Tamsui Church Audio Guide

Tamsui Church: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Tamsui Church

   Welcome to Tamsui Church, known locally as 淡水禮拜堂, standing on Mackay Street in Tamsui District, New Taipei City. This is the worship hall of the Tamsui congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, and its story reaches back to 1872, when the Canadian missionary George Leslie Mackay began his work here. It is often described as the first church in northern Taiwan. The building you see today is not that first church. It is the third generation on this spot. A rented house came first, then a small whitewashed chapel, and finally the red brick Gothic Revival church finished in 1933. Today it is protected as a municipal monument of New Taipei City. As we go, look for the red brick walls, the square bell tower rising like a hand lifted in prayer, and the coloured glass. Next door stands the old Mackay clinic, also a municipal monument. Let's begin where the story begins, with a missionary stepping off a boat in March of 1872.

2. 02

   Three Generations of Tamsui Church

   Mackay arrived in Tamsui on the ninth of March, 1872, and went straight to work. He preached, he learned the Taiwanese language and local customs, and the first house he rented served as home, clinic and place of worship all at once. Faith and medicine grew up under one roof here. As the congregation grew, space ran short. Around 1890, the doctor's residence beside the Mackay clinic was converted into a chapel, laid out in two halls with a small courtyard. Mackay died in 1901, and the church entered a new era without its founder. In 1915 the old building made way for something new. The missionary builder William Gauld, a well-known church builder of the time, oversaw a small brick chapel with whitewashed walls in a North American style, with a bell tower above the front door. It cost 1,390 silver dollars and was nicknamed the White Church. It lasted less than 20 years, but it left a legacy: its bell was reused in the later church, and its bricks were recycled into the interior walls of the one you see today.

3. 03

   A Gothic Revival Landmark at Tamsui Church

   Tamsui Church: The church received its coloured glass and a new roof of imported Swedish aluminium tiles in a renovation in 1986.

   By the late 1920s, the little White Church was too small. The congregation had grown, and students and teachers from the newly founded Tamkang Middle School also came here to worship. In 1928 the decision was made to rebuild, and the date also fit the sixtieth anniversary of Mackay's arrival in Taiwan. The design came from Mackay's own son, Reverend George William Mackay, who sought financial help from the mother church in Canada and supervised construction himself. The new church was completed on the third of September, 1933. At the time it was the largest church in northern Taiwan. Look at the style: Gothic Revival, a design popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Buttresses brace the brick walls, small pointed spires cap the tower, and the windows are pointed arches. The side windows are double pointed arches, shaped to lead your eye upward toward the sky. The facade faces south, and inside the church is arranged on three levels: offices, the worship hall, and the choir seats.

4. 04

   Stained Glass and Painters at Tamsui Church

   Tamsui Church: Some of the bricks inside come from the little White Church that stood here before, so earlier generations of worshippers are literally built into the walls.

   Now turn your attention to the glass. Five windows carry the church's central images. On the front, a stained glass window shows the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the bell tower, the windows depict two scenes from the New Testament: the feeding of the crowd with five loaves and two fish, and the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. The church received its coloured glass and a new roof of imported Swedish aluminium tiles in a renovation in 1986. The earlier roof had been traditional red tile. The church sits between hills and sea, among winding lanes, and has long been a symbol of the Western-influenced culture of Tamsui. Its red brick and tall bell tower, set against the green of Guanyin Mountain, have drawn painters from across Taiwan for generations, and it is still a favourite subject for artists. It was also formally recognised as a monument. On the twenty-ninth of August, 1998, it was designated a county-level monument of what was then Taipei County, and it is now a municipal monument of New Taipei City.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off from Tamsui Church

   Before you move on, take a slow look at the church's red brick walls. Some of the bricks inside come from the little White Church that stood here before, so earlier generations of worshippers are literally built into the walls. Then let your eyes drift next door to the old Mackay clinic, where medicine and mission began together. Standing between the two, you can picture how a rented house with a bell grew into the largest church in northern Taiwan. Mackay's story stretches well beyond this street. After the Sino-French War, compensation funds were used to build seven new churches around northern Taiwan, a chapter of his work worth discovering as you explore more of the area. What other traces of the missionary era can you find as you wander the lanes of Tamsui?