Delegation from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan meets with national, seminary and mid council leaders
Among others, the Rev. Jihyun Oh and the Rev. Dr. Marian McClure Taylor share their time and their hearts with the seven-member group
LOUISVILLE — Seven leaders of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, including the Rev. Fuyan Suda, the PCT’s moderator, and the Rev. Chen Hsin-liang, PCT General Secretary, met Monday with national staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and leadership of both Mid-Kentucky Presbytery and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Accompanying the delegation was the Rev. Ralph Su, Associate for Asian Intercultural Congregational Support in Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, and the Rev. Carlton Johnson, RE&WIM’s interim director. The Rev. Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk and Executive Director of the Interim Unified Agency, spent about an hour with the delegation, bringing its members greetings on behalf of the General Assembly of the PC(USA).
She expressed “how grateful” she felt receiving letters of support, prayers and a financial contribution from the PCT to bolster the PC(USA)’s disaster response following Hurricanes Milton and Helene and the wildfires in Southern California.
“I know you have been deepening our partnership and bond of connection,” Oh said, adding she shared those PCT messages of support with mid council leaders in North Carolina, Georgia and Southern California. “They were so touched to receive those expressions of care from across the globe,” Oh said, “and to know they were not alone, that Christian siblings were praying for them.”
Oh noted that the Rev. Frances Lin, the leader of Riverside Presbytery, will be attending the PCT’s General Assembly in April. That led members of the delegation to discuss the importance of further partnering with the PC(USA), including in urban rural ministry training, which they described as “resistance training.” Members of the PCT delegation exchanged gifts with Oh, who said she’d work to attend a future PCT General Assembly.
“Before Covid, delegations would regularly visit the Presbyterian Center,” said the Rev. Mienda Uriarte, director of World Mission. “This delegation has had a shift in leadership, and that’s usually what prompts this kind of visit.”
In October, a five-member delegation from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines visited Louisville and Jeffersonville, Indiana, the home of the Presbyterian Foundation. Presbyterian Foundation leadership led by the Rev. Dr. Tom Taylor, the Foundation’s president and chief executive officer, also participated in Monday’s meeting. On Friday, the PCT delegation met in Washington, D.C., with staff from the Office of Public Witness, led by the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins.
“I think their challenge to us is their training in civil disobedience. It reminds me of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the church’s need to bear witness and resist oppressive forces,” said Sara Lisherness, Deputy Executive Director for Mission Program in the Interim Unified Agency, in a reference to support PCT is looking for as a result of what Taiwan sees as Chinese actions provoking Taiwan’s 23 million residents.
“The courage they’re displaying equipping their church members to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience is something we need to examine in our church’s life,” Lisherness said. “As privileged as I have been over the years, every chance I have to learn from our global partners, they are reality checks. People in the past who were purveyors of mission and wisdom now need to be the receivers. Our global partners are leading the way.”
The delegation’s visit to Mid-Kentucky Presbytery “brought back good memories of my participation in a PC(USA)-PCT consultation in Taiwan in 2003,” said McClure Taylor, the presbytery’s interim general presbyter and the former director of World Mission. The Rev. Dr. Mary Nebelsick, a member of the presbytery’s Mission Committee who served as a mission co-worker for many years in the Philippines, was also present.
“I wanted them to know I understand the feeling of living with an existential threat,” McClure Taylor said, “so I passed around the military-style dog tag I was issued as a child. Living near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the early 60s meant we were perpetually preparing for an attack from outside, as are many people in Taiwan.”
The conversation about partnership “took a practical turn,” she said. Mid-Kentucky Presbytery has had a partnership with Changhua Presbytery on the western coast of Taiwan for almost 20 years, McClure Taylor noted. “An exchange of visits was interrupted by the pandemic, and so now in a mutual way we are looking for what would be meaningful to do together. For instance, we got excited thinking that Taiwanese youth could come to the Presbyterian Youth Triennium, arrive early, and be hosted by Mid-Kentucky families.”
“We also talked about whether the medical communities in our two areas could have some exchanges to foster collaboration,” McClure Taylor said. “During the pandemic, religious communities helped get around some of the obstacles China placed on Taiwan’s health responses.”
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