Taiwan Church News 3832 Edition August 3 ~ 9, 2025 Weekly Topical Relating Christian Faith to Indigenous Culture, Bunun Presbytery Holds Thanksgiving Service on Indigenous Peoples’ Day Reported by Dalul To celebrate the Indigenous Peoples’ Day and connect indigenous cultures to the evangelical mission amid Bunun churches, including Panitaz, Takluk, Si-sui, Hu-nungaz, Izukan, Tatana,a thanksgiving service was held in the Izukan tribe on August 3rd. More than 350 PCT members attended the service. Rev Abus Takisvilainan, pastor of Hu-nungaz Church and chairman of the preparation committee of thanksgiving service, expressed that in order to implement ethnic language worship and cultural education, an interactive quiz of ethnic geographical names were arranged in the service, inviting the assembly to learn about the origins of their tribal names and search the meanings and histories of their ethnic languages. Some quizzes are very interesting. For example, Izukan (meaning “Orange” in the Bunun language) church, also known as Lun-tin (name in Japan ruling era); Tatana (meaning “Prickly Ash” in the Bunun language) is also called Sikihiki (namein Japanese ruling era). ”These names exhibit the influence of the past colonial influence, and at the same time,their existence reminds us to find our indigenous name and identity,” Rev Abus Takisvilainan remarked. Except liturgical praise and worship, there are also joint curriculums for children’s Sunday school activities and various fellowships for all ages. Participants are divided into groups, according to their ages, to share and engage in kinds of events. Each church was responsible in turns for general affairs, venues service, activities, medical care, public relations, and etc. All participants wear their ethnic dresses, symbolizing their ethnic identity and common inheritance. In addition, traditional Bunun foods such as melons, corn, millet and pumpkins are chosen as thanksgiving sacrifices, showcasing the gratitude to the creator and a pious response to cherish the land. To encourage believers to practice language recovery in their religious life, the audience used ethnic language as much as possible to preach, report, praise and respond except in some occasions where a translation is needed for comparison. Rev Bavan Ispalidav, pastor of Si-sui Church, delivered a sermon entitled as “Abraham’s faith and the abundant spiritual wealth blessed from God”. He encouraged the audience, “we are all God’s children, and we should understand His will to inherit the faith and our indigenous culture together.” He stressed that our children are precious treasures from God. “We shall not only carry on our duty to preserve the indigenous culture, but also we shall teach our next generation by the teachings of the Bible,” said Rev Bavan Ispalidav, “the connection between faith and culture is shown from the details of daily lives among greetings, care for neighbors and etc. Just like the Israelites respond to God’s grand salvation through remembering the passover, we shall not only witness and give thanksgivings in the church but also practice the will of God in our family and culture!” Rev Abus Takisvilainan said that the idea of joint thanksgiving worship was inspired by PCT’s “One Leads One – Doubling Movement” since 2000. “In the past, southern district assembly of Bunun presbytery regularly held joint Easter, Christmas and many other assemblies until being forced to stop by the pandemic in 2020,” she said. “In March 2025 at Hualien, a motion of doing the evangelical mission from Bunun was proposed at one joint prayer meeting of local pastors and their wives. So, southern district assembly of Bunun presbytery started to convene the first preparatory meeting on March 30, elected the chairman and staffs, assigned different jobs to each local churches, and worked together to proclaim the good news to our indigenous compatriots and call them to inherit and treasure the indigenous culture.” “As that prayer meeting finally decided to hold a thanksgiving service on August 1, the Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The slogan, read as ‘we are so blessed to be indigenous, and we are appreciated to being Bunun’, is showcased with mother tongue of Bunun in the venues of thanksgiving worship.” “Today’s sermon reminds us: we are masters of this land, we are both Bunun and Christian, and we have the responsibility to pass on our culture and faith from us to next generation,”remarked Rev Abus Takisvilainan. She sincerely hoped that this service would establish a good relation between Christian faith and indigenous identities, and practice cooperation to serve each other, especially when the assembly is highly differentiated and yet closely cooperated between six local indigenous churches. “Except sharing financial funds raised for the thanksgiving service, pastors and co-workers also work very hard to exchange their ideas for the event. Such spirit to work together and serve each other is beautiful and amazing,” she praised. Translated by Peter Wolfe |