The Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan ( zh, t=臺灣聖公會, s=台湾圣公会, first=t, l=Episcopal Church of Taiwan) is the
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
diocese in
Taiwan and a member diocese of the
Episcopal Church of the United States. It was established in 1954, five years after
Chinese Episcopalians fled from
mainland China to Taiwan following the
Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949.
Early leadership included American military chaplains connected to The Church of the Good Shepherd or St. John's, but in 1965 the Diocese elected its first Chinese bishop. In late 2019 Lennon Yuan-Jung Chang was elected the sixth Bishop of Taiwan, and was consecrated on February 22, 2020.
It is a diocese of
.
History
From the earliest origins of Anglicanism on Taiwan (in or before 1895) until 1945, the island was part of the
Nippon Sei Ko Kai Diocese of Osaka.
As the presence of American Episcopalians on the island grew, the island came under the jurisdiction of the
Episcopal Diocese of Honolulu until 1954, when it achieved some independence — the 60th anniversary of this date was celebrated in 2014.
In 1961, Taiwan was organised into a missionary diocese of the Episcopal Church (USA); and in 1988 it was accepted as a full diocese of the church.
Parishes
Parishes of the diocese:
Bishops
From 1954 until 1960,
Harry S. Kennedy
Harry Sherbourne Kennedy (August 21, 1901 – February 14, 1986) was a bishop of Hawaii in the Episcopal Church from 1944 till 1966.
Early life and education
Kennedy was born in Brooklyn, New York on August 21, 1901 and was raised in Rahway, New ...
, Bishop of Hololulu, had direct care of Taiwan; from 1961 until 1964, Charles P. Gilson, Suffragan Bishop of Honolulu, was delegated care of the missionary diocese and was resident on the island.
Further bishops of the missionary diocese were:
*
James C. L. Wong
James Chang-Ling Wong (; 17 February 190027 April 1970) was Chinese Anglican (Episcopalian) bishop who served as Bishop of Jesselton in Sarawak from 1962 to 1964 and then Bishop of Taiwan from 1965 until his death in 1970.
Wong was consecrated a ...
(1965–1970; ; formerly
Bishop of Jesselton)
*
James Pong
James Tak-Ming Pong (; also Te-Ming; September 19, 1911October 16, 1988) was an Hongkongese Episcopalian bishop who served as the fourth bishop (second bishop of Chinese descent) of the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan.
Pong was born in Hong Kong, w ...
(1971–1979; )
*
Pui-Yeung Cheung (1980–1987; )
Since full diocesan status was granted, the bishops diocesan have been:
*
John C. T. Chien (1988–2001; )
*
David Jung-Hsin Lai (2001–2020; )
* Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang (2020–present; )
Charles P. Gilson
Charles Packard Gilson (; September 3, 1899,
Portland, MaineAugust 11, 1980,
New London, New Hampshire),
was consecrated a bishop at
St Paul's Cathedral, Detroit during the Episcopal Church's 1961 General Convention. He had been missionary-in-charge at Taipei since 1958 when Convention elected him Suffragan Bishop of Honolulu in order to be the bishop resident on Taiwan. In 1964, his geographical jurisdiction (but not his post as Suffragan) was shifted to
Okinawa.
Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang
Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang (given name Yuan-Rung/Yuanrong, English name Lennon; ) was consecrated a bishop on February 22, 2020 at
St John's Cathedral, Taipei.
Deaconed in 1995 and priested in 1999, he served as Chaplain of
St. John's University (Taiwan) (1997–2016) and then as Vicar/Rector of Advent Church (on the same campus); he was also an associate professor of Mathematics at the university (1983–2016). Chang was elected bishop diocesan on August 3, 2019
and was duly consecrated and installed in 2020 by
Michael Curry,
Presiding Bishop (assisted by co-consecrators: Lai Jung-Hsin, then-Bishop of Taiwan;
Bob Fitzpatrick,
Bishop of Hawaii;
Nathaniel Makoto Uematsu
Nathaniel Makoto Uematsu (植松 誠 ナタナエル) is the current Anglican Bishop of the diocese of Hokkaidō, Japan and was the Primate of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Province of the Anglican Communion in Japan, until November 2020.
Uematsu b ...
, Primate of
Nippon Sei Ko Kai;
Haruhisa Iso,
Bishop of Osaka
The ''Nippon Sei Ko Kai'' ( ja, 日本聖公会, translit=Nippon Seikōkai, lit=Japanese Holy Catholic Church), abbreviated as NSKK, sometimes referred to in English as the Anglican Episcopal Church in Japan, is the national Christian church rep ...
; and
Greg Rickel,
Bishop of Olympia
The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, also known as the Episcopal Church in Western Washington, is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in Washington state west of the Cascade Range. It is one of 17 dioceses and an area mission that make up Province ...
).
He served briefly as
coadjutor bishop
A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) is a bishop in the Catholic, Anglican, and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese. The coadjutor (literally, "co ...
and succeeded as bishop diocesan automatically upon Lai's retirement in March 2020.
See also
*
Anglican Communion
References
External links
*
Morning Prayer and Holy Communion in Chinese (1928)liturgical material digitized by Charles Wohlers and Richard Mammana
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taiwan
Taiwan
Protestantism in Taiwan
Christian organizations established in 1954
Dioceses in Taiwan
Province 8 of the Episcopal Church (United States)