President Tsai Ing-wen (???) on Sunday paid tribute to the Presbyterian Church’s contributions to Taiwan at an event marking the 150th anniversary of the appointment of one of the church’s first missionaries in the country.
Tsai delivered the remarks at a prayer service held by the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan in honor of George Leslie MacKay, a Canadian minister who spent three decades in the country from late 1871 until his death in 1901.
In addition to establishing more than 60 churches in Taiwan, MacKay is widely remembered as the founder of Aletheia University, originally called Oxford College, in New Taipei’s Tamsui District, as well as the predecessor to MacKay Memorial Hospital in Taipei.
In her speech, Tsai noted that MacKay had faced significant challenges as a missionary in Taiwan in the 1870s, a time when local residents’ knowledge of Christianity was extremely limited.
To overcome these difficulties, MacKay learned to communicate fluently in the local dialect of Hokkien, while also making important contributions in areas such as education and medicine, she said.
While MacKay devoted “a lifetime of compassion” to Taiwan, the Presbyterian Church has continued to carry on the legacy of his good work, Tsai said, citing the key role of the church’s leaders in Taiwan’s transition to democracy.
Aside from praying for the country, Presbyterians have demonstrated their love for Taiwan by taking “practical action” in social undertakings related to education, medicine, and the environment, she added.
Sunday’s event was also attended by Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (???), Legislator Wang Ting-yu (???), and Jordan Reeves, executive director of the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei.
Despite MacKay’s greater prominence today, the first Presbyterian missionary in Taiwan was Scottish-born physician James Laidlaw Maxwell, who arrived in 1865 and whose medical and missionary work was centered in what is today Tainan and Kaohsiung.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel