Good Shepherd Church Taiwan occupies what was once a private home, described as a traditional farmhouse with a U shape, the buildings enclosing a central courtyard. Church members say it’s like someone with their arms thrown open in welcome. It’s a good simile for Good Shepherd, whose welcoming arms extend far beyond its immediate neighborhood.
In the Diocese of Taiwan for its 70th anniversary festivities this weekend, my colleagues Fennie Hsin-Fen Chang, Katherine Feng, Thomas Ni, and I have visited four missions and parishes so far but only one traditional church building, namely beautiful St. John’s Cathedral (Taipei). After Japanese Anglicans left the island at the end of World War II, the government gave their buildings away to other denominations. Taiwan Episcopalians built new churches but also sometimes made do, such as with the farmhouse for Good Shepherd, which began in the sixties by offering services in English to U.S. military personnel. These days the Chinese- and English-speaking congregations worship separately, with a bilingual unity service once a month.
The parish’s arms were thrown open as wide as can be when we arrived on Tuesday. Most of its schools’ 140 preschoolers and kindergarteners were waiting for us in the courtyard with a song and a drum performance. (We sang back: “Hello, Good Shepherd(3x)/We’re glad to be with you!”) Rector for nearly nine years, the Vn. Keith Lee, diocesan archdeacon, told us that while few students come from Christian families, Good Shepherd considers its school an outreach ministry. When it comes to the faith, they teach rather than preach. As in non-Christian families in our Episcopal schools, Good Shepherd parents are glad their students are getting a values-based education.
With a rich diversity of belief, Taiwan people must count as among the most spiritually engaged in the world. In a nation that embraced marriage equity in 2019, a Christianity of love and acceptance is a good fit. Assisting the archdeacon these days is the Rev. Tom Reese, a genial veteran rector from the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island who arrived at the parish a month ago with his Taiwan-born husband, a pastry chef. In his briefing, Tom suggested gently that Episcopalians’ inclusivity is a better fit with Taiwan’s socially progressive Zeitgeist than the prevailing view of its larger, more conservative denominations. Just 1,000 strong in a population of 24 million, our Taiwan Episco-Pals are mighty in the way of love, riding the wave of its society’s deepening commitment to justice for all. Sound familiar, Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles?
David Chee, longtime former rector of St. Gabriel’s in Monterey Park, is also Good Shepherd’s former rector. We’ll be seeing him for dinner on Sunday. His and Fr. Keith’s parish’s outreach to the very young is matched by a 20-year-long ministry to homebound seniors. Its immediate neighborhood has Taiwan’s highest concentration of those of us 65 years old and up. In a ministry now supported by the government, Good Shepherd organizes a corps of volunteers that delivers lunch Monday through Friday to 70 clients, almost all non-Christians, and regularly invites them to the parish for fellowship and exercise.
Making our way along the full extension of Good Shepherd’s loving arms, we spent our afternoon at the dioceses’s newest mission, St. Thomas’, where the Rev. Vivian Kuo offers storefront ministry, Taizé, and other programs in the suburb of Linkou, where high-rises have sprung up for young high-tech workers and executives. St. Thomas’ is a mission of Good Shepherd, as was our third Tuesday host, 13-year-old Christ Church in Chungli, near Taipei’s airport, where the Rev. Felix Ming-You Chen is rector. They just became a parish in April. It’s a hearty congregation of about 70, and they like it that way. If it reaches 100, they’ve vowed to establish another mission. Over a delicious home-cooked dinner, they told us they want to keep their church family-sized, because welcoming family is what they believe people need these days — a lesson for all of us who may be tempted to make an idol of growth for growth’s sake.
