Toward A Community of Hope
Full title: Toward A Community Of Hope — A Mission to Formosan Community in Los Angeles
Author: |Dr. Albert S. Lai (賴信雄)
Type: Doctor of Ministry dissertation (San Francisco Theological Seminary), December 1971
Republication: 2025 (50th anniversary), Taiwan Church Press + NTPC + Tainan East Gate Barclay History Education Promotion
Reprint essays (2026-10-23, Albert via LINE)
- 蔡榮芳〈憶往事〉(2026-06-02 台中) and 戴正德〈介紹你「邁向希望的社群」——實踐神學的宣教使命〉, both marked 再版用（修10/23/26）, slated for the 2026 print edition + audiobook. Scratch audio rendered (HsiaoChen −10%, listen page section D).
- 戴正德’s essay independently confirms the three 2025 co-publishers (台灣教會公報社、巴克禮歷史教育推廣協會、美國長老教會全國台灣人教會聯合會) and the UPCUSA lineage — spoken as letters U-P-C-U-S-A per Albert’s 10/14 audio ruling.
Registered editions & launch (audit 2026-10-22)
- ZH: ISBN 978-626-7627-21-1, 《邁向希望的社群——對洛杉磯台灣人社群宣教的使命》, 臺灣教會公報社, 2025-09-01; CIP credits additional authors/translators 朱博琛、李新元、陳咨仰 (isbn.tw)
- EN: ISBN 978-626-7627-22-8 (isbn.tw)
- Launch: 2025-09-28, Good Shepherd TPC, Monterey Park CA — TCNN 2025-09-29 (calls it 北美首間台人教會 history; degree term 教牧學博士)
- Do not print the ISBN.tw superlative 「全世界首批獲頒牧範學博士的論文之一」 (publisher puffery, unfalsifiable).
- TAHS status: invited 4th co-publisher for the planned 2026 print 2nd edition (Albert, LINE 2026-10-20) — not yet on the 2025 imprint; describe as contributing partner until the title page carries the logo.
Identity Snapshot
Primary work page: |Toward A Community of Hope (work & sources)
Full text (GitHub): complete extract
- Era: Written 1971; rediscovered/translated 2022–2025; reprinted 2025
- Geography: Los Angeles Formosan community; Taiwanese American Presbyterian history
- Core roles: Primary source on FPCLA founding; theology of “community of hope”
Why it matters
This is the foundational written account of the first Taiwanese Presbyterian church in North America (|FPCLA) and a theological vision of the church as a hopeful / missional community, not only an ethnic haven.
Structure (1971 dissertation)
- Formosan in Formosa Yesterday
- Formosan in Formosa Today
- Formosan in The United States
- Formosan Christian Church in Los Angeles
- Integration, Independence and Identity of Formosan Community
- Toward a Community
- Conclusion · Recall the Story · The Missing 50 Years · Postscript (2025 materials)
Key people & orgs in Echopedia
- |Dr. Albert S. Lai — author
- |FPCLA — case study
- |Rev. Jonah Chang — Aug 1970 experimental worship
- Chaolong Kao — organizing minister (Sep 1971)
- |Dr. Daniel Kao · |Dr. C.C. Chen — co-founders
- |NTPC · |Dr. Yunching Yeh Davis — 2025 republication
- |Rev. Mingyuan Hsu · |Rev. Pinghsi Liu · |Rev. En Sheng Pan · |Rev. Ching Fang Chen — forewords / publication network
- |Pastor Pingtung Lai — family / heritage preface material
Full text (archive)
Tier‑2 full extract lives in the wiki-public repo (not rendered as Quartz HTML). Use GitHub for the complete text:
- Full extract (EN): albert-lai-toward-community-of-hope.md
- Fact sheet (ingestion map): albert-lai-facts.md
- Chunks:
Original user PDF path on host (not public web): ~/.hermes/cache/documents/doc_80b50a640498_EN txt ver.pdf