After he and his mission team visited St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in Monterey Park last summer, the bishop of Taiwan, the Rt. Rev. Lennon Yuan-rung Chang, generously offered to continue our budding exchange program by sending the Rev. Joseph Jui-en Ho to serve for three months at St. Gabriel’s.
Joseph arrived this week and is getting settled. On Saturday evening, he was Canon Kathy’s and my guest for dinner along with colleagues from our Chinese-language ministry task force. These included the Rev. Dr. Fennie Hsin-Fen Chang, who grew up in Keelung City, Taiwan, where Joseph pastors St. Stephen’s Church; the Rev. Canon Ada Wong-Nagata, priest in charge at St. Gabriel’s; the Rev. Dr. Thomas Ni of Church of our Savior; the Rev. Katherine Feng; and the Rev. Canon Thomas Quijada-Discavage.
Parish senior warden Sandy Whang and her husband, Daniel, joined in, along with Canon for Common Life Bob Williams, who shared stories of his visits to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China with Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold. Fennie, Katherine, Thomas, and I got the exchanges underway in the fall of 2024 when we visited Taiwan. Soon we’ll send a priest to Taiwan as well as a youth delegation this summer.
