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JOURNEY TO TAIWAN BY THE SACERDOTAL COUNCIL OF CAO ĐAI TAY NINH HOLY SEE (PART 3)

JOURNEY TO TAIWAN BY THE SACERDOTAL COUNCIL OF CAO ĐAI TAY NINH HOLY SEE (PART 3)

Updated 2013-08-11 07:11:40

(Reported from Taipei on July 22^nd 2013 by Archbishop Thai Con Thanh and Archbishop Ngoc Hong Thanh – Pictures taken by Nguyen Tri Luc- Translated by Tuan Em)

Day 3 in Taipei (Monday July 22^nd 2013)

At 10:30am on July 22^nd 2013 the Caodai delegation left the hotel and walked a few yards away to reach the Headquarters of Tao Yuan on Fushing st., in the center of Taipei city, to attend the big ceremony.

The Caodai delegates were led to the 14^th floor of the building where they were greeted by His Excellency George Shu, the Tao Yuan religious leader. After a round of tea, H.E George Shu has expressed his regret that he was not able to come early to greet the delegation at the airport, because he was in Tainan, a long way to Taipei. Cardinal Thuong Tam Thanh replied that H.E George Shu should not worried about this because H.E Chen, Chao-Chen did organize a big and warm welcome to the Caodai delegation at the airport.

At 11:00am the delegation was invited to come to big hall on the 16^th floor, where Lao Tzu was venerated on the altar, to participate in the big ceremony.

There were already about 300 Tao Yuan dignitaries and members present in this hall, many from overseas such as Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the US. The ceremony lasted about 90 minutes in a very solemn way, with 9 offerings to the altar, mixed with the soft music from an organ and a chorus chanting from the balcony.

After the ceremony, the Caodai delegation and all participants were invited to a luncheon organized in a vegeterian restaurant nearby. There, after a brief welcoming speech from H.E George Shu, Cardinal Thuong Tam Thanh was invited to deliver a short address (Please click this link to view the Cardinal speech).

After the address, Cardinal Thuong Tam Thanh presented a lacquered gift to H.E George Shu, which was a painting of the Caodai Tay Ninh Holy See. H.E George Shu presented in return a gift to the Cardinal, which was a silver plate with Tao Yuan logo.

After the sumptuous lunch, the Caodai delegation was invited back to Tao Yuan Headquarters in order to participate in a seance session. The seance was presided by H.E George Shu, with 2 mediums holding a big pen (like a big scissor, each medium holding each side of the scissor hands) and writing chinese characters on a rectangle surface covered with sand, a dignitary reading the chinese characters and 2 secretaries recording the message on paper. H.E George Shu later explained to Cardinal Thuong Tam Thanh that Lao Tzu came to this session and had mentioned about Cao Dai. H.E Shu said that he will translate the message and will send it to the Cardinal at a later time.

(To be continued)