Taiwan Church
News. Occasional Bulletin, V.9, no.2 February 1992.p.15
Longtime
missionary Ms Isabel Taylor passed away in Canada in early
January. Her funeral was held on Jan.11th, 1992. She
was 83 years old.
Isabel Taylor’s
life was interwoven with the PCT and the people of Taiwan for
more than forty years. She was first sent by the Presbyterian
Church in Canada to the island of Formosa (Taiwan) in 1931. She
was an 18 year-old music teacher. She taught music at the
Tam-Kang Girls’ School in Tamsui, northern Taiwan. Seven years
later she became leader of the Taipei Choir and also taught at
Taipei Theological College and Tamsui Women’s School.
In 1940, due to
the outbreak of hostilities with Japan (which governed Formosa
as a colony from 1895 to 1945) Ms Taylor and other foreign
missionaries were forced to leave the island. But in April of
1947 she returned and once again taught music at Tamsui’s girls’
school. In 1958, Ms Taylor became secretary of the Hymnbook
Committee of the PCT and moved south to Tainan where she taught
sacred music at Tainan Theological College.
After seven
years in Tainan she returned to her beloved Tam-Kang Middle
School in Tamsui where she continued teaching until her
retirement in 1973.
Ms Taylor’s
life-time of dedication to the cause of teaching sacred music
and her contributions to the worship life of the Presbyterian
Church in Taiwan re recognized and remembered by generations of
her students, both in Taiwan and in Taiwanese-speaking churches
around the world. We mourn her passing. But we also celebrate
her life which so enriched the church and people of Taiwan.