wfn.org | TCN: Yuenlin Township and churches co-host Tomb-Sweeping Day ceremony

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>Taiwan Church News

>2980 Edition

>April 6~12, 2009

Yuenlin Township and churches co-host Tomb-Sweeping Day ceremony

>Reported by Chen Wei-jien

>Written by Lydia Ma

On Tomb Sweeping Day this year, a special thanksgiving and memorial  service was held at Yuenlin Elementary School Activity

Center to commemorate one’s own ancestors. This marked the first  time in Taiwan’s history that a municipal government and a

church co-hosted a memorial service to honor ancestors.

According to event organizers, this ceremony not only demonstrated that  Christians also remembered and respected their family

ancestors, but also proved that Christian churches in Taiwan were more  and more in tune with Taiwanese society. The ceremony

also provided an opportunity for churches to think of new ways to  celebrate Tomb Sweeping Day.

On the afternoon of April 4, Yuenlin Township Office and Yuenlin  Christian Prayer Alliance co-hosted this service that included a

lighting of candles ceremony (symbolizing light and respect), a flower  offering (symbolizing remembrance), and a water pouring

ceremony (symbolizing gratefulness). The candle lighting ceremony was  presided by local pastors, the flower offering was given by

those who had signed up beforehand to attend the service, and the water  pouring ceremony was carried out by Township

Supervisor Wu Zongxian on behalf of local residents.

More than 300 people attended the ceremony, including pastors and  members from Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, Holiness

Church, Bread of Life Church, Evangelical Formosa Church, and other  non-denominational churches, as well as non-Christian

>Yuenlin residents.

Event organizers gave every attendee a delicately designed genealogy  book to fill out on their own, a small cake, and some gospel

>tracts.

During the sermon, pastors focused on similarities and links between  Tomb Sweeping Day traditions and Easter Sunday traditions.

They also used photos to show where our ancestors had been and what they  had done.

According to Changhua presbytery Heping Church pastor Rev. Tiun Bun-beng  (Chang Wen-ming), his church’s seniors fellowship

had organized a similar memorial service last year to honor ancestors  and the event garnered a lot of positive feedback. This

prompted him to propose the idea to Yuenlin Christian Prayer Alliance,  which agreed with his proposal.

Since the Alliance and Yuenlin Township Office had already co-hosted  Christmas parades two years in a row and had a good

working relationship, Township Supervisor Wu Zongxian readily agreed to  hold a Christian memorial service on Tomb-Sweeping

>Day, though he was not a Christian.

Wu said many traditional ceremonies have been simplified in recent years  and efforts by Christian churches in remembering

ancestors would remind the public to honor one’s elders as  instructed in the Ten Commandments and in Ephesians. He encouraged

all Yuenlin residents to participate in the memorial service regardless  of their religious background and noted that this was the first

time a government department would host a Christian memorial service on  Tomb-Sweeping Day, making Yuenlin a progressive

>town in Taiwan.

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