There has been much excitement about the recent United Reformed Church visit from the UK to the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan.
Feedback is already going on in local churches, districts, visual displays and in newsletters.
Chiayi is a geographic county in Taiwan. It is also a Presbytery area in the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. It is made up of rural, urban and suburban areas and Chiayi City is in the heart of the county and Presbytery. This was the city our group stayed in for most of our visit but we also shared a few days in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan in the north of the island. This is where the churches central offices are and where we visited Longshan Buddhist Temple and Living Waters communty project run jointly by Christians in Taipei in support of people who are homeless and other people who are sex workers. These groups of people are marginalised but are called Friends by Living Waters who have worked in Taipei for 14 years. It was inspiring to meet with people in other part of the world who are sharing their faith in their local context. We were also inspired to hear of the mission and evangelism and mass communications programmes in Chiayi Presbytery who seek to reach out and share the gospel through radio, daily texting, phone-ins, tv and billboards across the area with messages of hope, justice and peace for the people of Taiwan. This connects with our processes of renewal and visioning in the United Reformed Church and in North Western Synod.
