Taiwan Church News
3391 Edition
February 20 – 26, 2017
Church Ministry
PCT Panel Discussion Broadcast Live On Internet, Concerning The Issues Of Gender Justice, Role Of Youth In The Church, Economic Justice, Climate Justice, And Inclusive Ans Life Affirming Community
Reported by Chiu Ya-ming
In order to help the church find solutions to modern challenges confronting contemporary ecumenical churches, PCT’s International Forum of the Mission of the Church in Taiwan Today specially held three panel discussion broadcast live on internet concerning the issues of gender justice, role of youth in the church, economic justice, climate justice, and inclusive and life affirming community respectively, on February 15 and 16.
Rev Wang Jin-chai, director of PCT Gender Justice Committee, and Ms Necta Monte, Chief Executive Officer of World Student Christian Forum(WSCF), co-chaired the panel of gender justice to discuss the issues like the participation of women in the church, and what the church could do on gender equality when the issue of LGBT was concerned, and etc.
Rev Cheng Chun-ping, Ms Chuang Yu-yu and Ms Sunita Suna co-chaired the panel of Role of Youth in the Church. Rev Cheng Chun-ping, secretary of PCT Youth Ministry Committee, encouraged the youth not to overlook their evangelical mission on campus, at workshop, and in family.
In the meantime, to train the youth as speak out for truth, Rev Cheng also urged the church elders to open up their session meeting and invite the youth to join their decision making. Acknowledging that “a conflict is good yet th cooperation is better”, Ms Chuang Yu-yu encouraged the youth to cooperate more with the church and become the holy tools of God.
Ms Yeh Ta-hua, General Secretary of Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare, and Ms Omega Bula, ecumenical specialist of United Church of Zambia, co-chaired the panel of economic justice. Ms Yeh Ta-hua focused her message on the conundrums faced by the poor youth in Taiwan; Ms Omega Bula reported her observation about the impact of the globalized economics to human beings and the world.
According to Ms Yeh Ta-hua’s studies, the poor youth in Taiwan are mainly composed by two groups: one group is the youth in unemployment, the other is the hardship youth working from hand to mouth without savings. Yeh hoped PCT could make good use of their current resources to establish some consulting center for the youth’s career, and proceed a review of the working conditions of the youth inside the church related institutes in order to become a model of youth-friendly workshop.
Rev Chen Jier-ing, pastor of Lu-san Presbyterian Church at Changhua Presbytery, reported his own experience as a rural pastor of a distant village. He said frankly that, based on his observation, the social structure of the youth’s low salary could hardly be overhauled within one night. So, he suggested the youth to work for values in meaningful life and not pursue after the prices on job market!
Translated by Peter Wolfe
