The Seminary—a Garden for Spiritual Formation

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Dear friends,

Taiwan Seminary sits about a 10-minute drive up a mountain at the edge of Taipei. The seminary moved here in the 1950s to get more space, and it is a very green campus. I am often oblivious to my surroundings, and it can be easy to forget how beautiful the campus can be. Taiwan is semi-tropical and stays green year-round, but there are some seasonal changes, such as the burst of cherry blossoms in the spring, or rainier seasons in the spring and late summer. The land has been a gift to the seminary, letting it host innumerable graduations, student weddings, retreats, church gatherings, symposia and other events.  

[ngg src="galleries" ids="1208" display="pro_horizontal_filmstrip" show_captions="1"]Today, the seminary invited three botanically inclined Presbyterians to the campus in lieu of a regular Thursday all-school lecture. We rotated through three stations–one about the trees on our campus, another about its flowers, and a third about fruit and other vegetables on our campus. One of my students led the fruit section and pointed out papaya, turmeric, sweet potato leaves and other foods. Most were planted decades ago, and we usually walk by without noticing them. The campus houses lilies, rhododendron, chrysanthemum, sorrel, wormwood, maples and camphor. In the past, I have seen golden serpent-crested eagles on campus as well as Taiwan barbets and blue magpies. On campus, I once found a dead coral snake and a live mountain pit viper. Like many city folk, I love nature but do not spend a lot of time in it. I did six years of cub scouting with our kids, but now most of the nature I see is on campus or summer vacation.  

Because Taiwan is an island, it is more attuned to environmental fluctuations. Fukushima is to our northeast, and we get air pollution from the west. Taiwan had its industrial revolution decades back that made an impact, and the nation sometimes struggles to balance commercial versus residential needs. During the summer of 2021, it had to balance whether to send water to microchip makers or farmers. Temperatures and sea levels are rising. Our ethicist, Chen Shang-Jen, is supervising a thesis about Taiwan’s pink dolphins, which are nearing extinction as fewer than 100 remain. In the spring, teachers are holding a conference on faith and ecology.  

In the campus walk, the main speaker briefly retold the story of creation and talked about how Christian faith goes hand in hand with love for the land. What is a seminary? Sometimes I repeat a summary that I heard about how it is a mix of vocational, technical and community formation. However, the seminary is also a type of garden for the growth of faith, and it serves not just students, teachers and workers, but also the larger church. The motto of Taiwan Seminary is “Faith in God, Loving People, and Compassion for the Land.” It sounds better in Mandarin 對上帝有信、對人有愛、對土地有情.  

Let us pray: We thank God for the world and all that is in it. “The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork.” We thank God for holy places, for spaces to gather, pray, learn and grow. We pray for Taiwan and its people, its church and its future. Amen. 

Jonathan