Taize


Website: www.taize.fr
 
Over the past decade, many teens from the Diocese of New Westminster have taken a pilgrimage to the Taize community to become a part of the worshiping community and form a deeper personal connection with their faith. 

Taiwan



In the summer of 2011, a group of young people and leaders from the Diocese of New Westminster visited our partners in the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan. They participated in many aspects of life in the diocese, including working alongside young adults at an English Camp of St. John's University in Danshui. They also helped lead an English camp in a mission congregation of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Taipei.
 
On the right you can read the article the group wrote based on their experiences, and an essay by one of the group members inspired by the visit.

Some of the highlights of the Taize experience have included:

  • Spending a week in France with 3,000 youth from all around the world
  • Joining in the mystery and magic of the ecumenical Christian of Taize
  • Experiencing an amazing opportunity for spiritual and personal growth
  • Exploring more fully the meaning of their baptism and life in Jesus Christ

 

 
 
The Taiwan Youth team consisted of: Katie Cockrill from the parish of St. George’s in Maple Ridge, Mark Galvani from St. Francis-in-the-Wood, Geoff Martin from St. Anselm’s, Willow Martin Seedhouse from St. Mark’s in Kitsilano and Danielle Taylor from Christ Church Cathedral. Their first stop was St. John’s University, which is linked to the Episcopal Church in Taiwan, where we were involved in a summer English camp being run for twenty students from Taiwan and Korea. As well as sharing together in conversation classes and experiences of Taiwanese culture, the group travelled together around Taipei. For Danielle, these visits were some of the highlights of the trip: “The trip to Taiwan was possibly the best experience of my life. We saw so many incredible things and got to work with many incredible people. Wandering around Taipei sightseeing with the students of St. John's University was something I will never forget.”
 

During our time at the university, we also got to travel around the northern part of Taiwan where we visited a number of churches and saw some of the incredible work they are doing in their local communities. Reflecting on the church in Taiwan, Geoff writes: “Meeting so many people, almost all of whom were extremely hospitable towards us, gave me a vivid picture of what people in Taiwan are like, their values, and the challenges faced by the Anglican church and those trying to live as Christians in this setting. While the Christian faith and churches aren’t well understood or entirely accepted in Taiwan, communities are still often in need and from what I could see the Anglican churches there have done an extremely good job serving them through their mission and ministry. The sheer amount of things these churches have been able to do with the resources at their disposal is extremely impressive, I’ve found it difficult to compare to mission in Canada. They have fully embraced the challenges facing with a strong feeling of faith and mission and the church leaders and members were more than happy to share both their successes and failures with us during our visits.”

Mark was also struck by the amazing work being done by relatively small churches: “Visiting Taiwan was a very valuable experience for me as an Anglican, as we got to see the church there growing and expanding into areas where people needed it most, such as the St. Stephens Centre in a small suburb of Keelung. That’s a small mission plant of Holy Trinity Church in Keelung, which we visited. It’s amazing that Holy Trinity is such a small church but they are supporting their new mission church in a poor area which is operating partly as a community center.” Danielle adds, “The work that these churches are doing in their areas of town is mind blowing. There are mission churches going on missions to places such as the Philippines. There are churches in basements, and in peoples homes.”

The two weeks at St. John’s University, in which we got to experience making Chinese style dumplings and writing in traditional calligraphy, was followed by a final week working with a new mission outreach of Good Shepherd church in the town of Chongli. Good Shepherd, like Holy Trinity, is engaging in incredible work planting a new church and beginning a ministry reaching out to children and their families. We were there to assist them with their first big initiative: an English Camp for over thirty children in a small storefront serving as the mission plant!

Helping to teach, sing and play with children whose level of English might be very small was going to be one of the biggest challenges of the trip (especially because our levels of Chinese were even smaller!) but, as Danielle remarks, it was also one of the most rewarding: “The work that we did with Good Shepherd church and the children in the camp was incredible. Telling them the story of Joseph and all the different games we played has changed my view on not only teaching but also religion because even though so many of these kids weren't religious they were still so engaged in what we were talking about.” The support and the hospitality shown by the Church to our team was equally as overwhelming as Willow recalled: The average temperature while we were in Taiwan was usually in the high thirties, so we had been asking about air conditioning. Lily Chang, the priest at Good Shepherd Church which runs the centre at Chongli, told us that they would have it installed by the time we got there because when she told the Bishop that the building renovation budget wouldn’t be enough to get air con on all the floors he had said, “Go ahead and get the air conditioning!”

Part of what made the experience of the Good Shepherd English Camp so special was that, instead of staying together for the week, team members went to homestays with members of the church and with non Christian families whose children were taking part in the program. One of those staying with one of the non Christian families was Geoff, “Staying with them was one of my favourite parts of my time in Taiwan. Their hospitality was incredible and their welcoming me into their home gave me the chance to see how a Taiwanese family functions. Their values were very family centered, every night we ate with their grandmother and uncle and family time was very important. They were interested in seeing pictures of my family, wanting to understand the kind of family I came from so that they could better understand me. Their hospitality gave me an opportunity to see the culture that has influenced so many of Chinese heritage in Vancouver first hand in Taiwan, and I feel it’s helped me better understand many in my own community.”


The close relationships developed by spending so much time with host families meant that saying goodbye at the end of the visit was going to be especially difficult. After a final meal with team members, leaders from the Good Shepherd camp and host families, a group of two dozen gathered outside of the departure gates at the airport for long farewells. It was typical of a visit which, as Willow describes, had demonstrated what a loving and generous people the Taiwanese are to their visitors: “We were welcomed so warmly and generously by everyone we met: our hosts at the university, our homestay families, and the people at the churches we visited. But I think that one of the most amazing things for me is how hospitable and friendly all of the Taiwanese are. No matter where we went we were welcomed and looked after. The best examples of the kind of hospitality preached by Jesus I have ever seen are the people I met in Taiwan. And I thank them from the bottom of my heart for being as kind and welcoming as they are, and for showing me what it is possible to be."

Moving Mountains
By Kate Cockrill

 

What is a mountain? Figuratively and literally, it is the Climb. Through Christ, who is alive in the Word as Truth, it is the Challenge. The mountains in Taiwan were low, but their presence was comforting. In British Columbia, where my immediate family resides and where my home church is located, the mountains form a spectacular backdrop. Yet, made similarly magnificent within the sight of my heart, Taiwan’s mountains told a story. The arms and legs of the culture I experienced in Taiwan’s valleys carried me through its twists and turns. That is, I became shallowly acquainted with the novelty begetting, in this instance, Taiwan’s culture, but all within the context of a greater story eternally known to me as a Child of God. 

Making heads or tails of literature is usually a problem for me.   Similarly, making some sense of my pilgrimage to Taiwan has taken me a while. What am I putting into words? Visiting churches in a country foreign to me in a variety of ways was curious – maybe I have handled, softly, the divine mysteries therefore impregnating them. Indeed, hearing the name of God Almighty spoken among the mutterings and acknowledgements of strange gods was curiously precious. It was precious because it was a reminder of the prejudices I carry as a westerner – as ambiguous as they remain – while I remained free to cling to Patience. The cross written on my heart lights the path before me; I imagine it looks like the metal cross given to me by Good Shepherd Church. 

Catherine, the missionary who lived at St. John’s University, lent me a book at one point, called The Words of My Father. It was about a woman who was like a Christian prophet amongst her Native tribe. Indeed, as a person of Métis descent, I have gained an interest in learning more about my heritage. I am thirsty for the living water which would be insight into what I have inherited on a hidden, yet accessible, level. Of course, the pagan practices interwoven throughout all cultures, including Native Canadian cultures, challenge the consciences of God’s Children. However, within the context of the call to live peaceably, what are they but stones, crying out the name of God while His Children remain silent? Finally, I am thirsty for the living water which would be insight into what I have inherited as an evangelical.

Did I not act evangelically in Taiwan – the Church, a rose amongst the thorns? The thorns consume the whole Earth. It is a dark place hidden within the souls of Christ’s disciples. Yet, how is it that darkness exists within a disciple? It exists, and so it is filled with light, light which takes the form of Love. In consideration of what love is, maybe Christ’s commandment to Man is indeed to love God more than any other being. Then, belonging to an institution of diverse personalities, one becomes the Church. Still remains the paradox of darkness, of the existence of thorns which choke. Is this paradox not curious, as curious as one’s prejudices? Maybe only the thorny personality yields roses. That is, the Person adorned with thorns. Either way, the greatest commandments are as follows: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39) 

By Taiwan, I was welcomed as a mountain. Depicted in artwork, the mountains of China and Taiwan are loved. Their stories, as told by paintings in the National Palace Museum, haunted but uplifted me. Whereas a member of the group I traveled with has actually climbed the snowy faces of North America’s tallest mountains, I have only hiked up green Grouse in Vancouver a couple of times. In Taiwan, I felt that I had reached a peak as a pilgrim in a foreign land; it did not matter that I have grown out of shape this summer. If Harry Potter, as Number Seven, could make it through a thorny understanding of Voldemort’s evil nature to find Peace, then the seven Canadians, including me, who traveled to Taiwan, must have made it an unforgettable experience! Really though, it was the mountains. To be haunted is to numbly behold them; to be uplifted is to find that they have shifted. My faith remains small. As small as a grain of mustard seed.