From Shanghai to Taipei, Presiding Bishop Welcomed to Church United, Diverse
Episcopal News Service. October 30, 2005 [103005-02]
Bob Williams
Note to readers: Continuing its coverage of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold's 14-day visit to Asia, ENS will later this week release a four-part report and photographs from Shanghai, Nanjing, Hong Kong and Taipei.
In Taipei October 30-31, the Presiding Bishop is visiting the Episcopal Church's 14-congregation Diocese of Taiwan led by Bishop David J. H. Lai. Text of Griswold's Sunday sermon at Taipei's St. John's Cathedral is posted online at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_69010_ENG_HTM.htm.
In Hong Kong on October 29, Griswold was welcomed by Archbishop Peter Kwong, a fellow Anglican Primate. Like the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, the Church in Hong Kong is one the Anglican Communion's 38 member provinces. Hong Kong is the first Anglican Province in which a woman, the late Rev. Florence Li Tim Oi, was ordained a priest in the 1940s.
In Nanjing on October 28, the Presiding Bishop was hosted by Bishop K. H. Ting, 91, an internationally renowned church leader who began his ordained ministry as an Anglican priest and later shaped China's "post-denominational era." At Nanjing Theological Seminary, Griswold delivered an afternoon lecture after visiting the memorial remembering the 300,000 victims of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. Dialogue followed with Presbyter Ji Jianhong, chairperson of the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China.
In Shanghai October 26-27, Griswold conferred with leaders of the China Christian Council, including President Cao Shengje, who welcomed the Presiding Bishop and his delegation to the council's newly renovated headquarters. In her remarks, Dr. Cao outlined priorities for theological education, and emphasized the Council's new initiative to restore Holy Trinity Church, which served as Shanghai's Anglican cathedral before it was closed at the time of China's Cultural Revolution (separate ENS feature on this work will follow).
--ENS's upcoming reports will be filed by Robert Williams, the Episcopal Church's director of communication, who is part of the Presiding Bishop's Asian delegation that also includes Griswold's wife, Phoebe; the Episcopal Church's Anglican and Global Relations director Margaret Larom; Peace and Justice Ministries director Brian Grieves; and Barbara Braver, the Presiding Bishop's assistant for communication.