Gateways
Walking in Taiwan//Advent
I’m traveling today through airports. We cross through thresholds all the time. In-between spaces where first you’re one thing and then another. Bleary-eyed traveler up too early on a weekend > cleared for security. Impatient waiter for your zone to board > oh, my seat does exist, thank you.
I spent a long day walking through Taiwan. And I walked and walked. Around fourteen miles or so, starting at Confucian and Dalondong Baoan Temple and then making my way through neighborhoods and Dihuan Old Street.
About every block — and sometimes more frequently even than that — there’s a holy site. A shrine. A small temple. A big temple. When I lived in the Shenandoah Valley, I thought I’d seen the highest concentration of churches in an area. On this corner is a Presbyterian church, on that corner is a United Methodist one. One that one are the Episcopalians. Three blocks away is another of almost each. Seriously. And that’s leaving out an entire town called Churchville, which lives up to its name.
In Taiwan, it’s different. Firstly, the spaces are open all day, often a courtyard and series of side rooms and what we might call chapel. There are services you can catch now and again, but the flow is mostly folks showing up to pray at various stations in the place (if it’s big enough) and then going on about their day. But the openness invites other things, too. Just outside the Baoan Temple is a street that runs between the ornate gateway signaling a holy encounter. On the other side of the street is the temple itself. On this day at this time, a woman driving a small work van came down the street. There, in between the gate and the temple, she stopped her vehicle, turned toward the temple, folded her hands, bowed a few times, prayed, and then drove off. People do this while walking, too — both on the street and in the temple itself as they work through a miniature pilgrimage between the shrines.
Psalm 84:1–2, 5–6, 10
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts.
My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose hearts are the roads to Zion.
As they pass through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs.For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. - NRSVUE
The smallest thresholds can become sacred ground when we turn our hearts toward the holy.
Note: this is the seventh in a series of Advent reflections on my summer 2025 pilgrimage to Taiwan. I’ll lean on photos from my trip to carry us, though you’ll find some short writing and some songs to guide you through the season. I hope you’ll consider making a contribution to Taiwan Episcopal Church (you may need to translate the webpage and will need to convert your contribution to New Taiwan Dollars).
A bit about me: I am a seminarian, teacher, and community builder rooted in the Episcopal tradition. After many years as a theatre professor and artistic leader, I am exploring how beauty, ritual, and relationship help people recover their humanity and their hope. Here on Controlled Burn, I write on formation, belonging, and the slow, never-ending work of becoming.