16/10/2009 by paul.

Well today was a little more relaxing, which meant that we had a long conversation over breakfast. We talked about worship and music. After the experience of communion and my reflections on the music I suggested that somethings in this church reflected the worship style of some Anglican churches back in the UK - certainly the robed choir, the gold and glove wearing needed for communion, the wafer bread and the focus on practicing music. Hsinte said that this church was quite traditional, and it is very different from my experiences in Tek-Tung. He has only been in the church a few months, so I can imagine that not everything in the church may be to his liking yet. However he did talk about the order of service for each Sunday. Whilst he chooses the readings and the hymns, from what I gather the form of the service has been established by the elders or members, and any deviation away from this would cause some problems. This is not just about what happens after the first hymn, but when to stand and sit, what to play/sing as the collection is brought forward etc etc. This explains to me the emphasis on music and its precision. I would say that in general the musicianship in Taiwanese churches is higher than back in the UK. But because of the culture (well, really Chinese education system and their controlling of culture in the past) anyone who plays an instrument is classically trained. A very nice Yamaha grand piano is used to lead worship, and the hymns are interspersed with short excerpts from the great classical composers and ellaborate piano arrangements. Whilst this can be a wonderful experience, there is more to church music (from my experience in Tek-Tung I can say there is more available in Taiwan too) than simply piano recitals and getting a C sharp major scale into Be thou my vision! Church music is there to lead people in worship, not to sound nice and good (although that helps), certainly not to show off the musicians abilities (although having some ability is useful!). If all that happens is that a piece of music is nice and played well in church then it has failed in its primary task to stir the people to worship in reverence, awe, wonder, amazement, fear, joy, fun. God wants us - all the people in church to worship him as we are, not a performance. My moaning about church music and what we make it stretches across the UK and Taiwan.

All of this, orders of service and music, should be addressed by asking where is the space for God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) to be able to move in and amongst the people during a time of worship, and where is the space for the person leading that service to respond and lead the people? That could mean repeating a hymn, an uplifting key change, scrapping a hymn because the sermon moved somewhere different than planned, adding another reading, prayer etc. To paraphrase one of my tutors at college, if all we do as church leaders is perform a rehearsed, pre-scripted service and/or sermon, we might as well just give people a copy on Saturday night and tell them not to bother. Moan over.

So after breakfast and our interesting conversation, we prepared the evening Bible Study together. Today it’s Nehemiah 9 - a great prayer in which the Israelites recognise what God has done for them, how their ancestors have sinned in the past, how they have sinned, and how they long to come back to God. Interestingly there were very few difference in our interpretation of the passage.

In the afternoon I decided to get some fresh air, and I once again set off for the Taipei 101 building. A bus and two metro trains got me there in about 20mins. It is truly huge - imagine a posher canary wharf. There is a full-on shopping mall there, including top designer shops. Even the mobile phone store only sold phones made from silver, gold or platinum. The tell tale sign of the absence of price tags was over-bearing, and so I left to treat myself to a Starbuck’s - my first since I arrived. Bliss.

Afterwards I walked to the memorial hall before heading back to the metro…

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15/10/2009 by paul.

I’m not sure what is most impressive, that I have managed to write something on here about everyday of my visit, or that I have found very little food that is uncomfortable for my stomach in a month! But it has been a month since I arrived. Today I marked the month with a trip. On my first day, you may be remember, I went to the water purification plant with the senior citizens group. Well today was their AGM which was held at some hot springs. Driving for about an hour north of Taipei into the hills, on some very suspect roads, we made it to our destination. It seemed just like a restuarant/hotel and we were shepherded into a room for our meeting. The meeting lasted about two hours which included about an hour of worship, with Hsinte giving a thirty minute sermon on 1 John 5; and, then, about an hours worth of business which included voting in the president for next year. The ballot was all very serious, and I was quite relieved I didn’t get any votes.

After the meeting there was opportunity to use the hot springs. These were quite different from the ones I visited previously. This time we each got our own little cubicle, which, on reflection look a bit like a prison cell…

Thankfully the water was nice and warm, I shut my eyes, put the ipod on and could have been anywhere!
After a 30 min soak we headed back to the restaurant for lunch, another huge ten course banquet…

After an hour driving through the foggy countryside we headed back to Taipei. I had a few moments to sort out my notes for the English Bible study in the evening on 1 Peter.

Six of us met together for the study. Hopefully with meeting each week between now and when I leave we will be able to study the whole of 1 Peter. The study tried to achieve two things - helping people understand English -vocab and grammar, and also give space to discuss the passage. The passage for today was 1 Peter 1:1-12.

We split the passage into three. Verses 1-2 gave us the opportunity to think about who recieved the letter, who wrote it, when did they write it, what was happening at the time, and how it got to us from the mouth of Peter. I favour the thought that Peter wrote the letter, since thats what it says, probably with help of Silas (or Silvanus, see ch.5). It was written to churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Since I favour Peter as the author, I also favour an early date around 62-63AD while Peter was in Rome and Nero was the Emporer. Nero had begun persecuting the Christians at this point but not quite to the extent that he would after blaming them for the fire in Rome in the next couple of years. However it is clear that Peter is writing to Christians who are under the pressure of persecution. At this point I was wary, because my thoughts about the persecution of Christians may well be quite different from the of the Taiwanese peopel in the group. However we moved onto think about verses 3-5 which show us the blessings that Gos has given to us - mercy, new birth, a living hope, an inheritance, faith, being shielded by God’s power and salvation. These things are blessing despite persecution - perhaps Peter is reminding the church members that despite their suffering God has blessed. Perhaps sometimes we too need to be reminded of just what God has done for us, and not just to take it for granted. In verses 6-9 Peter relates this to the particular situation. In verse 6 he mentions their suffering, and whilst not dimishing it in anyway, he goes on to encourage them. He says that their faith is amazing, and that the goal of their faith is the salvation that Jesus bought for them on the cross. What else could anyone say that is more encouraging, regardless of context? Finally in verses 10-12, Peter tells them that God has been working for so long to help these Chritians see the gospel in its fullness. He says that the work of all the Old Testament Prophets was for the Christians - so that they could see what Jesus had done for them. And he finishes by saying that even the angels long to look into the things which the Christians know by faith. Another great encouragement for us is to consider all that God has done for us to help us see the gospel. He has worked through the whole of time to make sure that little me, Paul Robinson, in Taiwan, would know of Jesus. Creation, calling Abram, Moses, Joshua, the kings and Old Testament prophets and priest, sending Jesus to earth to live and die for our sins, raising him to life again, nurturing the disciples, founding the church, working through our corrupt ideas of church over the centuries, working in my grandparents and parents lives - it was all so that I could know him today. Everything he has done was so that I can know him - and, he has done the same for you too - will you too be a Jesus-follower?

Well I think that is just about enough for one day - tomorrow should be slightly more relaxing

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14/10/2009 by paul.

Well as I write this a group of URC members from the Northwest Synod are touching down in Taipei. They will be travelling to the South of the island before making their way back North in 10 days time. I hope to meet up with them when they visit Taipei at the end of next week. One of these intrepid travellers goes to my placement church for the next 18 months back in Manchester. You can follow Kathryn’s blog here….

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13/10/2009 by paul.

After the mamoth Sunday, Monday was fairly quiet. I’m beginning an English Bible Study series here looking at 1 Peter, and so I began my preparations for our first meeting on Wednesday. The church see this as a mission opportunity. Previously the church have run English Bible classes and they have attracted non-Christians who wish to learn more English. So its important that the approach and balance of the Bible Study is right - without neglecting anything of the passage, we also need to focus on the English vocab and grammar. It’s been really interesting to prepare for. How do you explain ’salvation’, ‘joy’, ‘inheritance’, ‘faith’ as vocab - in effect how do you explain the gospel in simpler terms so that all can understand, and not just using English church language. Can you do it, and should we do it?

On Monday afternoon I needed to clear my head a bit so I went for a walk. It’s a bit cooler now (quite scarily it dropped to 25C and I wondered if I should put a jumper on, hmmm, something wrong), so I decided to make for the 101 building. I was armed with my camera, but with the cooler weather comes clouds and I had forgotten to put the battery in the camera before I headed out. After about 20 mins I came across a big square building with an escalator leading up to about the 5th floor. I plucked up the courage and entered through a slightly more inviting door at ground level. It was a shopping centre. As I walked a little further I came to an open area in which you could see both up and down - it was huge. There were at least 7 floor below me and about 15 above. In the middle was a ridiculous suspended granite ball which housed a department store. The architecture was quite stunning, and it was one of those places where escalators go at funny angles and just looking around I felt a bit sick! I had in fact discovered the Living Mall, which I later discovered to be the world’s first 24 hr shopping mall, covering a ridiculous 205,000 square meters (that’s about 27 football pitches). I will have to return with either my camera or Jo, the first option being the cheapest…

Tuesday has been more of Bible Study preparation, and then in the evening me, Hsinte and his wife went on a pastoral visit to a retired professor. It was interesting seeing another home, and yet again I was made very welcome: this time with a nice victoria sponge cake topped with shredded pork. tasty.

Sorry for the lack of photos, I’ll try and remember to take the battery next time!

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12/10/2009 by paul.

Well this morning was an opportunity to catch up with some of the members of the church in Taipei. The day began with prayers and then choir practice. I managed to avoid the gown yet again - a sharp ‘No’ seems to be understood anywhere in the world! The reading for the service was Ephesians 1:1-15, and Hsinte said that he split the reading into three stanzas each finishing with the line ‘to the praise of his glory’. This meant that the reading covered doctrine of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. He went onto talk about making ourslves holy in today’s world by being distinct in our actions, and then finally about unity. The church in the bustling city of Ephesus probably included Jewish and Gentile Christians, and so, this opening paragraph, whilst heavy in theology and doctrine (and suprisingly in the greek, all one sentence!) also speaks of the things that should unite all christians, not separate them.

This was particularly interesting as we then moved into communion and baptism. A mother and her baby boy were baptised together. Those who know me and my theology will know that this is hard for me, especially when neither, or particularly, mum, were invited to respond to promises or give testimony. I openly talked to Hsinte about my theology of adult/child baptism, and it seems that the arguements can exist in any part of the world. Communion had a strange, high anglican feel to it. Again it is hard to be sure of the doctrine as I couldn’t understand what was being said. However that meant I paid more attention to what I could see. Hsinte put white gloves on before moving to the table, and on uncovering the elements revealed gold trays stacked on top of each other. The servers then came forward (also wearing white gloves) and hand round wafers and the berry juice. This experience was quite different from the one I had last week in Tek-Tung, which seemed much more ‘normal’ to me. I guess I’, realising the breadth of churches in the PCT may be just as wide as the breadth of church in the URC or the Anglican church.

After church we headed for more choir practice, a bring and share lunch. And then I was summoned for more singing. The church have decided to start a men’s choir, and I was promptly given a couple of solo’s to sing. hmmm, the notes are fine, the words on the other hand….. Just when I thought I was finished, we all came back upstairs for the first handbell lesson. I didn’t realise that the big black boxes in my room weren’t guitar amps, but actually cases of hand bells. This was interesting. There were around 20 of us, each having two bells - I had E4 and F4, which are the notes E and F in the bottom octave. Anyone who has played in a band (particularly contest pieces in brass bands!) knows that one of the most difficult thing is to play one melody across several instruments with each taking a different note. Well multiply that by 20 and across all the harmonies and you have hand bells. I’m please to say E4 and F4 were in time, apart from the moment when G4 and A4 rushed and C4 and D4 slowed down - at this point my brain could no longer compute - just like playing front row cornet really!

We got back to our flat about 4.30, had a few hours rest and then headed out for tea, and a walk to the night market. My camera and the lights around Taipei made for my best artistic attempts to date, as did the hustle and bustle of the night market…

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