wfn.org | Taiwan's Presbyterian General Assembly Gets a Clean Slate of Officers

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Taiwan Church News 2721, 19 through 25 April 2004
Reported by: Staff. Written by David Alexander

When the 49th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) met
from April 13 to16 at Chang Hwa Christian Hospital in Central Taiwan it took
several ballots to elect new officers, and two important posts were left
vacant.
After opening worship and a quorum count on the 13th the first order of
business was elections.  The name of the Rev. Chen Tao-hsiung, who had
moderated the 39th General Assembly, was put up as an alternative to 48th
Assembly vice-moderator Chen Yu-chuan. The election went to 3 ballots before
the challenger was elected.
  There were three candidates for Vice-Moderator and the Rev. Chen Hsin-liang
was chosen on the second ballot.
  In reverting to the Annual system of General Assembly the positions of
Clerk
and Vice-clerk were reinstated this year. However, after a maximum of three
ballots no candidate secured the necessary majority votes. Consequently the
positions for Clerk and Vice Clerk were not filled and will remain vacant
until the next General Assembly in 2005. In the interim period recording
secretaries will be appointed by the Executive Committee
This year the position of General Secretary was also up for election.  Unlike
the moderator and vice-moderator who serve the Assembly in addition to their
main jobs in churches or agencies, the General Secretary is a full-time
executive who runs day to day operations.  The term for this office is four
years.	The current General Secretary, The Rev. Mr. William J.K. Lo, will
retire on June 30, 2005.  According to the PCT system his successor was
chosen
one year ahead to allow time for an orderly transition.
Local presbyteries had placed the names of three experienced candidates into
nomination. The Revd's Chuang Shu-chen and Lin Tsung-jen currently serve as
Associate General Secretaries. Chang Te-chian, the third nominee, is a local
church pastor who worked as the Assembly's Education Secretary for 9 years
and
as an Associate General Secretary for three.  Mr. Chang was chosen on the
second ballot.
The elections having been completed, the symbols of office were handed to the
new moderator and vice moderator, prayers were said, and proceedings were
recessed for the evening close to 11PM.

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