The Taiwan Lutheran Church (TLC; ) is one of the six

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

bodies in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. It currently has 80 mission sites nationwide (including 40 local congregations, 30 church plants and 10

parachurch organization Parachurch organizations are Christian faith-based organizations that work outside and across denominations to engage in social welfare and evangelism. Parachurch organizations seek to come alongside the church and specialize in things that indivi ...

s) with a total of 11,422 baptized members. The current

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

of the Taiwan Lutheran Church is the Rt Rev Chen Chih-Hung, first elected in 2008.Taiwan Lutheran Church
Successive Bishops
/ref>

History

Like the Southern Baptist Convention, the Lutheran Church also established itself in Taiwan during the 1950s. Both American and

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

n Lutherans had been active in China since the final decade of the 19th century. The

Norwegian Lutheran Mission The Norwegian Lutheran Mission (''Norsk Luthersk Misjonssamband'' in Norwegian; NLM) is one of several independent Lutheran organisations based in Norway. History The organization was founded in 1891 as Det Norske Lutherske Kinamisjonsforbund ...

Association of the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America had sent its first representatives to China in 1890. The missionaries established themselves in

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The ...

and, later,

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

provinces. Some five years later, in 1896, the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

Lutherans Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

began their own mission station in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

. The years following the Boxer Rebellion saw a dramatic expansion of Lutheran efforts. The

Norwegian American Norwegian Americans ( nb, Norskamerikanere, nn, Norskamerikanarar) are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the ...

Lutherans sent ten additional missionaries to China. Belgians, Belgian Lutherans from The Hague worked closely with their American co-religionists and considerable progress was made during the years from 1902 to 1914. Other Lutheran societies from the United States and from the

n nations sent their personnel to various parts of China. Most of these bodies - the American Lutheran Church, American Lutheran Brethren Mission is one example - settled in with the earlier arrivals in

and

. Other missionaries, such as those serving the newly revived Norwegian Missionary Society, moved into cities in Hunan. By 1914, the Lutherans had been able to establish new mission stations and plant new churches. They had also been gaining new converts. Their total membership reached 24,422 in 1914. Finally, because they stressed self-government, they had been able to set up a seminary in Shekou Industrial Zone, Shekou, in

, where they could train Chinese Lutheran clergy and church workers. The coming of World War One hurt German Lutheran Church, German Lutheran efforts, but missionaries from other nations helped out their brethren. The war did have its positive side for the Lutherans in China: It was during these years that preliminary steps were taken to unite their various groups, representing six different nations, into a Lutheran mission union. A preliminary constitution for this union was drawn up and this proposal was accepted by the different Lutheran bodies in 1917. The 1920s and 1930s saw the steady evolution of a Lutheran presence in the face of the anti-missionary campaign and the anti-imperialist movement. Only the Communist victory brought to an end the almost sixty years of Lutheran development. The Taiwan Lutheran Church was the fruit of the work of several mission societies which had worked before in mainland China and the Lutheran Church of China. Work began in Kaohsiung and Taipei, then gradually expanded to Taichung, Miaoli City, Miaoli, Chiayi and Tainan.

The beginnings

In April 1950, Chin Chung-An, a medical doctor from Xian, started conducting family worship services in his residence in Kaoshiung. By 3 June 1951, the Kaohsiung congregation was established and 59 people were baptised. This congregation became the first congregation of the Taiwan Lutheran Church and is today known as the Chien-Chen Lutheran Church.Taiwan Lutheran Church 40th Anniversary Bulletin, 1954-1994, pp. 45-46 At around the same time, two Norwegian people, Norwegian women missionaries, Helga Waabeno and Gertrude Fitje, who had worked at the Mackay Memorial Hospital as nurses, started a Bible study class at their residence in Taipei. The class was taken over a year later by an American missionary with Norwegian ancestors, Lenorah Erickson, and by 1952 had been organized as the first TLC congregation in Taipei.

Establishment of a national church

On 1 November 1954, the TLC was officially established in a meeting held at the Taipei Salvation Lutheran Church. This meeting brought together 32 delegates from congregations and outreach centres set up by mission societies which had previously been active in mainland China and had set up seven of the 16 synods of the Lutheran Church of China (LCC). The seven former LCC synods who took part in the church union under the banner of the TLC were:Hsiao, Andrew: ''A Brief History of the Chinese Lutheran Church'', Hong Kong: Taosheng Publishing House, 1999, * Yuzhong Synod (豫中區會) : Formerly the Augustana Synod Mission in central

* Yu'e Synod (豫鄂區會) : Formerly the United Lutheran Mission in

and

* Yudong Synod (豫東區會) : Formerly the Lutheran Free Church Mission in eastern

* Yuxi Synod (豫西區會) : Formerly the American Lutheran Brethren Mission in western

* Yu’eshaan Synod (豫鄂陕區會) : Formerly the Norwegian Lutheran China Mission in

and Shaanxi * Xiangzhong Synod (湘中區會) : Formerly the Norwegian Mission in central Hunan * Dongbei Synod (東北區會) : Formerly the Danish Mission in

and Northeast China Missionaries formerly attached to the Shaannan Synod (陕南區會) in Southern Shaanxi and the Xiangxi Synod (湘西區會) in western Hunan also attached their work in Taiwan under the umbrella of the TLC in 1954 and 1956 respectively.

Secession of churches within the TLC

In 1956, five congregations associated with the former Yuxi and Yu’eshaan synods withdrew from the TLC to form the Chinese Lutheran Brethren Church (1958) and the Lutheran Church of the Republic of China (1960) respectively. This was followed by the congregations associated with the former Shaannan synod which withdrew in 1961 and formed the China Lutheran Gospel Church in 1973.Taiwan Lutheran Church
Lutheran Churches in Taiwan
/ref> Congregations associated with the former Xiangxi synod withdrew in 1974 and formed the Lutheran Church of Taiwan in 1977.

Beliefs and practices

The TLC is a member church of the Lutheran World Federation, a communion of Lutheran Churches throughout the world. As a church in the

tradition, it accepts the teachings found in the unaltered Augsburg Confession, Luther's Small Catechism and other confessional articles and symbols of the Book of Concord. The TLC accepts the ordination of women as co-workers and pastors in the denomination with the first woman ordained on January 31, 1999.

Structure and organization

List of parishes

The Taiwan Lutheran Church is divided into four parishes: * Taipei Parish : Congregations in :: Special municipality (Republic of China), Special Municipalities: New Taipei City, Taipei, Taipei City and Taoyuan, Taiwan, Taoyuan City :: Provincial city (Republic of China), Provincial Cities: Hsinchu City and Keelung City :: County (Taiwan), Counties: Hualien County, Hsinchu County and Yilan County, Taiwan, Yilan County * Taichung Parish : Congregations in :: Special Municipality: Taichung City :: Counties: Changhua County, Miaoli County, Nantou County and Yunlin County * Chya-Nan Parish : Congregations in :: Special Municipality: Tainan City :: Provincial City: Chiayi City :: County: Chiayi County * Kaohsiung Parish : Congregations in :: Special Municipality: Kaohsiung City :: Counties: Pingtung County and Taitung County

Presidents and Bishops of the TLC

The first president of the TLC was elected from the representative of the Yuxi synod. * 1954-1955 : Rev Tu Chang-Wu * 1956-1959 : Rev Stanley Tung * 1959-1962 : Rev Peter Chou * 1962-1966 : Rev Chang Chi-Tang * 1974-1976 : Rev Peter Chou * 1976-1978 : Rev Chang Chi Tang * 1978-1980 : Rev Liu Sing-Yi * 1980-1984 : Rev Lee Chang-Ying * 1984-1986 : Rev Peter Chou * 1986-1990 : Rev Stanley Tung * 1990-1993 : Rev Thomas Yu * 1993-1999 : Rev Chuang Tung-Chieh * 1999-2005 : Rev Peter Yang * 2005-2008 : Rev Chen Chun-Kuang * 2008–present : Rev Chen Chih-Hung

Schools and colleges

Lutheran Theological Seminary

The Lutheran Theological Seminary was established in Taipei in 1957. The campus was moved to Taichung in 1960. The seminary was forced to close in 1965 due to disagreements between the Chinese and Western faculty. In 1977, the TLC jointly founded the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Hong Kong together with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong, the Chinese Rhenish Church Hong Kong Synod, and the Tsung Tsin Mission of Hong Kong.

China Lutheran Seminary

The China Lutheran Seminary was established in Hsinchu in 1966 by the Lutheran Church of the Republic of China. On 31 October 1989, the TLC inked an agreement with the other Lutheran churches in Taiwan to fully support the Chinese Lutheran Seminary.Chinese Lutheran Seminary
學院簡史
/ref>

References

External links

Taiwan Lutheran Church
{{Lutheran World Federation Churches Lutheran denominations, Taiwan Lutheran World Federation members, Taiwan Lutheranism in Taiwan Christian organizations established in 1954