aiwan Church News 3854 Edition 5 ~ 11 Jan, 2026 Weekly Topical Remembering Rev Mackay’s Audacity for Mission, Brand New Pang-Khiah Chapel Unveiled Reported by Lin Yi-ying from Taipei On January 4, Da-Tao-Cheng Church and Da-Chaio Church jointly held a thanksgiving service and monument unveiling ceremony for Pang-Khiah Chapel. Rev David Hsei, chief pastor of Da-Tao-Cheng Church, gave his sermon entitled as “March Forward Without Fear” reviewing the history of the destruction of Da-Long-Dong Church by mobs in 1884 during the Sino-French War. He encouraged the audience with 200 people more to carry on the audacious spirit of Missionary Dr Mackay, who negotiated a compensation with Qing government and built Pang-Khiah Chapel with a passionate resolve to preach the good news across Taiwan. The brand new monument of Pang-Khiah Chapel is set up next to the gate of Da-Chaio Church. Facing the road, many distinctive features are showcased on the front side of the monument: PCT logo of “burnt but not consumed”, a shining cross, a line of golden characters meaning “Christ, the true light, leads us with the gospel”, and a historic photo of the tower-shape chapel from 1886 to 1960. Inscriptions on the monument details the destruction of the Da-Long-Dong Church, established in 1875, which Rev Mackay fought for its compensation with Qing government and built the church on its current site (formerly Ox Cart Street) in 1886 and renamed it as Pang-Khiah Chapel, which was praised by Rev Mackay as the most beautiful church he had ever built. On the back side of the monument, there is a portrait of Rev Mackay and a more detailed history of Pang-Khiah Chapel: In 1915, due to the growth of believers and lack of church space, the church moved to the current site of Gan-Zou Street and changed its name to Da-Dao-Cheng Church. And the original church site became abandoned, and later was occupied by vagrants. The church land and property was finally recovered by legal procedures. In 1956, worship of Pang-Khiah Chapel was resumed and renamed as Da-Chaio Church. In 1975, on the occasion of celebrating its100th anniversary of mission, Da-Dao-Cheng Church offered the property of Pang-Khiah Chapel free to Da-Chaio Church. Up to date, having registered as a historical building of Taipei City in 2021, Pang-Khiah Chapel still keeps its northern wing hall of its early bricks, western truss and Qilian stone walls built in 1886. During the thanksgiving service, special gifts were offered to: Rev David Hsei for his proofreading the monument inscriptions, Ms Chang Song-yin for her drafting the manuscript, Mr Chu Hsin-chong for his inscription, and Mr Yan Ding-an, chairman of Yan Shi Yuan Lin Co., who built the physical monument. It is remarkable that Mr Lin Wei-hsin, a young brother of Da-Chaio Church and a graduate student of Institute of Archaeology of National Cheng Kong University, set up an online website to record and display the amazing missionary history of Pang-Khiah Chapel. On the occasion of celebrating the 150th anniversary’s mission of Da-Dao-Cheng Church and the 70th anniversary of Da-Chaio Church’s mission, members of both churches jointly shared the grace of God through a ceremony of restoring Pang-Khiah Chapel, which once again declared their deep commitment to inherit and carry on the initial faith from early 2026 to everlasting future. Translated by Peter Wolfe |