Simple History

2023/8/31

Tainan East Gate Barclay Memorial Church was founded in May 1903. Up to 2023, it has 120 years of history. Looking back on the 120 years of church history, we will introduce it in seven stages.

✽ The Seven Historical Stages of East Gate Church

1. Founding period ~ based on faith – the origin of East Gate Church (1903 ~ 1921)

In 1903, Pastor Bucklay and his wife, Elizabeth, bought a house on East Gate Street as a dormitory for the seminary teachers. Because Elizabeth saw the religious needs of local believers such as church hospitals, schools, and priests’ helpers near East Gate Street, she used it to do evangelistic work on Sunday nights. It was called “Gospel Hall" and taught “Poems". Preach the truth and build fellowship. When the number of fellowship members increased, there were prayer meetings on Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday evenings, so that members near the East Gate and people who wanted to know the faith could participate in the gatherings. In June 1906, it officially became a branch of the Taipingjing Church.

The Taipingjing church was built in 1902. The students of middle school and women’s school used to go to Taipingjing to worship, but in summer, walking to Taipingjing in the scorching heat is not as good as worshiping at the East Gate, so there was a period of time in Taipingjing in the morning and at the East Gate in the afternoon. And then all changed to East Gate Church, and East Gate Church gradually became the student church of Chang Jung Middle School and Chang Jung Girls Middle School.

Later, the religious power gradually increased, and believers in East Gate believed that there should be a chapel. Dr. Yan Zhensheng and others worked hard to encourage students from the Tainan Middle School and various places to raise more than 3,000 yen. In 1911, they built a chapel with iron pipes as beams and columns, which could accommodate nearly 300 people. And it also became the venue for the Taiwan Congress in 1914.

At the beginning of the establishment, the pastors were all served by British missionaries, who were all deans and professors of the seminary. During this period, pastor was not only enthusiastic about evangelism, but also vigorously reformed the bad customs that were outdated at that time, such as foot binding, smoking opium and marrying 2 nd wife.

2. Construction Progress Period ~ independence and church building (1921 ~ 1945)

In 1921, the members and incumbents of East Gate Church consciously wanted to be independent; then they were allowed to become a church by the parent church and the presbytery. After independence, the brothers and sisters of East Gate Church knew their duty, and realized their own shortcomings and weaknesses. Only by trusting and praying, Christ really helped this church. Those who come to create the holy congregation are not only the members of the church, but also male and female students who come to study from afar. There are quite a lot of people who seek to join the church every year. More than 250 students have become members within 5 years, not only students from Chang Jung Middle Schools and Chang Jung Girls Meddle School, but also students from Tainan Normal School, State Middle Schools, and State Girls Senior High School.

East Gate Church was thriving, and the lineup of elders and deacons had been increasing. It tries its best to pay attention to the voice of every believer. In 1921, it established female deacons, and in 1926, it established female elders. It is the earliest known Presbyterian church where local female believers participate in church decision-making. And there are three worship halls on Sundays, so it is necessary to build a larger chapel.

In order to build a larger chapel, missionaries, girls, elders and deacons, church members, teachers and students of middle school and female school, did everything for donations, solicitation, and prayers. Old women paved roads with gravel, young women sewed clothes, girls embroidered, boys made sundials, puzzles and tooth powder for fundraising. Pastor Huang Si-Ming and his students even organized a “Church Serving Group" to more than 20 churches to conduct “slide presentations" to raise funds. Pastor Wan Jonghua stated in his missionary report that East Gate Church was a model of independent operation of churches in Taiwan and was a “selfless monument".

The new church was completed in June 1926, and the dedication ceremony was held on the 27th. The hall was 80.6 feet long and 52 feet wide. There’re three doors in the front porch, which was solemn and beautiful. The hall of worship was divided into three sections to avoid obstructing the view of the congregation. There are 170 benches, which can accommodate more than 800 people. It was the largest chapel in the southern Taiwan at that time, and it is also the oldest surviving Presbyterian chapel in Tainan City. The ceiling was engraved with the words “Faith, Hope, Love" (now moved to the top of the podium) were also suggested by Pastor Huang Si-Ming.

Later, Pastor Wan Jonghua and his wife hoped to establish a model Sunday school. They hoped that by participating in Sunday school training, young people would be able to engage in Sunday school education and evangelism in various places in the future. Wan Jonghua and his wife donated another 4,000 yen to buy land to build a Sunday school classroom (later it became the location of East Gate Kindergarten, and is currently the community development center of East Gate Barclay Memorial Church, and left the Elizabeth Memorial Chapel as a witness at that time.). During this period, emphasis was placed on the construction of the Sunday School and the missionary work of the boarding students of Chang Jung Middle School and Chang Jung Girls Middle School. Students participated in the church’s worship activities every Sunday. During this period, the church members experienced the attack of the Sino-Japanese War and World War II, and they lived in hardship and oppression.

At this time, East Gate Church had more than 1,250 members, and it was the largest church with the largest number of people in southern Taiwan. In order to allow believers to gather nearby, East Gate also began to build a church at this time. For example, the Takasago Mission (now South Gate Church), Houbicuo Mission (now Rende Church) and Longzaki Mission were all strongholds for expanding missions.

3. Transitional Period (Community mission) ~ Preach to whole family, double plus movement and created church organization and ministry branch (1945 ~ 1993)

During this period of transition, after experiencing the baptism of war, the bullet holes in Sunday school classrooms still bear witness to history, the gospel continued to spread over time. At the 50th anniversary in 1953, it promoted the whole family conversion movement, the church members increased day by day. Passed through P.K.U in the 10 years of the 1990s, opening up churches became an important task for East Gate Church during this period. Rende Church and Houjia Church were established successively to facilitate the gathering of believers outside the city. Dongning Church, which was responsible for student evangelism and college ministry, and Tainan Christian College Center, which was later expanded. The center, which inherited the mission of the church’s students’ evangelism, became more prosperous, and East Gate Church gradually transformed into community evangelism during this period.

The association originally planned to build a new church in the current community development center. However, the chief executive felt that the chapel was a historical building, and with the rising prices of the oil crisis, he decided to renovate the chapel. In addition, due to the increasing number of the students of Chang Jung Middle School and Chang Jung Girls Middle School, they returned to the campus on Sundays for gatherings. In the face of the rapid development of the East District, East Gate Church set up evangelistic offices in four-phase rezoning areas, separately established Fu-Chiang Church and De-Guang Church, and also established Chang Jung Church at the Chang Jung Campus to shepherd the teachers and students in the school. The gospel spread more widely.

On November 4, 1990, Pastor Wang Ming-Ren enacted the “Tainan East Gate Presbyterian Church Department Regulations" and established the church organization and ministry branch, which is the organization chart currently used by the church.

4. Millennium Innovation Period ~ Construction of diversified educational buildings, e-videos, and three blessings missions (1994 ~ 2001)

During this period, we pay attention to social care and love for the native land, and promote the evangelism of the Three Blessings, and hold the “Training Three Blessings" every year, so that a large number of believers are equipped to become elite soldiers of the Gospel. In 1995, we actively prepared to build a building with multiple functions. The new education building started construction in June. After the completion of the education building in August 1997, Silver College was set up; the morning teaching in the elementary school was promoted; and established the Blessing and Benefiting Academy as well as Hand Bell Group etc.

5. Cross-century mission renewal period ~ Change church name, community service, campus preaching and community education (2001 ~ 2010)

In 2003, the 100th anniversary of the church, in commemoration of Pastor Barclay, the church was renamed as “Tainan East Gate Barclay Memorial Church". And strive to change the name of No. 18 Park in Tainan City to “Barclay Memorial Park" to bring the church to the community. Barclay Memorial Park works together with the local residents and relevant churches, government agencies, and social organizations with the plan of “one event per year, one construction, and ten years of success" to make it a natural ecological park in the metropolitan area. In terms of campus evangelism, we actively participated in the morning teaching of character education; in terms of community education, we opened the Happy Weekend Camp for Children and the Blessing and Benefiting Academy, which had a positive impact and results on the spread of the gospel to children and adults in the community.

6. Community Development and Diversity Mission Period (2010 ~ 2019)

In 2011, the opposite side of the church was changed from a kindergarten to a community development center. The Sunday School and Silver College were moved to the community development center to promote caring ministry to the community. In 2013, the association held the 110th anniversary commemorative event and invited 65 couples to renew the covenant as a East Gate Church is a symbol of promoting community and family missions. In 2017, in memory of Pastor Barclay’s wife, Elizabeth, the former Sunday school classroom was remodeled as the “Elizabeth Memorial Chapel". During this period of time, believers in the church are seriously pursuing their faith, and various missionary strategies are being promoted in the church. Worship and praise, prayer meetings, and group meetings have played a role one after another. Among them, the happiness group that started in 2018 has blown up the church’s outreach mission and promoted the enthusiasm of members. Spread the gospel, care for new believers and spare no effort to inject vitality into the church.

7. Perfection and Symbiosis ~ Social Dialogue and Digital Mission Period (2020 ~ present)

Facing the challenge of the COVID-19 epidemic, the church uses digital media to allow brothers and sisters to worship online, and through the “Barclay Bible School" to read the Bible online and offer multiple faith courses, and through the “Elizabeth Care Lecture" pay attention to various social issues, awaken the members of this association to inherit the love of Pastor Barclay and Mrs. Elizabeth, and pay attention to the development of Taiwan society.

✽ Ten terms (seventeen) pastors of East Gate Church

Since our church is located between Sin Lou Hospital, Tainan Theological Seminary, Chang Jung High School and Chang Jung Girls’ High School, it has been closely related to these schools and hospital for the past 120 years. It can be said that our Church is the spiritual venue of hospital and these schools, and hospital and these schools are the resources of our Church. Over the past 120 years, a total of 17 pastors have cultivated this God’s vineyard. They are:

The 1stPastor Huang Si-MingTerm: 1927.12 ~ 1934.09
He is the father of Pastor Huang Chang-Huai and had been the first Chairman of the Tainan Central Committee。In 1930 hired Pastor Pan Dao-Jung as the Deputy Pastor.
The 2ndPastor Pan Dao-JungTerm of Deputy Pastor: 1930.04 ~ 1934.09
Term of Senior Pastor: 1936.5 ~ 1940.3
Firstly, he was Deputy Pastor and then became the Senior Pastor. He also had been the director of Sunday School of TPC.
The 3rdPastor Yuang Shih-YuangTerm: 1941.01 ~ 1948.04
He had been the professor of Tainan Theological Seminary; Chairman of the Committee of Southern Taiwan; Director of Hymns Committee of TPC & had created 33 hymns.
The 4thPastor Liang Sheu-TheTerm: 1948.5 ~ 1955.7
He had been the professor of Tainan Theological Seminary; Chairman of the Tainan Central Committee. He also created some churched in the Northern Taiwan.
The 5thPastor Ou Ching-AnTerm: 1957.08 ~ 1976.03
He was the Chairman of the 8th TPC General Committee. He has been in this position for nearly two decades. He is the longest pastor and the one who has brought the church to many aspects. In addition, the deputy Pastor Chen Zhu-Sian (Ph.D. in Ethics of the Southeast Asian Theological Research Institute and the professor of Tainan Theological Seminary) was appointed.
The 6thPastor Chen Kuan-NanTerm: 1976.04 ~ 1982.02
He was the 51st Chairman of the Tainan Central Committee.
The 7thPastor Chen Bo-ChanTerm: 1982.09 ~ 1987.07
He was the Chairman of the 32nd TPC General Committee and also had been the Director of Education Committee of TPC.
The 8thPastor Wang Ming-JanTerm: 1988.09.02 ~ 2006.12.11
Appointed Pastor Luo Chi-Zong (current pastor of De Guang Church) and Pastor Lee Wang Shu-Juan as the “Education Pastor". Later, Pastor Ke Chong-Sin was hired as the “Assistant Pastor" and Pastor Zhong Ri-Shin as “Pastor for Young Guys".
The 9thPastor Lo Jen-GueiTerm: 2009.01.01 ~ 2019.10.31
He was the Chairman of the 59th TPC General Committee. Once hired Pastor Tsuang Song-Hui as the “Assistant Pastor" for one year; later successively hired Chen Le-Ren, Zhu Li-Fang, Lee Jia-Ju, Lee Sin-Yue, Liao Chong-Han, Tsai Jia-Chi as the preachers. Besides, in accordance with the Tainan Central Committee’s dispatching counselor, Preacher Liu Li-Ren and Preacher Wang Mei-Shu from Tainan Theological Seminary are also invited to assist our Sunday school, youth pastoral and fellowship ministry.
The 10thPastor Liu Bing-SiTerm: 2020.09.14 ~ Current pastor.
Hired Preacher Wang Gang to assist our Sunday school, youth pastoral and fellowship ministry from August 2021. In addition, in June 2023, Pastor Êng-Chin Tiunn-Kán was hired as a caring pastor to share the increasingly heavy burden pastoral work.

✽ Branches and Leaves of East Gate Church

In the past 120 years, our church has established seven churches. The earliest was in 1933, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the church, the “Takasago Town Mission" (current “South Gate Church“) was established. In 1936, Dr. Song Shang-Jie came to preach, and he became enthusiastic about evangelism and set up a “Houbicuo Mission" (current “Ren De Church“). In 1961, the “Dong Ning Church" was established to spread the gospel to teachers and students in colleges. In 1963, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of our church, the “Hou Jia Church" was established. In 1976, we adopted the “Fu-Chiang Church“, established by the Tainan Central Committee Mission Department. In 1987, the “Evergreen Church" was accepted as the ward, and in 2003, on the 90th anniversary, the “De Guang Church" was further established. After the division of these seven churches, they are all very strong. This is the glory of the mother church. Pastor Ou Ching-An once described our East Gate Church in this way: “East Gate is like an old hen. Although she sheds her hair, she will lay eggs for a long time." This is really the grace of God.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that in early 2001, the Tainan Central Committee jointly expanded the Humei Church with East Gate Church, Taipingjing Church, Minzu Road Church, North Gate Church, South Gate Church and Kansi Street Church. The East Gate Church approved the Worship Minister, Elder Liu Jong-Shiang, for a one-year leave of absence to assist the Humei Church in developing the ministry. This is also talking another story of the branched gospel ministry.

✽ The first in the history of East Gate Church

In the past 120 years of history, our Church has created many firsts in church history. For example:

  1. In the Ching Dynasty, it was first advocated to reform the bad customs at that time, such as binding feet, marrying 2 nd wife, and smoking opium.
  2. When this chapel was completed in 1926, it was the largest church in Taiwan and could accommodate more than 500 people.
  3. Taiwan’s first church to establish female elders, in 1926, two female elders Gong Rui-Zhu and Pan Su-Shiu were established.
  4. The first church that cared about the preaching of students, and operated schools to train students in religious life.
  5. The chant team (called the East Gate Church Praise Team at the time) was established in 1927. It was composed of students from Evergreen Middle School and Evergreen Girls’ Middle School who had excellent music performance. This was the first and largest chant team in the Southern Taiwan at that time. That is why the foreigners said our church is the “Singing Church".
  6. The first chairman of the Tainan Central Committee was the first pastor of our church, that is, Pastor Huang Ai-Ming had been elected as the chairman of the Tainan Central Committee in 1930.
  7. The first church in Taiwan to hire two pastors. In 1930, Pastor Huang Ai-Ming hired Pastor Pan Dao-Jong as deputy pastor.
  8. The first printed weekly newspaper of the church in Taiwan: East Gate Church Weekly was published in January 1932.
  9. Pastor Huang Chang-Hui, who was from our church, became the dean of Tainan Theological Seminary in 1949. This is the first Taiwanese dean of theological seminary.
  10. The first overseas missionary teacher of the Taiwan Presbyterian Church (TPC), Pastor Chen Siao-Chan (father is Pastor Chen Jin-Jan), was from our church and was sent to Beimadengjialou, Malaysia for missions in 1959.
  11. Three people in a church have served as the Chairman of the TPC General Committee. This is the only record of the church in Taiwan. They are: Pastor Ou Jin-An as the 8th , Pastor Chen Bo-Chan as the 32nd and Pastor Lo Jen-Guei as the 59th Chairman.
  12. In August 1997, Pastor Song Chuan-Sheng (previously dean of Tainan Theological Seminary and also from our church) was elected chairman of the World Alliance Reformed Church (WARC). This is the first Taiwanese to be elected to the highest position in an international religious organization (the alliance has composed of 221 church organizations in 164 countries, with more than 80 million believers).

✽ Established Elizabeth Memorial Chapel in 2018

Tainan East Gate Church purchased the land opposite the church in April 1927 and completed the original building in 1931 as a Sunday School classroom. Later, it was used as an East Gate Kindergarten classroom and restaurant until July 2011. At that time, the kindergarten stopped enrolling students and the building was not used for any special purpose.

In early 2017, the church minister Pastor Lo Jen-Guei began to plan how to activate this building for promoting evangelization. In commemoration of the contribution of Pastor Barclay’s wife Elizabeth to the creation of the Tainan East Gate Church, the church committee decided to convert it into a Taiwanese red brick building and Scottish-style mixed church under the existing structure. But they retained the front and rear walls of the original building as it has historical significance due to the traces of bullet holes caused by World War II.

The Memorial Church began construction in July 2017 and was completed in early May 2018. It is named “The Elizabeth Memorial Chapel". This building reflects the structure of the Barclay Memorial Church across the street. May 20, 2018 is the 115th anniversary of Tainan East Gate Barclay Memorial Church so it held a special devotional thanksgiving worship. At the same time, a signboard was set up to cherish the ancestors’ belief footprints and also thanks the honorary elder of this church, Dr. Tsuang Ming-Sion, and his wife, Mrs. Connie L. Tsuang, for their dedication to this ministry.

✽ Cultural Relics Preservation and History Education ~
“Elizabeth Cultural Assets Preservation Center" & “East Gate Barclay History Education Promotion Association"

With the 120th anniversary of the church, the association began to pay attention to the preservation of cultural relics and historical education. Under the guidance of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, the preservation of cultural relics in the association was affirmed by the National Memory of the World Register of the Cultural Assets Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, we established ”The Elizabeth Cultural Assets Preservation Center". It not only maintains the cultural relics preserved by the church, but also assists in the restoration, revitalization and reuse of the cultural relics for some of Presbyterian churches and Chang Jong Middle School, helping the church continue to tell the beautiful footsteps of God in Taiwan.

In addition, the association also promotes the designation of the Major Chapel as a cultural asset, expecting to spread and fulfill the love and gospel of Jesus Christ by telling the deeds and testimonies of God at the East Gate, promote intergenerational dialogue, expand social participation, and encourage non-Christians to enter the church. To this end, the “East Gate Barclay History Education Promotion Association" has been established in 2022 to cooperate with the government, academic circles and all levels of society, and to link with the missionary strategies of existing churches (such as: music ministry, vernacular character education, Sunday school activities , group sharing of care, etc.) to become a church that expresses faith, hope and love to the city, and then helps Taiwan society to usher in an independent, diverse and inclusive future.