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【專文】《從宗教到政治：黃彰輝牧師普世神學的實踐》自序
文／蔡榮芳（加州大學UCLA 博士、南卡州 查爾斯頓學院歷史系名譽教授）
許多年輕的台灣人，不知道台灣出了一位國際上鼎鼎大名的神學家與教育家 #黃彰輝（1914〜1988）牧師。他出生於日治時代的台灣彰化，年輕時留學日本東京及英國劍橋，回國之後擔任台南神學院院長十六年（1949〜1965），培育許多教會及社會人才。隨後，他應邀前往倫敦主持「#普世教會協會」（World Council of Churches, WCC） #神學教育基金會 （Theological Education Fund, TEF）十多年（1965〜1979）。在他當主任的領導下，有四位副主任（包括南非的圖屠Rev. Desmond Tutu），共同在世界各地推動基督教神學教育，對國際神學教育作出重大的貢獻。
黃彰輝關注世俗人類社會之公平正義。在中國國民黨政權戒嚴統治台灣的「反共抗俄」時代，他關心台灣人民的困境，於1953年在日内瓦WCC委員會議上，最早説出「一個中國，一個台灣」......
Climate Change Emergency
每年我參加氣候會議時，只要時間可以，都會參加一場由各個宗教團體在氣候會議會場聯合在一起的祈福許願或遊行活動，不同宗教會用不同方式來祈禱，希望能影響更多人，雖然我不是天主教徒或是基督徒，但幾次的活動中，可以感受到不同宗教界的平和與憂心，都會透過各種方法來提醒世人。
一早收到世界基督教協會，看到這個 Climate Change Emergency 氣候變遷緊急的宣言，Emergency 在我們風險管理中很重要，也有應急管理 Emergency Management ，不只是救護車上的 Emergency 而已，我們真的要非常體認重視這問題了。
幾年前我曾訪問過吳偉立神父，大家可以從 Podcast 聽這段聲音
https://open.spotify.com/show/1ryyVpjRt6faqRT1YfsWif…
彭啟明
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Statement on the Climate Change Emergency
25 November 2019
World Council of Churches
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Bossey, Switzerland
20-26 November 2019
Doc. No. 04.3 rev
Statement on the Climate Change Emergency
But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their doings.
Micah 7:13
Recent extreme weather events of increasing strength and frequency around the world together with further studies conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have jolted many into belated recognition that the climate crisis is not a distant prospect, but is upon us today.
From Hurricane Maria, Tropical Cyclone Idai, Hurricane Dorian and Typhoon Hagibis which caused loss of lives and left widespread devastation in Puerto Rico, in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, in the Bahamas and in Japan respectively, to ongoing bushfires in Australia and California, to unprecedented flooding in Bangladesh and in Venice, and to the very recent landslide following exceptionally heavy rains in Kenya, the impacts on our communities - especially the poorest and most vulnerable among us – and on the bountiful Creation that God has entrusted to human beings as stewards – are now all too tragically real.
The latest IPCC special reports on climate change, land, oceans and cryosphere confirm that climate change has become a top driver of hunger all over the world, and project rising sea levels of up to 1 metre by 2100 due to melting glaciers, water scarcity affecting nearly 2 billion people and more intense sea-level events such as storms and flooding, if warming is not kept at the safer limit of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Moreover, exceptionally destructive fires and the encroachment of industrial agriculture and mining, have greatly increased concern about runaway deforestation in the largest remaining rainforest ecosystems – the earth’s lungs, the home and heritage of many Indigenous Peoples, and a critical resource in confronting the threat of climate change. Especially in the Amazon, in the Congo Basin, and in West Papua and elsewhere in Indonesia, this resource is, often deliberately, being squandered at a perilous rate.
Children, young people and ordinary citizens have made public demonstration of their outrage at the lack of any adequate response by governments to the gravity of this global crisis, and against the backsliding by some governments. Children have been obliged to mobilize and to raise their voices to demand what adults have failed or refused to deliver – fundamental changes to our economic and social systems in order to preserve God’s Creation and their future.
Indeed, a recent research report shows that governments are currently projected to produce 120% more fossil fuels by 2030 than can be burned if the world is to limit warming to an increase of 1.5°C
In particular, the United States’ formal notification of its intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement – despite the increasingly disastrous impact of extreme weather events in the US itself – seriously undermines the best hope the international community had secured for a multilateral global response to the climate crisis. This is an abject failure and abdication of global leadership, at precisely the historical moment when such leadership is most needed. It will embolden other backsliding states. It impoverishes and imperils all of us.
The protests against widening inequality in Chile, triggering the move of the 25th Conference of Parties (COP 25) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from Santiago to Madrid, underscore the importance of holding together the goals of sustainability and equity, and ensuring that the costs of transitioning to a carbon neutral economy are not borne by those who already have few resources. In other words, there can be no real transition without socio-economic justice.
The time for debate and disputation of established scientific facts is long over. The time for action is swiftly passing. We will all be held to account for our inaction and our disastrous stewardship of this precious and unique planet. The climate emergency is the result of our ecological sins. It is time for metanoia for all. We must now search our hearts and our most fundamental faith principles for a new ecological transformation, and for divine guidance for our next steps to build resilience in the face of this unprecedented millennial challenge.
The executive committee of the World Council of Churches, meeting in Bossey, Switzerland, on 20-26 November 2019, therefore:
Joins other faith leaders, communities and civil society organizations in declaring a climate emergency, which demands an urgent and unprecedented response by everyone everywhere – locally, nationally and internationally.
Expresses its bitter disappointment at the inadequate and even regressive actions by governments that should be leaders in the response to this emergency, especially inaction to stop fires and deforestation, the destruction of Indigenous Peoples’ ancestral lands and livelihoods, and attacks on ecological defenders; the weak commitments made under the Paris Agreement; and measures that place additional financial burdens on poor communities.
Calls on COP 25, taking place in Madrid on 2 to 13 December 2019, to:
- set the groundwork for committing to more ambitious cuts in greenhouse gas emissions as part of Nationally Determined Contributions with a view to attaining carbon neutrality by 2050 and limiting warming to not more than 1.5°C;
- ramp up commitments by wealthy nations to provide sufficient, predictable and transparent climate finance to low-income nations for adaptation and resilience-building;
- strengthen the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage to include finance to support people and communities affected by the impacts of the climate emergency; and
- promote actions to engage and learn from Indigenous Peoples in and beyond the UNFCCC process, protect biodiversity, combat deforestation, encourage agro-ecology and construct circular and redistributive economies.
Invites UN system partners, consistent with the critical research and policy advice emanating from UN sources, to examine and divest from fossil fuel investments in their own banking systems and pension funds.
Calls on member churches, ecumenical partners, other faith communities and all people of good will and moral conscience to find the means whereby we can make a meaningful contribution in our own contexts to averting the most catastrophic consequences of further inaction and negative actions by governments – and may join in confronting this global crisis through concerted advocacy for climate change mitigation and adaptation, zero fossil fuel use and a “just transition”, as well as through local action, everywhere – in our fellowship, our churches, our communities, our families, and as individuals.
「什麼？所以這世界上除了羅馬之外還有第二個教廷？」
What? There's another "Holy See" aside from the one in Rome?
Yes, there is. On May 27, I visited Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenia's state church.
(English version continues on the bottom.)
沒錯，教廷（Holy See）不是只有羅馬才有，亞美尼亞也有自己的教廷，而且還和羅馬教廷差不多古老。它不但已經獨立運作了1700多年，還有著現存全世界最老的幾座教堂建築。
5月27日，我在亞美尼亞的最後一天下午，像當地人一樣的搭上了又熱又擠的馬舒卡（Marshrutka，固定路線載客的私人廂型車），從首都葉爾溫前往西邊20公里處的城鎮Vagharshapat。之所以會拜訪這個我連名字都讀不出來的地方，為的就是拜訪亞美尼亞教會特有、獨立於羅馬之外的「教廷」（Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin）。
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亞美尼亞號稱全世界第一個以基督教為國教（301AD）的國家，比衣索比亞（埃塞俄比亞，330AD）和羅馬帝國（380AD）都還要早，相傳是由十二使徒中的巴多羅買（又叫拿但業，就是以「拿撒勒還能出什麼好的」一句話揚名全球那位）與雅各的兒子猶大（不是上吊的那個）親自建立；既然歷史如此悠久，為何會獨立於基督宗教三大體系（東正教、天主教、新教）之外呢？
簡單來說，亞美尼亞教會是被主流教會斷絕關係（excommunicate）而孤立的。迦克敦大公會議（451AD）裡，教會領袖共同決定，耶穌是「一位、但有神人二性」（one person and two natures），這個講法來自於當時的拉丁文表達；但由於當時的希臘文裡面並沒有相對應的字彙表達「二性」，而讓部分東方教會領袖很緊張，覺得耶穌被分割成兩位了，因此提出反對意見，認為耶穌應該是「一位一性」（one person and one nature）才對（但他的「一性」仍是由神人兩性聯合而成）。這個爭議現在回頭看其實比較像是語言表達的問題，但當時就後者被判為異端了，並逐漸和主流教會分道揚鑣，成為數個獨立發展的系統，亞美尼亞教會就是其中一個；既然都獨立了，有自己的領袖與教廷也就是理所當然的了。
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雖然是個小國的國家教會，貴為教廷，氣勢上還是不輸人的。規模不算小的園區圍繞著中央的Etchmiadzin教堂（全世界亞美尼亞教會的母堂）開展，附近有著各級議會、教育中心、出版部、財務部、大公（教會領袖）居所、修道院等，彼此之間以寬敞平直、直角相交的道路連接，像是一座小型城市一般來說；園區內有好幾座老教堂，Etchmiadzin的歷史可以追溯到西元301年，建於西元630年的Saint Gayane則到今天都還保存著它1400年前完工時的樣貌，再次說明了亞美尼亞教會根本就是教會歷史的活化石。
這樣的一個地方當然也是亞美尼亞人心目中的梵蒂岡與耶路撒冷，不少人會專程跑來朝聖，我也是因為它的特殊歷史慕名而來；不過正巧那天全亞美尼亞教會的母堂Etchmiadzin正在整修，沒機會進去感受從1700年前的古老氛圍，外面又熱得要死，停留不久之後就決定趕快衝回去葉爾溫的青年旅館納涼。但即使是那短短的半個小時，那種如同聖地般的空間感仍然讓人印象深刻，上次有這種感覺應該是2015年在鹽湖城參觀摩門教總部的時候了。
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講到這裡，大家可能很自然的會問下一個問題：如果說這世界上教廷不是只有一個，那是不是也有不只一個教宗（pope）呢？答案是肯定的，不過其情況比教廷還要更複雜一些，只好待我以後研究並親自勘查完畢再來跟各位分享了（遠目）。
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What? There's another "Holy See" aside from the one in Rome?
Yes, there is. On May 27, I visited Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenia's state church. The church is unique in the way that it doesn't belong to any major branch of Christianity (Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism)! It has been separated since 451AD, when some eastern churches were excommunicated as a result of the Council of Chalcedon. Since the church is independent, undoubtedly it's appropriate call the headquarters "the See", as it's literally the highest supremacy in their religious world.
Like a local, I took a crowded and toasting Marshrutka (minivan) from Yerevan to Vagharshapat, where the see is located. The see is very very old. It has been there since 301AD, when Armenia became the first Christian state (even before the Roman Empire did!). While most buildings have been altered throughout history, Saint Gayane Church remains almost intact since it was built in 630AD.
The spacious, grid layout of the complex clearly demonstrates how it was designed to be the most sacred place, like Vatican or Jerusalem. Unfortunately, the central spot Etchmiadzin Cathedral (the mother church of all Armenian churches) was shut down for construction, and the museum was also closed. Since it was hot and there was not much I could see, I left after a very short stay; nevertheless, the pilgrimage-like experience was still memorable.
Now you may wonder -- if there are more than one "Holy See", are there also more than one pope? The short answer is yes, although the situation was even more complicated than the sees. Hopefully I can share another post after some research and in-person visit!
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