[3054]Chiayi Presbytery promotes ecumenicalism in worship and ministry

3054 Edition

September 6~12, 2010

Chiayi Presbytery promotes ecumenicalism in worship and ministry

Reported by Chen Yi-hsuan

Written by Lydia Ma

Photo by Chen Yi-hsuan

The first Sunday of September is “Ecumenical Ministries Sunday” for all PCT churches. On this occasion, Chiayi Presbytery held a communion service that emphasized ecumenicalism by selecting hymns composed by songwriters all over the world, including Indonesia, Germany, New Zealand, Jamaica, Paraguay,Philippines, etc. They also sang a few hymns composed by Tsou and Bunun Aborigines.

The presbytery also invited Rev. David Alexander to share his calling and work inTaiwan. Rev. Alexander is a staff and a RCA missionary at Tainan TheologicalCollege and Seminary. He originally planned to be high school teacher, but an ad in his church bulletin changed the course of his life. He got involved in missions decades ago when he saw this ad promoting an event that’d help people experience missionary work first hand. “Missions should be a cooperative ministry for all local churches and shouldn’t be relegated exclusively to missionaries,” he emphasized.

Chiayi Presbytery General Secretary Huang Shih-wei reported that his presbytery had been actively promoting ecumenical partnerships and ministries in recent years. He cited a “unity movement” that had sprung up between the Catholic Diocese in Chiayi and Chiayi Presbytery. The two organizations now jointly host a prayer meeting every year, caroling outreach during Christmas, and several evangelistic seminars.

This year’s joint-caroling outreach events spearheaded by these two Christian organizations are tentatively scheduled to be held on December 17 for Chiayi region and December 25 for Yunlin region.