Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan

Diocese of Taiwan 臺灣聖公會
Coat of arms
Location
Country	Taiwan
Ecclesiastical province	Province VIII (formerly Nippon Sei Ko Kai)
Statistics
Congregations	15 (2023)
Members	1,216 (2023)
Information
Denomination	Episcopal Church
Cathedral	St. John's Cathedral, Taipei
Current leadership
Bishop	Lennon Yuan-Jung Chang
Website
episcopalchurch.org.tw

The Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan (traditional Chinese: 臺灣聖公會; simplified Chinese: 台湾圣公会; lit. 'Episcopal Church of Taiwan') is the Anglican 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,^[1] 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.^[2]

It is a diocese of Province 8 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

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.^[3] 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.^[3] 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.^[3]

Parishes of the diocese:^[4]

From 1954 until 1960, Harry S. Kennedy, Bishop of Hawaii, 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.^[3]

Further bishops of the missionary diocese were:

• James C. L. Wong (1965–1970; Chinese: 王長齡; formerly Bishop of Jesselton)
• James Pong (1971–1979; Chinese: 龐德明)
• Pui-Yeung Cheung (1980–1987; Chinese: 張培揚)

Since full diocesan status was granted, the bishops diocesan have been:

• John C. T. Chien (1988–2001; Chinese: 簡啟聰)
• David Jung-Hsin Lai (2001–2020; Chinese: 賴榮信)
• Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang (2020–present; Chinese: 張員榮)

Charles Packard Gilson (Chinese: 吉爾生; September 3, 1899, Portland, Maine – August 11, 1980, New London, New Hampshire),^[8] 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.^[9]

Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang (given name Yuan-Rung/Yuanrong, English name Lennon; Chinese: 張員榮) was consecrated a bishop on February 22, 2020 at St John's Cathedral, Taipei.^[8] 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^[2] 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, Primate of Nippon Sei Ko Kai; Haruhisa Iso, Bishop of Osaka; and Greg Rickel, Bishop of Olympia).^[10] He served briefly as coadjutor bishop and succeeded as bishop diocesan automatically upon Lai's retirement in March 2020.^[2]

• Anglican Communion

• Official website
• Morning Prayer and Holy Communion in Chinese (1928) liturgical material digitized by Charles Wohlers and Richard Mammana