Tag Archives: St Luke’s Church Hualien

Taiwan

🐰 Bouncing into the Year of the Rabbit! 🐰

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There’s rabbit clothes, rabbit lanterns, rabbit displays and rabbit-everything everywhere!

An abundance of real live rabbits is one of the things I noticed about the UK on my recent visit – they were everywhere, munching away on people’s lawns. Not so here in Taiwan, but hey we’re celebrating the Year of the Rabbit, and with the Lantern Festival officially starting this coming Sunday, expect some more rabbit photos! 🐰 The Lantern Festival has already started in Hualien, where we were this past weekend – the home-painted lanterns are beautiful!

The Light Show was amazing too, shown every half hour during the evening – do check it out here!

Part of the fun of Chinese New Year is that everyone has the week off and many take the opportunity to travel around the country, visiting relatives or just enjoying the break. My good friend, Ah-Guan came from Taichung with another friend and we joined the crowds on Taiwan’s east coast, visiting Rev. Antony Liang and his family, who moved last summer from St. John’s Cathedral where he’d been in charge of the English congregation for the past few years serving his curacy. Now he’s the vicar of St. Luke’s Church, Hualien and settling in really well ~ we were very warmly welcomed by Antony and everyone. The church is small, with about 25 on an average Sunday, and lovely – all green and yellow, and the people so lovely too!

There’s lots to see in Hualien, including walking to Qixing Beach (yes, we really did walk – it took 4 hours!) and visiting the cultural areas of the city – and enjoying the night markets. The wind was incredible on the first day, but after that it was calm and mostly cloudy, which made for comfortable walking…

As happens in many beautiful places, once you learn the history of a place you find a lot of tragedy, and Hualien is no exception. There are military bases all over the area, and fighter jets practicing whenever the weather allows, so the noise is tremendous – just like the Lake District! Antony took us to visit the ‘Hualien Pine Garden’, originally named the ‘Hualien Port Army Military Department’, on a hilltop above the city, within walking distance of the church. The Okinawa Pines were brought to Hualien during the Japanese Era, now all over 100 years old. During World War II, this compound housed the Japanese Military Command, and towards the end of the war, it is said that from here Japan launched its kamikaze attacks on battleships in the Pacific. The kamikaze pilots would spend their last night here, eat their last meal, and in the log cabin, in front of the shrine to the Japanese Emporer, receive some heavenly wine. It is also reputed to be the place where, at the end of the war, the highest-level Japanese general committed suicide rather than surrender. These days it is a museum, also housing the bomb shelter, cafe and art gallery – currently displaying an exhibition of digital art…

Sobering thoughts which contrast with the atmosphere of celebration at this time of the year ~ and the rest of my Chinese New Year was spent eating, drinking and partying, as is usual for everyone in Taiwan at this time of year! I started with a visit to Bishop Lai and Mrs. Lily Lai in Tainan…

Then on my first Sunday back, I was presented with a farewell gift from Rev. Wu – on behalf of Advent Church – of a coffee grinder, a must-have item for a new house here – coffee parties, tea parties all coming up! And with all that caffeine, bouncing into the Year of the Rabbit seems an appropriate phrase!

Then I moved house into Taipei City – but returned to Advent Church for Chinese New Year’s Eve, invited by my good friends, the Tan family…

This was taken at Advent Church on New Year’s Eve…

New Year’s Day was actually a Sunday, which was most appropriate, and Advent Church welcomed Bishop Lennon Y. R. Chang and his wife Hannah to the service too…..

Now I’m now based at St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei and so far have enjoyed a nice meal with the Liu family, and 2 tea and coffee house-warming parties, more to come! Thanks to the cathedral dean, Rev. Philip Lin and his family, plus Rev. Joseph Ho and his family for their warm welcome…

Chinese New Year would not be complete without a visit to the Taipei Jianguo Flower Market, located under the overpass not far from Da’An Forest Park, and open at weekends and holidays…

Yes, everywhere is red and gold!

As my new location is not far from Taipei 101 and Xiang-Shan, Elephant Mountain, so we’ve made the most of it, by night and day…

And finally, Chinese New Year would not be complete without the cherry blossom, everywhere is pink! It brightens up a dull day…

And of course on a sunny day it’s stunning!

Enough for now, do keep a look-out for the Lantern Festival coming up, there’s more rabbits to come! 🐰

Taiwan Episcopal Church, Diocese of Taiwan

Diocese of Taiwan New Friendship Magazine Just Published!

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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!

Taiwan

Roaring Down Taiwan’s East Coast in the Year of the Tiger! 🐯

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The main tiger lantern at the Hualien Lantern Festival – looks even better at night all lit up!

Escaping from Taipei’s endless rain and cold, and in search of some sun, warmth and blue skies, so we just spent this past week driving down Taiwan’s east coast. Beautiful! Yes, sun, warmth and blue skies, all so much appreciated. My 3 friends, Xiu-Chin, Ah-Guan and her daughter Ya-Ling arrived here on Monday from Taichung and Tainan ~ first stop was to visit Rev. Philip Jung-Long Ho and his wife Shiao-Lan, recently retired back here to Sanzhi from Grace Church, Tainan. So wonderful to see them again!

We set off from Taipei on Tuesday and headed east to Yilan, staying in the famous hot spring town of Jiaoxi. Most interesting is the waterfall and RC church at nearby Wufengqi 五峰旗….

The story behind the church is that some 40 years ago, a group of hikers got lost in the mountains nearby and prayed to the Virgin Mary for help. She appeared to them in a vision and guided them down the mountain to safety. The church is beautiful, especially with the red lanterns for New Year and the pink cherry blossom…

We left Jiaoxi heading south to Hualien, stopping at the cliffs….

In Hualien, we visited Rev. Joseph Ray-En Ho (son of Rev. Philip Ho), his wife Pei-Yin and children, who are based at St. Luke’s Church…

His daughter carries a specially-made cross for some of the services, and was so happy to dress up for a photo with us!

We were staying at Ji-an, just outside Hualien, where the early morning scenery was just what we needed after all of Taipei’s endless rain!

We visited Liyu Lake, and watched the inflatable ducks and fountains performing to music…

We visited the local sites, passing by the famous Hualien Starbucks – in the shipping containers…

On Friday, we drove south from Hualien along the coast to Taitung, Taiwan’s most scenic coastal route, crossing the Tropic of Cancer on the way….

The east coast beaches are beautiful!

In Taitung, we stayed at a guest house right near the old sugar factory which is reinventing itself as a big art and cultural space…

Taitung is famous for its custard apples, being sold at the side of the road, so we bought a box and took them with us….

The multi-coloured building at Dawu has had a fresh coat of paint since I last visited, it’s stunning!

Saying goodbye to the east coast, we drove over the mountains and through the new tunnel eastwards to Pingtung, where we stayed with our good friend, Ju-Zi at Wouli. Last year I stayed with her over Chinese New Year and wrote up my blog post here about my visit. It’s an amazing place, with so much history and culture, and we had a really warm welcome. Ju-Zi lives in the Dachen Village in Pingtung, and cooks the most delicious and authentic Dachen food, which she gave us to eat on Saturday night, helped by A-Chao. So delicious!

After the Sunday service at St. Mark’s Church, Pingtung yesterday, so I returned to Taipei, while the 3 others in our group carried on to Kaohsiung to see the Taiwan Lantern Festival. In fact, they went out every night in every place we stayed to see the different Lantern Festivals. There were lanterns everywhere of every kind, including tigers of course. The Lantern Festival officially launches tomorrow, the 15th day of the first lunar month, but celebrations have been ongoing throughout this month. Great to see some colour. Also great to some blue skies and sunshine. Ah yes, it was a wonderful week of traveling round Taiwan, enjoying the scenery and visiting friends. In previous years, we’ve traveled round Taiwan during the Chinese New Year week itself, but then so is everyone else. We were fortunate this year to be able to go a week later, so it was much quieter – which means no traffic jams. YES! Thanks to everyone for their hospitality and my 3 friends for their company – and driving!

🏮Happy Lantern Festival everyone!🏮

Taiwan

Hualien Earthquake, Taiwan’s East Coast, February 2018

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Please pray for Hualien on the Taiwan’s east coast, battered by a legion of earthquakes, starting with a magnitude 5.8 earthquake on Sunday February 4 that peaked with the main quake, magnitude 6.4 (registered as 7 in downtown Hualien) at 11:50 pm, last night, Tuesday February 6. Between those 2 major earthquakes, 94 shocks were recorded, with five of them reaching magnitude 5.0 or higher. Since last night, there have been seemingly non-stop aftershocks. Many of these have been felt throughout Taiwan. So although last night’s earthquake was not totally unexpected, the fact that 4 major high-rise buildings in Hualien collapsed as a result is a huge shock and major disaster, with the death toll rising by the hour and many still missing. The weather has been very cold, with snow on the mountains, but now there is heavy rain, which together with the instability of the tilting buildings is hampering rescue efforts.

The Taiwan Episcopal Church has one church in Hualien, St. Luke’s Church, and the vicar, Rev. Joseph M. L. Wu posted photos of the damage to the building (see below – click on each photo to enlarge). The church altar table, made of glass, was completely destroyed in the earthquake. Like many church buildings in Taiwan, the church is actually the ground floor of a high building, with apartments above. Fortunately, the building did not sustain any structural damage.

Bishop David J. H. Lai has today transferred an initial NT$ 200,000 (US$ 6,850 / GB£ 4,915) to St. Luke’s Church for repair work, and is encouraging all our church members throughout Taiwan to donate to St. Luke’s Church for relief and repairs. All church members are reported as safe, but many with damage to their homes and businesses, and of course shock and concern about ongoing aftershocks. Mr. Yang, chair of the St. Luke’s Church council, runs a guest house in Hualien directly opposite the multi-story Marshal Hotel, which collapsed in the earthquake, yet his building only sustained minor damage in comparison. Power and water cuts are an ongoing problem, and drinking water is in very short supply. Hualien has a high number of people belong to the indigenous people groups, and many are Christians, belonging particularly to the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic Churches. Their faith and church community support will be a great source of strength to them at this time.

This earthquake comes exactly two years to the very day since Taiwan’s last major earthquake, in which another high-rise apartment building collapsed in the southern city of Tainan resulting in 117 deaths. That earthquake occurred during the Chinese New Year festival. This earthquake occurs one week before Chinese New Year, and people are obviously busy in preparations. Hualien is a major tourist city, due to the nearby scenic beauty of Taroko Gorge and the east coast, plus the indigenous cultures. Roads, infrastructure, hotels and scenic spots are badly damaged. Many people will now be putting their travel plans on hold, and sadly this will have a major effect on the economy of the region.

Your prayers are much appreciated. Thank you.

Updated on Thursday February 8: For latest news, check out these 2 reports both from the Taipei Times website:

Seven dead, hundreds injured in temblor

Building rescue efforts continue – about the way the leaning angles of one of the tilted buildings increased from 30° to 45° through the day, then at 3 pm, the building “visibly moved 4 cm within 10 minutes”….

Update from Bishop Lai’s office: The Rev. Joseph Wu reports today that the church is already cleaned up, and repairs are starting.  Joseph has sent these 2 photos of the church today.  Doesn’t it look different from yesterday?!

He also says that money donated by our churches in Taiwan or overseas will be used in possible relief work in the local community, but all relief will be done in and through cooperation with Taiwan World Vision (Eastern Region) in Hualien, who are on the ground with experts and resources in place, and are coordinating relief ministry in that area. Joseph is still in the process of getting in touch with them and offering his help.

Updated on Monday February 12: Rescue work ends as quake toll hits 17

Updated on Wednesday February 14: Article from the Anglican Communion News Service: Church aids relief effort after 6.4 Magnitude earthquake strikes Taiwan’s Hualien county

Thank you all for your concern and prayers.

Taiwan Episcopal Church, Diocese of Taiwan

Round-Taiwan Tour with Nicky and Harriet ~ YES!

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Yep, we’ve done a whole circuit of Taiwan this past week ~ ‘n what a beautiful country!

Nicky and Harriet, my 2 lovely visitors from one of my CMS Link Churches, St. John’s, Neville’s Cross, Durham, UK, had already been here a week, based in Taipei, and so this was the chance for them to see a little of this beautiful island ~ Ilha Formosa (‘Beautiful Isle’, the name given by Portuguese sailors), otherwise known as….. Taiwan!

Last Monday, July 11, when we set off, southern Taiwan was still reeling from Typhoon Nepartak which had wreaked havoc a few days before.   So we were not sure how far we would get to see the things we hoped to see.  But still, off we went – by train from Taipei, 2 hours eastwards to Hualien, where we were warmly welcomed by Rev. Joseph Wu, his wife and family and the really friendly members of St. Luke’s Church, Hualien.  His daughter’s English and art skills are amazing!  They treated us to delicious meals, yummy pearl milk tea, and a visit to Hualien Night Market with its music and stalls, delicious foods and things to buy.  Hualien County has about 300,000 people, of whom about a quarter each are indigenous / aboriginal, Hakka, Taiwanese and Chinese. So we were delighted to enjoy all the different cultures and their traditions.  Ah yes, we love Hualien!

The scenic highlight of the trip to Hualien was on Tuesday when we went to Taroko Gorge太魯閣, with Mr. James Chien, brother of our former bishop, Bishop John C. T. Chien. He is such a great tour guide and gave us ample time and opportunity to enjoy the gorge and the scenery.  The gorge was open as far as Buluowan Visitors Center which is about half way up – further up the road was closed due to landslides from the typhoon. The river was very grey and very muddy, filled with water from the typhoon.  We had great weather all morning, and just as we got in the car to return, it started to rain!  After a wonderful buffet lunch with James and his wife in Parkview Hotel, we visited Liyu Lake 鯉魚潭, where the rain had just stopped and the sun was now out – good timing eh?!  The red-faced giant duck and family on the lake are just so much fun!  Also to the Farglory Hotel for a panoramic view of Hualien.  More food in the evening and lots of great fellowship with the church members. It was so moving to be so warmly welcomed!

On Wednesday we set off southwards by train heading to Pingtung on the south-west coast via Taitung.  This may have been the fastest train on the line, but oh it is slow, slow, slow, 5 hours of stop ‘n start, stop ‘n start – but y’know what, we loved it!  Plenty of time to look around at the scenery, though it was so sad to see how devastated the banana crops and many other fruit crops are in Taitung County after the typhoon.

We arrived in Pingtung to another warm welcome, this time from Rev. C. C. Cheng (CC), his wife and many delightful and very lively members of St. Mark’s Church, Pingtung. Meals and more meals, yummy local style, including a very delicious breakfast prepared by CC and his wife….

Then we set off for a tour around, firstly to visit an old Hakka house in central Pingtung, originally owned by the Ciou 邱 family and now a museum.  They told us that the population of Pingtung is about 50% Taiwanese, 30% Hakka and 20% Indigenous / aboriginal, so again it was good to see a little of all the different cultures and and taste all the different foods!

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We visited the mountainous and indigenous Sandimen area of the Paiwan and Rukai Tribes, which I had visited a few months ago (see that blog post here).  That day was great, and so was this!  One of the St. Mark’s Church members, Ju-z and her friends had organized a whole tour for us, starting with the Dragonfly Beads Art Studio, an amazing coffee and jewelry place, where we had the chance to make our own jewelry pieces forming the glass beads over the flame.  The coffee tables and chairs were also decorated with beads, and we had a wonderful view out over Pingtung.  Harriet was so so so happy ~ so was everyone!

We had a very traditional and of course, very good Hakka lunch in Dalukuan and then on we went to the relocated indigenous community of Rinari 禮納裡部落 in Majia 瑪家 Township.  This is one of 2 villages we visited that are new communities for the Paiwan and Rukai peoples who were forced to relocate after Typhoon Morakot in 2009.  The second village was Ulaljuc 吾拉魯滋部落, newly built for residents of typhoon-damaged Taiwu Village. Both places are full of interest, good coffee, yummy delicacies and of course beautiful indigenous things to buy…  Ah yes, we love Pingtung too!

On Thursday evening, we said reluctant goodbyes to all our good friends from St. Mark’s and headed up to Taichung, this time by High-Speed Rail.  Rev. Charles C. T. Chen, Rector Emeritus of St. James’ Church, Taichung kindly picked us up with all our tons of luggage. Then on Friday, our good friend, Jerry Liang from St. James took us on an amazing trip to Sun Moon Lake, where we enjoyed coffee at the Xuanzang Temple (definitely a temple with a view ~ and thanks to Jerry for some of these photos below taken at the temple) then lunch and a walk by the lake.  The weather was beautiful, and the spider was ginormous!

That evening, we went to the St. James’ Preschool Graduation, always a memorable fun event, and full of performances, speeches and all sorts of singing and dancing from the children and teachers.  Great to meet our friends, Matisse and Abby from our sister school, Cambridge-Ellis Preschool in Boston, USA here for the summer.  Jerry’s 5-year-old grandson gave a great speech, amazing!  I loved it all, just glad I no longer have to wear a white dress and dance with all the teachers!

On Saturday morning, my good friend, Marina kindly took us to Rainbow Village 彩虹眷村on the outskirts of Taichung.  This is such an amazing place, and in my humble opinion easily the most attractive set of buildings in the whole of Taichung.  It’s the last remaining few houses of a Veterans Village, built for the old soldiers and their families who came to Taiwan after 1949. Most the houses are already gone, demolished and redeveloped, but old Mr. Huang, now aged 94, decided to start painting the remaining houses a few years ago, and in doing so, has saved his village.  He was there when we visited – and posed for a photo.  He has painted THE most wonderful set of buildings in such vibrant colours. Just my kinda house ~ I love it!  And then we had tea and lunch in an old-style tea house.  Love it too!

And in the evening, Luanne and Samuel, Charles and MaryJo, Rev. Lily Chang and the lovely people of St. James treated us to an amazing welcome dinner.  And in-between times, we had a chance to catch up with old students and good friends, Leighnae visiting from USA, Ah-Guan (trying her best to get Nicky using a selfie-stick!) and Ming-Wen, and plenty more, even the student leader at St. James who had been on the same youth camp as Harriet had attended on her previous visit in 2014. Ah, such fun!

And we finished Nicky and Harriet’s trip on Sunday, yesterday, at St. James’ Church, Taichung, where Nicky bravely preached twice, once in the English service at 9:30 am and then again in the Chinese service at 10:45 am where she and Jerry worked in tandem, he translated as she preached.  And very smoothly it all went too!   The readings yesterday were from the Gospel reading about Mary and Martha, and Nicky shared about how that story fitted in with her ministry as a medical doctor and NSM priest.   Really good sermon!

The sermon is now on You Tube ~ all 31 minutes of it in English and Chinese, check it out here!

Yesterday afternoon, Charles and MaryJo generously offered to take us around and about, and so we went to TungHai University where the Luce Chapel (designed by I. M. Pei) was looking beautiful in the afternoon sun.  Then to Banner Church where we had great coffee and then later, noodles (check out just how proficient Nicky and Harriet have become with those chopsticks in the last 2 weeks!)

All very convenient for the HSR train to Taoyuan and the airport…..

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen and goodbye to Nicky and Harriet ~ we’ve had such a great time together, so many laughs and so much fun, every day filled with non-stop action and so many hilarious moments!  Thanks to you both for coming!

And a very special thank you to all my friends in Taiwan for their very generous and kind hospitality and welcome to us all, it was so much appreciated ~ YES YES YES!

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂