wfn.org | Taiwan's Student Christian Movement Presents Summer

[Taiwan Church News <pctpress@ms1.hinet.net>]

Challenge
Taiwan Church News 2680, July 7-13, 2003
Reported by Li Hsin-ren. Translated and rewritten by David
Alexander

   A summer conference jointly sponsored by committees on Church
& Society and College Campus Ministry of the Presbyterian Church
in Taiwan convened from July 1 through 7 in Tainan, Taiwan.
Chhoa Cheng-to (Tsai Cheng-tao), director of the Tainan Campus
Ministry Center, said, "the main aim of the Taiwan Student
Christian Movement (TSCM) is to prepare a new generation of
leaders for the church. We encourage faith, knowledge and zeal
while we nourish leadership ability. We study the injustices of
society and the problems of church youth.  We hope that we
provide strength for the renewal of church life."
   This year's conference was addressed by Dr. Ed File, from
Canada.  Lectures and group discussions dealt with the problems
of society, education, race, culture, "homeland", international
status, and globalization.  In each of these fields, participants
reflected on what the position of the church was to be.  Dr. File
encouraged them to take what they had learned back to their
churches to conduct theological reflection there.
   On July 4th several participants went to Taipei to join a
march opposing Taiwan's fourth nuclear powered electricity
generating station.  The trip a practicum in social activism.
They wore distinctive protest shirts and marched in silence.  For
many it was the first time to participate in an organized
demonstration.
   Wuli, a member of Taiwan's Bunun Aborigine tribe is a second
year student at a technical college. He said, "Taking part in
TSCM actions for social justice from a faith foundation,
especially in this opposition to a nuclear power plant, is a
beginning step.  This action is small, but like a seed, it is
being rooted in me."
   He is not a stranger to social protest.  His father, the Rev.
Chin Kuo-bin, was part of a group that pulled down a statue
dedicated to Wu-feng in Chia-yi City years ago.  Wu-feng, an
official of the Chinese Ching Dynasty, had been promoted to
Taiwan's youth as an example of uprightness, dying as a martyr
for the cause of Aborigine pacification in the 19th Century.
Church groups sometimes used his story as a parallel to the
sacrifice made by Jesus on the cross.  But, in the 1990's the
Wu-feng story was historically refuted, and Aborigines pulled
down the statue in a mass protest action.
   Another Bunnun participant, I-bu from Nantou County, said that
this was the first time for her to participate in a TSCM
conference. She had never before understood the dangers of atomic
power, and was deeply moved.  She now feels that all should join
the movement for a non-nuclear homeland.

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