April 2004

TO: Partner Churches and Related Organizations

　   Friends around the Globe

　   PCT Related Missionary Personnel

Dear Friends

The coming days finds us back in the office attending to various matters following the 49th General Assembly meeting of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan which met in Changhua (13-16 April). One of the items in the PCT prayer letter circulated in January was the matter of our General Assembly elections. We appreciated your praying with us and wish to announce the names of the elected officers of the PCT 49th General Assembly (2004-05)

The Moderator is Rev. CHEN Dao-Shiung, pastor of Da-Shi Presbyterian Church, Hsinchu Presbytery. It is of interest to note that Rev. Chen served as Moderator of the 39th General Assembly (1992-93) thus his name will be familiar to some of you.

The Vice Moderator is Rev. CHEN Shin-Liang, pastor of Chang-Shan Presbyterian Church, Changhua Presbytery.

This year in reverting to the annual system of General Assembly the positions of Clerk and Vice Clerk were reinstated. However, after a maximum of three ballots for each post no candidate secured the necessary majority votes. Consequently the positions of Clerk and Vice Clerk were not filled and will remain vacant until the next election when the 50th General Assembly convenes 29 March to 1 April 2005. In the interim period recording secretaries will be appointed by the Executive Committee.

Secondly, PCT is pleased to announce the appointment of new General Secretary. On the second ballot Rev. CHANG Te-Chien (Andrew) was elected General Secretary. According to PCT governance he will assume office June 2005 (one year on). Currently Rev. Chang serves as pastor of Er-Chong-Pu Presbyterian Church, Hsinchu Presbytery. Again this name will be familiar to many of you since previously Rev. Chang served for one term (three years) as PCT Associate General Secretary and prior to that was PCT Programme Secretary for Christian Education for nine years.

Another important overture was the establishing of formal partnership relations with the Nkhoma Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (Malawi). We were delighted to extend the hand of fellowship to six delegates from Nkhoma Synod, which included Moderator, Rev. Stonham Sande Mwale and General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Winston R. Kwale, who co-signed the Partner Church Agreement on behalf of their church. We pray God’s blessing and guidance on this our first such covenant with sisters and brothers on the African continent.

We are thankful to God for His enabling and grace throughout the General Assembly proceedings. Our gratitude to several of our partner churches who sent representatives to join us on this occasion and to others who sent greetings. We also express our appreciation to the Changhua Christian Hospital personnel who served as our hosts; no small task amidst the daily demands of a very busy general hospital.

On behalf of the officers and staff of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan accept our thanks for your continued interest, prayer support and partnership in Christ.

Sincerely yours

William J. K. Lo

General Secretary

GA-PCT/PART/04-04/ch