Taiwan Church News
3387 Edition
January 23 – 29, 2017
Church Ministry
To Be One In God’s Love
Reported by Chen Yi-hsuan
A hymnal and prayer service, across the border of denomination, language, and ethnicity etc., and organized by the National Council of Churches of Taiwan(NCCT) for the purpose of Christian unity across, was held at St John Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan on 21 January 2017.
Based on the Scripture, 2 Corinthians 5:14~20, the service was jointly presented by five member churches of NCCT: the Catholic Church in Taiwan, Taiwan Episcopal Church, the Methodist Church in the Republic of China, Taiwan Lutheran Church, and the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan(PCT).
In the service, Rev. Cheng Yin-er, PCT Associate General Secretary, delivered a prayer; Rev Yeh Ching-an, secretary of PCT Ecumenical and International Committee, read the scripture; Canaan Choir of Suan-lien Presbyterian Church and Yu-Cheng Presbyterian Church Choir of Western Amis Presbytery sang their praises; Rev Dr Stephen Lakkis of Suan-Lien Presbyterian Church gave his sermon and challenged the audience a question: Do so many differentiated churches in Taiwan with not more than 5% population have a chance to be one?
On the subject of Christian unity, Rev Dr Stephen Lakkis stressed that it is not a doctrinal purity forcing everyone to drop her/his own unique characteristics of culture, identity, language, experience and tradition, but a compassionate blessing from God to treasure the amazing diversity among us; not a option of human action or choice, but a gift and expectation from Jesus Christ, because this ephemeral world need Christian unity to witness God’s eternal love!
Translated by Peter Wolfe
For the hymnal and prayer service of Christian Unity Prayer Week, Yu-Cheng Presbyterian Church Choir of Western Amis Presbytery sang their praise in the St John Cathedral of Taiwan Episcopal Church on 21 January 2017.
Photo by Kang Hong-chi
