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The Taiwan Lutheran Church or TLC ((中国語:台灣信義會)) is one of the six Lutheran bodies in Taiwan. It currently has 80 mission sites nationwide (including 40 local congregations, 30 church plants and 10 parachurch organizations) with a total of 18,408 baptized members.〔(LWF Statistics 2010 )〕 The current bishop of the Taiwan Lutheran Church is the Rt Rev Chen Chih-Hung, first elected in 2008 〔Taiwan Lutheran Church: (Successive Bishops )〕 ==History== Like the Southern Baptist Convention, the Lutheran Church also established itself in Taiwan during the 1950s. Both American and Scandinavian Lutherans had been active in China since the final decade of the 19th century.〔Latourette, ''A History of Christian Missions in China''〕 The Norwegian Lutheran Mission Association of the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America had sent its first representatives to China in 1890. The missionaries established themselves in Hubei and, later, Henan provinces. Some five years later, in 1896, the Danish Lutherans began their own mission station in Manchuria. The years following the Boxer Rebellion saw a dramatic expansion of Lutheran efforts. The Norwegian American Lutherans sent ten additional missionaries to China. Belgian Lutherans from The Hague worked closely with their American co-religionists and considerable progress was made during the years from 1902 to 1914. Other Lutheran societies from the United States and from the Scandinavian nations sent their personnel to various parts of China. Most of these bodies - the American Lutheran Brethren Mission is one example - settled in with the earlier arrivals in Hubei and Henan. Other missionaries, auch as those serving the newly revived Norwegian Missionary Society, moved into cities in Hunan. By 1914, the Lutherans had been able to establish new mission stations and plant new churches. They had also been gaining new converts. Their total membership reached 24,422 in 1914. Finally, because they stressed self-government, they had been able to set up a seminary in Shekou, in Hubei, where they could train Chinese Lutheran clergy and church workers. The coming of World War One hurt German Lutheran efforts, but missionaries from other nations helped out their brethren. The war did have its positive side for the Lutherans in China: It was during these years that preliminary steps were taken to unite their various groups, representing six different nations, into a Lutheran mission union. A preliminary constitution for this union was drawn up and this proposal was accepted by the different Lutheran bodies in 1917. The 1920s and 1930s saw the steady evolution of a Lutheran presence in the face of the anti-missionary campaign and the anti-imperialist movement. Only the Communist victory brought to an end the almost sixty years of Lutheran development. The Taiwan Lutheran Church was the fruit of the work of several mission societies which had worked before in mainland China and the Lutheran Church of China. Work began in Kaohsiung and Taipei, then gradually expanded to Taichung, Miaoli, Chiayi and Tainan. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Taiwan Lutheran Church」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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