Son of an Episcopal priest in Taiwan, former senior warden of Taipei’s Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, Tien-Yo “Tim” Pan got his PhD in computer engineering. At the peak of his career, he was in charge of Microsoft’s massive development division in Beijing, overseeing hundreds of engineers. Say what you will about China’s system of government. As Tim noted, almost nobody in the country can turn on their computer without permission from Microsoft’s operating system.
So now, of course, he’s a seminary dean. Retired from Microsoft, succeeding our respected former Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles colleague David Chee, Tim runs the Trinity School for Christian Ministry, an institution of the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan — and to hear him tell it, it’s a logical second career. A lay preacher since age 35, for years he’s heard people say he should follow in his father’s priest steps. Instead, he believes God’s calling him to be a lay leader with a thorough theological education, working alongside the ordained orders as coequal partner. If we’re unclear about that, we should check the catechism in the “Book of Common Prayer,” where the laity are mentioned before bishops.
Beginning a week’s visit to Taiwan on Monday to attend ceremonies marking the diocese’s 70th anniversary, my priest colleagues Fennie Hsin-Fen Chang, Katherine Feng, Thomas Ni and I were guests of Bishop Lennon Chang for lunch with his staff at diocesan house, followed by Tim’s fascinating briefing on TSCM. Fr. Thomas reciprocated with an account of his work founding our own Li Tim-Oi Center at The Church of Our Saviour in San Gabriel, another theological education pioneer.
I told Tim that he was a member of an exclusive fraternity of non-ordained theological school deans that also includes our former dean at Bloy House, The Episcopal Theological School at Los Angeles, Linda Tolin Allport. Like Bloy House with its lay licensing program, now under the leadership of Dean Paul Anthony Daniels, TSCM champions lay formation by offering a certificate equivalent to the master in theological studies Tim himself is pursuing at Church Divinity School of the Pacific. Trinity also has a rigorous four-year program for future deacons and priests that matches up with a master of divinity from an accredited seminary. Some experts worry about this trend. But as many U.S. seminaries struggle, the practical question throughout The Episcopal Church may end up being whether we care about source of the diploma or the demonstrated quality of the education.
Bloy House Deans Paul and Linda, our former president Gary Hall, and others even imagine a return to such an M.Div.-like program at our own home-grown theological school, now focused on lay licensing, diaconal education, and lifetime Christian education. During the briefing, Bishop Chang and Tim forgave me, as Bloy House’s board chair, for asking somewhat more specific questions about Trinity’s finances than one might expect from a guest on their first day.
It was a fittingly substantive start to our visit. I’m writing early Tuesday morning, when we’ll soon be off to Dean Tim’s parish, Good Shepherd, to meet younger and less younger Episcopalians in the kindergarten and seniors ministries, then on to St. Thomas’ in Linkou and Christ Church in Chungli. Monday’s lunchtime festivities included the staff’s customary celebration of proximate birthdays, including four-year-old Ethan’s and mine in October. Ethan features in a delightful congratulatory video that will be shown at Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe’s consecration in November. The bishop’s gracious English secretary, Catherine Lee, who had warned me that the diocese’s 1,000 or so members tended to get rambunctious in photos, showed us exactly what she meant.
We also got the Cook’s tour of St. John’s Cathedral (where I’ll have the honor of preaching on Sunday) from Dean Philip Lin, who made us all the best coffee any of us remembered having. On Sundays, the dean and his rigorously trained coffee guild offer this service to raise funds for outreach ministry. The St. John’s drumming kindergarteners even gave us a preview of their offering at Saturday’s gala 70th anniversary celebration.
