Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT; 台灣基督長老教會) was planted in Taiwan in the 19th century by Dr James Laidlaw Maxwell Sr of the former Presbyterian Church of England and Dr George Leslie Mackay of Canada.
In Taiwan, Presbyterians have historically been active in promoting the use of the local vernacular Taiwanese, both during the Japanese colonial period, as well as after the transfer of rulership to the Republic of China, during which the exclusive use of Mandarin was legally mandated. Also, the church has historically been an active proponent of human rights and democracy in Taiwan, a tradition which began during the Japanese colonial period and extended into the martial law period of the ROC. As such, the church has been somewhat associated with the Taiwan independence movement. The PCT has also been a consistent and conspicuous proponent of Aboriginal Rights:
"...over 64 percent [of Taiwanese aborigines] identify as Christian... [For decades, the PCT] has used its organizational strengths to mobilize its people for repeated campaigns, and has provided a continuing solid institutional base for most Aboriginal political initiatives ...organizations like the Alliance of Taiwanese Aborigines — and even the DPP itself — have often fallen back on the Church as a ready-made resource (Stainton 2002)."
In terms of polity, the PCT has a general assembly, and only one synod (the Northern Synod); the presbyteries in the south of the island connect directly to the general assembly. The PCT is a member church of the World Council of Churches. It is also a member of the Council for World Mission through which it is linked in mission with 30 other churches around the world.
Immigrants from Taiwan to the United States and Canada have also started Taiwanese-language churches which are closely related to the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. While most of these churches are affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), or the Presbyterian Church in Canada, or the United Church of Canada, the liturgy and church practices are rooted in the Taiwanese Presbyterian tradition, and the pulpits are usually filled by ministers trained in the PCT.
* The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and the Advocacy of Local Autonomy by Christine L. Lin
* Presbyterians and the Aboriginal Revitalization Movement in Taiwan by Michaeol Stainton
Dr. James Laidlaw Maxwell
James Laidlaw Maxwell Senior (馬雅各; born Scotland, 18 March 1836; died March 1921) was the first Presbyterian missionary to Taiwan (Formosa). He served with the English Presbyterian Mission.
Maxwell studied medicine and took his degree at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He worked in London at Brompton Hospital and at the Birmingham General Hospital. He was an elder in the Broad Street Presbyterian Church before being sent to Taiwan by the Presbyterian Church of England (now within the United Reformed Church) in 1864.
On 16 June 1865, he established the first Presbyterian church in Taiwan, this date now celebrated by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan as its anniversary. First his mission centred in the then-capital Taiwan Fu (now Tainan City); in 1868 he moved near Qijin (now part of Kaohsiung) where his work, both medical and missionary, became more welcomed. In early 1872 he advised Canadian Presbyterian missionary pioneer George Leslie Mackay to start his work in northern Taiwan, near Tamsui.
He married Mary Anne Goodall (died January 1918) of Handsworth on 7 April 1868 in Hong Kong. They had two sons, John Preston and James Laidlaw Jnr, both of whom later also became medical missionaries. He retired in London in 1885 where he formed and became the first secretary of the Medical Missionary Association. He and his sons oversaw the construction of Sin-lâu Hospital in Tainan, the first western-style hospital in Taiwan. The younger J. L. Maxwell served in the Tainan hospital from 1900 to 1923.
Rev. Thomas Barclay
Rev. Barclay (21 November 1849 - 5 October 1935), was a British missionary to Formosa (Taiwan). His ministry in South Taiwan has been compared to the work done in North Taiwan by George Leslie Mackay. He founded Tainan Theological College in 1880.
Barclay is buried alongside several other missionaries in the Presbyterian section of a public cemetery in the southern part of Tainan City. To honor his contributions to the city, in 2004, the Tainan City Government renamed the Park No.18 (十八號公園) the Barclay Memorial Park (巴克禮紀念公園).
He translated the Old Testament from the original Hebrew to Taiwanese and the New Testament from Greek to Taiwanese.
Rev. William Campbell
In 1871, the British Presbyterian Mission sent Rev. Campbell to Tainan. He stayed for 47 years. He wrote Sketches from Formosa about early missions in Taiwan and Formosa under the Dutch.
Rev. George L. Mackay
George Leslie Mackay DD (偕叡理 or 馬偕; born March 21, 1844; died June 2, 1901) was the first Presbyterian missionary to northern Formosa (Taiwan). He served with the Canadian Presbyterian Mission. Mackay is among the best known Westerners to have lived in Taiwan.
Mackay was born in Zorra Township, Oxford County, Canada West (now Ontario), Canada. He received his theological training at Knox College in Toronto, Princeton Seminary in the United States, and New College, Edinburgh in Scotland, all Presbyterian institutions.
In 1871, he became the first missionary to be commissioned by the Canada Presbyterian Church (predecessor of both the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the United Church of Canada), arriving in Taiwan on New Year's Eve, 31 December 1871.
After consulting with Dr. James Laidlaw Maxwell, Sr., a medical doctor serving as a Presbyterian Church of England missionary to southern Formosa (1865), Mackay arrived at Tamsui, northern Formosa in 1872, which remained his home until his death in 1901. Starting with an itinerant dentistry practice amongst the lowland aborigines, he later established churches, schools and a hospital practicing Western biomedicine. He married Tiuⁿ Chhang-miâ (張聰明; known as "Minnie" in the West), a Taiwanese aborigine, and learned to speak the vernacular Taiwanese fluently. Even today, some families in Taiwan, particularly of lowland-aboriginal Kavalan ancestry, trace their surname '偕' ('Kai' or 'Kay') to their family's conversion to Christianity by Mackay. The churches he planted later becoming the Northern Synod of the present Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. In 1896, after the establishment of Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan, Mackay met with the Japanese Governor-General of Formosa, Maresuke Nogi.
In Canada, he was honoured during his two furloughs home by the Canadian Church. In 1880, Queen's College in Kingston, Ontario awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity, presented by Principal George Monro Grant and Chancellor Sandford Fleming. Before departing in 1881, he returned to Oxford County, where monies were raised to start Oxford College (牛津學堂; now Aletheia University) in Taiwan; a number of young people in the county were inspired to follow Mackay example and entered into missionary service with a number of Christian denominations.
Although Mackay had suffered from meningitis and malaria, Mackay eventually died of throat cancer on June 2, 1901. He was buried near Oxford College in Danshui, Taiwan; more specifically, his grave is in a small cemetery in the eastern corner of the Tamkang Middle School campus. The major private Christian hospital in downtown Taipei is named Mackay Memorial Hospital, built in 1912 to replace the smaller Mackay Hospital he started in Tamsui in 1882. In recent years, Mackay has been promoted and celebrated as part of the rise of Taiwanese nativism and the associated state and civil projects of emphasizing a Taiwanese identity and Taiwan-centred histories.
