My colleagues Fennie Hsin-Fen Chang, Katherine Feng, Thomas Ni, and I came to visit the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan’s missions and parishes (among us, we reached 11 of 15) and flesh out our new companion relationship.
But last weekend, it was party time as Taiwan’s 1,000 Episcopalians wished themselves a happy 70th birthday at a gala celebration beginning Friday in Taipei with a dinner for local clergy and international guests and culminating in a rousing festival Holy Eucharist service Saturday at St. John’s University.
At dinner, on behalf of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, I presented Bishop Lennon Chang with a congratulatory proclamation and, more important, a Dodgers jersey that said “CHANG 6.” Lennon’s the sixth bishop since the diocese was founded in 1954, as Taiwan Episcopalians pulled themselves together after the departure of Japanese Anglicans at the end of World War II. We hope all the Angels of heaven will enable Taiwan’s latest honorary Dodger to make a game when he visits our diocese next summer.
He’s also a former St. John’s University chaplain and professor. Launched by political refugees, St. John’s is the namesake of a legendary Anglican university in Shanghai that lost its name and Episcopal identity after the 1949 communist revolution. (Architect I.M. Pei attended St. John’s Shanghai’s high school.) For a half-hour before Saturday’s service, Bishop Chang worked the gym-sized congregation like a parish priest. He taught math at St. John’s for over 30 years and, after ordination, was chaplain for nearly a decade, introducing scores of students and colleagues to the love of Christ. Mutual affection shone in all faces.
The event’s four-way bench of bishops also included Roger Jaomalaza Chung of Antsiranana and Robert L. Fitzpatrick of Hawaii, whose diocese has deep historical ties to Taiwan. Asked by Lennon, always the evangelist, to preach about discipleship, Bob offered an expert and moving outline of the faith via the Apostles’ Creed. Bishop Lennon graciously invited me to help serve communion and offer the closing blessing. Lunch and a celebratory concert followed, featuring ensembles from all over the diocese, including indigenous regions.
Perhaps you think of those special moments when your heart says, “I’ve just been to church, and I definitely ran into God there, too.” That was my experience Saturday. Your LA pilgrims had met enough folks the prior week that I was able to greet a few communicants who came through my line by name, making the service feel a little like an episcopal visit back home. Under choirmaster Min-Hsi Fan, the music was sublime.
As we gathered, war worsened in the Holy Land. It’s hard going for Ukraine. War threatens from across the Taiwan Strait, and hunger, climate peril, and injustice stalk creation. Yet when we joined the Diocesan Choir singing “Here I Am, Lord,” I briefly felt insensible of any difference or separation among those anywhere in the world who bring their love before the altar of Christ and devote themselves to glorifying God and caring for God’s people. Whenever we feel one with our neighbor thanks to the ineffable power of our rituals, let us see what God invites us to accomplish.
On Sunday morning, Dean Philip L.F. Lin invited me back to St. John’s Cathedral in the heart of Taipei to preach. Lennon sent out my priest colleagues to preach at churches at the other three corners of Taipei. An elegant lunch followed at a nearby hotel where I got to know Marjorie Kuo and Winston Yu, she a retired hospital executive, he a professor emeritus, cathedral stalwarts who were baptized together in the nineties after their conversion, whereupon the then dean instantly named her senior warden. They keep an apartment in LA and look in at St Augustine by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Santa Monica and The Parish of St. Matthew in Pacific Palisades. Also at lunch was expat educator Tom Cole, son of the amazing Pam Cole, my late friend and political conversation partner from Nixon library days and longtime member of Episcopal Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Placentia.
The bishop’s English secretary, Catherine Lee, along for the morning at St. John’s, kind and expert facilitator throughout our visit, introduced me to scores more new and now old friends. “These days the United States has its political challenges, with an historic election in just a few weeks,” I said in church, with the cathedral curate and deacon, Claire C.L. Wang, translating. “Taiwan also stands as the crossroads of great events. I hear Jesus saying to our two dioceses, ‘Be at peace with one another by knowing one another better.’ I hear Jesus saying to the people of Taiwan and the United States, ‘Use the freedom my Father has given you wisely, for the sake of his glory, and for the sake of what’s best for all his people.’ So let’s remember Moses’ invitation to take up our crosses and be prophets. We are together this morning as co-prophets of peace and freedom. By God’s grace, may the whole world one day know both.”
