Los Angeles Bishop John Taylor, left, takes a selfie with Taiwan Bishop Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang, center, and Hawai‘i Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick, right, in Taipei, Taiwan. The Diocese of Taiwan celebrated its 70th anniversary in late September 2024 with a special thanksgiving worship service and concert for more than 750 local and international guests. Photo: John Taylor
[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Taiwan celebrated its 70th anniversary in late September with a special thanksgiving worship service and concert for more than 750 local and international guests, including bishops and delegates from the Los Angeles and Hawai‘i dioceses.
“We are deeply grateful to God for the past 70 years during which the Diocese of Taiwan has continued to grow,” Taiwan Bishop Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang said in a post-celebratory report. He was consecrated and installed as the diocese’s sixth bishop in 2020.
The service and celebration took place Sept. 28 at Centennial Hall at St. John’s University in the Tamsui District of New Taipei City. Chang, an alumnus and former math professor and chaplain, is a member of the university’s board of trustees, whose chairperson is Kenneth Chu-Shiang Yao. The university’s president is Yen Po-Tang. The offering, more than $16,400, collected during the service will be given to the university, which is an affiliate of The Episcopal Church. The theme was “Committed to Mission.” Hawai‘i Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick preached.
Cynthia Lawing, a piano professor at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, composed a special anthem, “How Lovely are the Messengers,” for the anniversary celebration. A choir of musicians from parishes throughout the diocese was specially formed to sing Lawing’s anthem in Mandarin, a piece composed in a traditional Chinese style. The anthem’s lyrics “strengthen our calling to mission by encouraging us to reach out and share the Gospel,” Chang said. The diocesan choir also performed Dan Schutte’s “Here I am, Lord” in Taiwanese, Mandarin and English. The afternoon concert included choral music, orchestral music and taiko drumming. Members of the Anglican Diocese of Osaka, Japan, and other musical groups sang in their native languages during the concert.
“I hear Jesus saying to our two dioceses, ‘Be at peace with one another by knowing one another better,’” Los Angeles Bishop John Taylor said while preaching in English at St. John’s Cathedral in Taipei. “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.’”
The Los Angeles and Taiwan dioceses established a companion relationship in 2023.
Taylor also presented Chang with several gifts, including a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap and a custom jersey with “Chang 6” embroidered, signifying Chang being the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Taiwan. Fitzpatrick presented Chang and archdeacons with leis, cards and pictures of artwork from Church of the Holy Innocents in Lahaina, Maui, which burned down in 2023. The Taiwan and Hawai‘i dioceses remain close.
The Rt. Rev. Roger Jaomalaza Chung, retired bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Antsiranana, Madagascar, also participated in the celebration. Also in attendance were Fitzpatrick’s wife, Bea Fitzpatrick; the Rev. Thomas Ni, full-time associate for Chinese ministry at the Church of Our Saviour in San Gabriel, California; the Rev. Katherine Feng, a priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles; and the Rev. Fennie Hsin-Fen Chang, vicar of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hacienda Heights, California.
While in Taiwan, visitors had the opportunity to visit churches throughout the dioceses.
In April, the Diocese of Taiwan kickstarted its year of celebrations by hosting about 150 Chinese Anglican clergy from across the world for the 12th World Anglican Chinese Clergy Fellowship gathering.
The Taiwan Episcopal Church, then under the jurisdiction of the Missionary District of Hawai‘i, was established in 1954 by members of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui – known in English as the Holy Catholic Church in China – the former Anglican church in China whose name derived from the Nicene Creed. The diocese served American military personnel based in Taiwan after World War II. The Taiwan Episcopal Church was organized into a missionary diocese in 1961 and granted full diocesan status in 1988.
In 2014, the House of Bishops gathered in Taiwan for the first time. Today, the diocese, part of Province VIII, is the church home to roughly 2,000 Taiwanese Episcopalians. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry visited the diocese in 2017 and again in 2020 to serve as chief consecrator at Chang’s consecration.
Chang, whose episcopacy has emphasized evangelism, said in his report: “The Diocese of Taiwan will once again hold fast to its original mission, remembering its roots, ready to take new steps and move deeper into its purpose.”
-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.