Taiwan Church News

3302 Edition

June 8 - 14, 2015

Church Ministry

As China Christian Council Will Soon Bid Christian Conference Of Asia And Claim Her Sovereignty Over Taiwan, PCT Responds To Find A Way Out

Reported by Hwang Yi-lek and Lin Jia-jing

From May 20 to 27 Christian Conference of Asia(CCA) held the 2015 assembly,once every five year, convening the delegates of 106 member churches from 21 Asian countries, at Jarkarta, Indonesia.

Eight representatives from the two member churches of Taiwan, PCT and NCCT(National Council of Churches of Taiwan), were invited to participate in this five-year-round assembly of CCA.

Ms Hwang Hsing-yi, a theological student of Taiwan Theological College andSeminary, was elected as board member to serve in Executive Committee succeeding PCT's Dr. Nathalie (Min-chu) Lin. This result was deemed as an opportunity to speak for Taiwan churches in CCA against a very likely CCC's(China Christian Council) blunt acquisition of Taiwan's membership in future.

Prof. Lo Kwan-hsi, a PCT representative from Tainan Theological College andSeminary, proposed in CCA assembly to modify CCA constitution as "one representative member for one country should be held as a principle in Executive Committee".

Lo's reasons were that the power games within current CCA church members wouldallow more influence to the members in rich countries to lobby or manipulate church members in poor countries. And this predictably tragic situation would go against justice insisted by God.

It's a pity, due to some financial and political considerations, Lo's proposalwas turned down. Tseng Wang-yu, an youth volunteer as the Taiwan representative in CCA, remarked that she was frustrated to see the failure in the PCT's struggle for justice and peace, though the ecumenical spirit of CCA was appreciated.

Rev. Hwang Po-ho, Deputy Principal of Chang-Jung Christian University(CJCU),posted his close observation of current CCA in his blog. CCA was like "a noble family in decline", he said, CCA has lost her courage as the prophet called by God, due to her own corruption and financial problems. Her reputation was going down, institutes reduced and service curtailed.

Hwang suggests PCT, except staying in traditional ecumenical organization andseeking member-churches' support to speak for Taiwan churches, an alternative kind of ministry or cooperative project in the diverse ecumenical world should also be a new way to try. In other words, turning from the mind set of participation-orientated, an idea of functional approach should be considered to substitute the old ones instead: through integration of ideals and ministry joint-venture, a bi-lateral or multi-lateral relationships could be Taiwan's contribution to this visionary ecumenical movement!

Translated by Peter Wolfe