The campus of the Chang Jung Girls' High School was the venue for the PCT General Assembly meeting this year; and the school’s Principal, Ms TSAI Yu-Min warmly welcomed our PCT 63rd GA ecumenical partners. Principal Tsai introduced the brief history of the school and noted some of the highlights.

In 1867, Rev. Hugh Ritchie (1840-1879) came to join the first missionary Dr. James Maxwell, who arrived 1865, both were sent by the Presbyterian Church of England to serve the Lord. One a medical doctor and the other a pastor – Maxwell and Ritchie worked together to share the love of God to the people of Tainan. Together with his young bride, Eliza (nee Cooke 1828-1902), Rev. Ritchie reached out in sympathy to Taiwanese women who were oppressed and suffered in silence under the patriarchal society. He believed that a woman is the heart and very spirit of a family, and that women’s education was very important, soon Rev. and Mrs. Ritchie had the desire to establish a school for girls.

Principal TSAI, Yu-Min explained that foot binding was still a cultural practice back then in Taiwan; and Rev. and Mrs. Ritchie had only one requirement for girls who wanted to attend the mission school – their families must allow them to stop the practice of foot binding. This action was a powerful statement of Christ’s love and the liberation of women. Sadly, Hugh died young of Asiatic cholera in Tainan Sin-Lau dormitory. In a few short years he had learned Taiwanese, enthusiastically preached the gospel, laid the foundation of several churches and sown the seeds for the girls’ school. However, his wife Eliza Ritchie the first female British missionary (1880) continued Rev. Ritchie’s unfinished mission in Taiwan and she witnessed the founding of the Sin-Lau Girls School (later known as Chang Jung Girls' High School) on February 14, 1887.

Let us learn from them and follow their faithful examples.

Principal Tsai introducesthe brief history of the school.