for singing and playing so happily! Some do deserve an extra-special mention ~ the fastest non-stop action group was the St. John’s Cathedral Praise Dance Team, the most innovative were the St. John’s Cathedral Sunday School who had a yo-yo performance from Daniel in the middle of their song, the coolest were Good Shepherd Choir in their jeans and white shirts, the most inclusive age-wise were Christ Church, whose ages ranged from about 5 to adult, the ‘wow, stop-in-your-tracks-must-listen-to’ group were the men’s section of the cathedral choir singing the opening lines of ‘What a Wonderful World’, the most versatile must be the orchestra group who stepped up and down onto the stage several times – and always got it right, and of course Joanna, the lovely cathedral organist who played solos and accompanied groups and choirs all afternoon, running back and forth from organ to piano – she and the cathedral choir conductor were amazing – here they are, the 2 of them looking so calm and relaxed as always!

The final song was ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’, a most appropriate way to end the concert, and to prepare for Advent, starting today. This was performed by the collective choirs of St. John’s Cathedral, Good Shepherd Church, Christ Church and St. James, and accompanied by the cathedral orchestra group. Beautiful!

A great afternoon, thank you St. John’s Cathedral, and congratulations on a year-long celebration of your 60th anniversary!

And finally a photo of the smiling St. John’s Cathedral Choir with their new dean, Rev. Philip Lin, standing next to former dean, Rev. Samuel Lin, and including former rector, Rev. Elizabeth Wei and assistant Rev. Peter Chen, and former former dean, Rev. Michael Liu! Thank you for all your hard work to make yesterday’s concert such a success!

Oh yes, and we finished with a wonderful tea-time with lots of delicious things to eat, thank you St. John’s Cathedral!

Taiwan Episcopal Church, Diocese of Taiwan

委任李鎮丞牧師為牧愛堂主任牧師典禮 Installation of the Rev. Keith C. C. Lee as Rector of Good Shepherd Church, Taipei!

November 3, 2016 Catherine Lee Leave a comment

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!

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And with all the clergy who came too!

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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!

Taiwan Episcopal Church, Diocese of Taiwan

English Summer Camp @ Good Shepherd Church, Taipei ~ YES!

August 26, 2016 Catherine Lee Leave a comment

4 weeks of fun, 4 weeks of sun and heat (yes, not a typhoon in sight for 4 weeks, most unusual!), 4 weeks of u-biking along the river path from Tamsui to Taipei, and 4 weeks (well almost, Mondays to Thursdays, mornings only) of teaching a class of 20 lovely children, ages 7-10, lots of Bible stories, English and drama, ably assisted by one of our St. John’s University students, Tzu-Yang (Mark), who also traveled miles every day to get there. Actually he’s just graduated and is awaiting notification of his 4-months military service, so he was free. He brought along lots of energy, enthusiasm and youthfulness, as well as doing all the translating for me. Ah yes, we had a great time!

And we spent this final week practicing a drama all in English ~ the story of Jesus calming the storm (Matthew 8) which involved all the kids speaking at least one English sentence, plus all the adults leading the actions. After hours and hours of rehearsals, we were finally ready for 2 performances, each one lasting all of 3 minutes ~ one each on Wednesday and Thursday, watched by Keith and Sindy, our new Good Shepherd Church rector and his wife, Linda the kindergarten principal, and Mrs. Lily Lai, kindergarten supervisor. Plus we had awards presented to students who did particularly well or tried extra hard.

The children’s faces in the drama photos are deliberately blurred, but you can still get an idea of them all sitting in the boat, while those standing in the back row are the winds and the waves, and then Jesus gets woken up and springs into action, bringing great calm on the water. Ah yes, it was very meaningful, relevant to the children’s lives, and of course great fun to do!

On one day the children wrote some prayers of blessing for themselves and others ~ this was one of the ones that made me smile!

Good Shepherd Church is not exactly on my doorstep, and this year, repairs to the church rectory meant it was better for me to travel in every day from Sanzhi – in previous years, I’ve stayed in one of the rooms overnight. So to fit in a little exercise, and make the most of the bicycle path along the river, off I went from Tamsui to Good Shepherd Church by u-bike, about an hour’s ride, with a few variations of route. The scenery is beautiful. Tamsui – ZhuWei – Guandu – pass by Shezi Bridge – Shilin.

A few photos of the early morning highlights…

Meanwhile Tzu-Yang, Mark, came in every day from Yingge, having had a 6:00 am driving lesson before he left each morning!

We were delighted to finish the summer camp classes yesterday with lunch hosted by Chao Mama, member of Good Shepherd Church and also mother of our good friend, Ms. Chao Wen-Yi, who served in the St. John’s University Chaplain’s Office for so many years until her retirement last year. Chao Mama invited Mark and I to her home for lunch, cooked by her wonderful helper, Hasna. Hasna took this photo of us, enjoying Chao Mama’s kind hospitality! Thank you!

So a big thank you to all at Good Shepherd Church and Kindergarten for your very warm welcome these past 4 weeks. ‘Warm’ in temperature – wow Taipei is hot in the summer ~ and very warm in welcome and hospitality!

And please pray for the Good Shepherd Summer Camp children who start their new school year and new semester next week, and especially for Rev. Keith Lee’s son and daughter, age 7 and 10, who came to the English Summer Camp for the final week – they are just starting their new school in Taipei, so it’s a big change for them. Ah, such a lovely family, a great church and we wish them all well as they settle in ~ YES!

Taiwan

Coffee Stand @ Good Shepherd Church, Taipei!

August 24, 2016 Catherine Lee Leave a comment

Actually Coffee Stand is 3 doors along from Good Shepherd Church, Taipei at 台北市士林區中正路519號 and stands out – of course for the coffee – but also because it is built into a half-demolished building. The building used to extend right up to level with the white line down the middle of the road in front, but 20 years ago the end of the building was removed to make way for the road. So the upstairs of the building has a half-demolished look about it, but hey, that’s the attraction!

Y’know, I’ve been walking past this building for years, and never noticed the upper floors before. Check it out, it’s quite something!

Art in the Ruins! And of course very excellent coffee, and a very nice coffee man, and enough seats for only 6 people, but worth sitting down as the view is of the main road junction outside, and all the traffic whizzing past – but as it’s a little distance away, it’s not noisy, and it’s quite a place.

Must go, must see, must try the coffee!

Taiwan Episcopal Church, Diocese of Taiwan

Good Shepherd Church, Taipei 牧愛堂 welcomes Rev. Keith C. C. Lee 李鎮丞牧師 as the new rector!

August 7, 2016 Catherine Lee Leave a comment

Another big day at Good Shepherd Church, Taipei!

Last Sunday, Good Shepherd Church said goodbye to Rev. Philip Lin 林立峯牧師 and his family as they moved to St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei, and now this Sunday, today, they say a big welcome to their new rector, Rev. Keith Lee 李鎮丞牧師! Here he is, in the middle, after his 2 services today, still smiling!

Keith and his wife Sindy have 2 children, a son and a daughter, aged about 10 and 7, but as the Good Shepherd Rectory is having major repairs for the next few weeks, Keith is in Taipei on his own for the time being, while his family stay in Chiayi with Sindy’s parents until they can move in fully.

And as our very energetic and well-loved Chaplain to the English Congregation, Herbert Barker is still away on holiday, so Keith bravely gave his first ever English sermon today ~ and he did a great job! Here he is in action!

Our beloved Rev. Michael Liou, who has been helping out at Good Shepherd over the last few months, was on hand to lead the 9:30 am English service and celebrated Holy Communion, training Keith well for the future. Thank you Michael!

Keith preached and then celebrated Holy Communion at the 11:00 am Chinese service….

So I had a chance to hear the sermon twice today! In it, Keith introduced himself to both congregations. He shared about his background, how he started off his ministry at St. John’s Cathedral and then Holy Trinity, Keelung as an evangelist. Then for the last 12 years he has been in southern Taiwan, for 6 years at St. Peter’s Church, Chiayi, then 2½ years at St. Mark’s Church, Pingtung and St. Andrew’s Kindergarten, Jieding, and then for the last 3 years at Grace Church, Tainan.

Before all that, he studied for 7 years at Tainan Theological College, initially as a Presbyterian, but in his last 2 years there, he decided to pursue ordination in the Taiwan Episcopal Church. And more recently he has just spent an amazing 3 months, from April to July visiting our wonderful companion diocese of Osaka, Japan, and learning lots about ministry there, and improving his Japanese language skills. In fact, the congregation noted how Keith can now preach in 4 languages, Chinese, Taiwanese, English and Japanese, wonderful!

We were also pleased to welcome several visitors today, quite a few in the English service, and then in the Chinese service, we welcomed Mrs. Amy Chee, former choir director at Advent Church. Her husband, Rev. David Chee was the former rector of Good Shepherd Church, so Amy was returning home. Here she is in the middle, with a group of beautiful Good Shepherd ladies!

So a warm welcome for Keith at Good Shepherd Church! Please pray for all the 6 clergy in the Taiwan Episcopal Church and their families who have started their new ministries today, and for the 6 churches welcoming the 6 new clergy! All face many challenges ahead. May God bless them and lead them, and may the Taiwan Episcopal Church continue to be a faithful witness to Christ throughout this nation and the world.

Taiwan Episcopal Church, Diocese of Taiwan

Good Shepherd Church, Taipei 牧愛堂 says Goodbye to Rev. Philip L. F. Lin 林立峯牧師 and his family!

July 31, 2016 Catherine Lee Leave a comment

Yes, today is a big day in the Diocese of Taiwan ~ we have many of our churches saying fond farewells to their clergy as they move on. This was the scene at Good Shepherd Church today as the church said goodbye to Rev. Philip Lin, his wife and family, here they are with the Good Shepherd Senior Warden, Mr. Jake Hung!

Over at St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei our beloved Rev. Elizabeth Wei and her amazing husband, Rev. Peter Chen are finally retiring after serving the last 2 years in charge of the cathedral. Many congratulations to them and we all wish them well!

So Rev. Philip L. F. Lin, 林立峯牧師 is moving over to St. John’s Cathedral as the new dean, starting tomorrow, August 1. In fact he and his family actually moved in yesterday, but came back today to Good Shepherd Church to say their fond farewells. Good Shepherd Chinese Congregation did themselves proud ~ we had a great service, with special prayers for Philip and his family, then a wonderful farewell celebration with lots of yummy delicious food and fun performances from all the different church groups, very ably emceed by one of the youth group, Ms. Lucia Pan.

A GREAT DAY ~ YES!

Philip and his family have only been at Good Shepherd Church for about 18 months, which of course is nowhere near long enough to accomplish all the things they would have liked to have done! Before Good Shepherd, they were at St. James’ Church, Taichung for many many years, which is how I know them so well. Such a lovely family! Philip’s wife, Linda set up a community service project at St. James which is still going strong, and she’s been very involved in community outreach at Good Shepherd. Daniel, their older son is hopefully just coming to the end of about 3 years of treatment for leukemia which he has borne with great fortitude and resilience, and during the course of it all has learned how to do amazing tricks and skilled displays with a yo-yo. He still needs a lot of prayer for his health, his education – which has suffered, and for his new school. Their younger son, Caleb will also be starting a new school. Here they are with their Good Shepherd ‘Graduation Certificates’, presented today!

For 3 months from April to July, Philip had the great privilege of visiting New York, wonderfully hosted by Trinity Church, Wall Street, Manhattan and St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York City, and with many opportunities to visit other churches and church projects, theological colleges and interesting places, as well as improve his English, all with the view to helping him prepare for his new role as dean of St. John’s Cathedral. Linda was also able to visit New York for the last few weeks too.

Today, the amazing Mrs. Lai 賴亮惠 from Good Shepherd Church – she was in the performances of the choir group, the seniors group and the Grace Cell Group – spoke on behalf of many when she said that there were 3 things that they would specially remember Philip for, his broad smile, his great sermons, and his very talented and lovely wife! Mrs. Lai said that when Philip went off to New York, his wife Linda replaced Philip helping out with many of the church groups, including teaching the seniors Taiko Drums!

Good Shepherd is very much like one big family, and Sundays are very busy as all the different groups meet for fellowship, following the church lunch.

So today was really extra special!