Face to Faith No.67
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Let’s Generate the Wind of Faith in Australia
The Konkokyo International Center (KIC) held a Konkokyo Faith Gathering in Sydney, Australia on December 4 & 5 (Sat.-Sun.). Reverends Yukie Morimoto and Harue Ochi were KIC staff members sent there on assignment.
These gatherings have been held for the purpose of supporting local believers in their faith practice and as an opportunity to initiate overseas Konkokyo outreach efforts. In Australia, the first gathering took place voluntarily in 1999, with participation solely by the local believers. Later, however, KIC took over conducting them and recently held the sixth one.
On Day One, Dec. 4 (Sat), a faith enrichment workshop was held for Japanese believers living in Australia, in which five people participated. At the seminar, Reverend Ochi first gave this account of her own experiences, “I had been suffering from atopic dermatitis for a long time and using an ointment. However, I was concerned about having to use it my entire life. Since Kami gave me my body, I decided to discontinue using the ointment and left it up to Kami to allow my recovery.” This was followed by a lively discussion among all the participants, in relation to her presentation. Day One’s program ended before lunch. The participants had a chance to get to know each other better by eating lunch together.
On Day Two, Dec. 5 (Sun), a service, followed by an informal gathering and discussion took place in the morning. The service was conducted both in Japanese and English. Each participant offered a flower and personal prayer to Kami during the Floral Tribute at the Kami Altar. After the service, sacred rice packets from the Konkokyo Headquarters were distributed to the participants. Then, Reverend Morimoto gave a sermon in which she stated, “All human beings have the heart of Kami. Thus, we feel sorry and want to do something, when we see someone in difficulty or pain. Although it is very important to have such a feeling, we must not stop there. Kami wants us to keep Kami’s heart in mind and take concrete action to help others.”
After lunch, an animated film was shown, with two Kibi-mai sacred dances later performed in the afternoon. The animated film “Konko-Sama – Tales of Toritsugi Mediation,” which was made to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Establishment of Konkokyo, was viewed in English. All participants watched the film very enthusiastically and later shared individual impressions, such as, “It was easily understandable even without knowledge of Konkokyo, and was really a moving story,” “I like how you should leave your angry feelings behind,” and “I want to see other films, too.”
In the Kibi-mai performances, first the dancing duo of Reverends Ochi and Morimoto performed “Ametsuchi (Heaven and Earth).” Their beautiful costumes and breathtaking dance enchanted the audience. Reverend Ochi then danced a solo, “Ontouka (Tenth Day).” The audience admired her superb and elegant dance, with comments such as, “Amazing!” and “Good for meditation and inner peace.”
After the Kibi-mai sacred dances, all the participants had their commemorative pictures taken, followed by free discussion. During this time the participants engaged in a Konkokyo teaching lotto game, whereby each drew a random Konkokyo teaching on a slip of paper. They were told to apply their selected teaching to their daily life, from now on.
The two-day Gathering was a content-rich event. The animated film and Kibi-mai sacred dance performance were ways that enabled Konkokyo to be widely and readily conveyed to nonbelievers. KIC will make efforts to further improve gathering programs, not only to share our Faith with local believers, but also to share our faith with nonbelievers.
Faith gathering meeting with Joanne sensei
Hello all, please mark your calender for our next faith gathering meeting.
We have invited Joanne sensei from San Francisco church, please join us! In case you will not able to attend as a group but are still interested to meet Joanne sensei, please let us know to arrange individual meetings. We look forward to hearing from you.
Friday, Oct 22
2-6pm Coffee time with Joanne sensei
Starbucks at 17th and Broadway
41 Union Square West, New York, New York 10003
Phone: (646) 336-6945
Saturday Oct 23
1-3pm Prayer service, sermon, discussion
CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing)
123 4th Ave, 2nd FL (between 12th & 13th streets), New York, NY 10003
Phone: (212) 677-8621
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We look forward to seeing you on October 22-23!
With Best Regards,
Konko Faith NYC: KonkoFaithNYC@gmail.com
http://sites.google.com/site/konkofaithnyc/project-updates/faithgatheringmeetingwithjoannesensei
Face to Faith No.66
Impression on the Joint Conference
KIC received a message from Reverend Masanori Takeuchi, Head Minister of Konko Church of Chicago, USA. He shares his impression about his trip to Hawaii for the KCNA-KMH Joint Conference with us.
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This summer the Konko Churches of North America and the Konko Missions in Hawaii held their joint conference at the Camp Erdman, the northwest corner of Oahu Island.
Because this year is my 30th wedding (Pearl) anniversary I really wanted my wife Kanako to be with me for this important conference. It allowed us a chance to achieve a new spiritual investment in each other and renew many friendships with church members both in Hawaii and North America together.
Besides our anniversary, 2010 also marks the 65th anniversary of the end of WWII, which began on Sunday, Dec. 7th, 39 years before we were married. Kanako and I visited the Pearl Harbor to pray for the Mitama spirits of all who died in that the terrible war. We visited the Punchbowl to pay our respects to our late members who died in Chicago and were buried at the National Punchbowl Cemetery in Honolulu.
On Aug. 13 we joined the KCNA-KMH Joint Conference. It was wonderfully organized. Everyone enjoyed the perfect weather for three days and accumulated a great “spiritual investment.” We had many chances to talk with the members in Hawaii. Two guest speakers were particularly good. Rev. Mitsutoshi Horio, Head Minister of the Konko Church of Hita, Japan, spoke about true and sincere faith in Japanese. He said that everyone had the spirit of Kami. And once it started working, it would guide us in the right way by referring to the teachings and his own experiences. His dynamic speech impressed the participants a lot. It was translated into English especially for the younger listeners.
One interesting sidelight, Camp Erdman is the location for the TV drama “Lost.” The natural beauty there is indescribable. At the sunrise services we enjoyed a fantastic sunrise each day. As for the sunset, I almost missed it. But nature called and I went down from the second floor. I saw Kanako and she told me the sun would be setting right away. I rushed to the beach and there was a sunset, amazing beyond description.
Our trip to Hawaii was filled with Kami’s awesome fulfillment, which we will never forget, nor adequately express our gratitude for. Thank you!
Konkokyo Gathering in New York will be held!
Gathering 1 by Rev. Takao Kishii (Head Minister of Konko Church of Toronto)
Date: Saturday, Oct 9 – Sunday, Oct 10(Sun)
Location: TBA
Gathering 2 by Rev. Joanne Tolosa (Head Minister of Konko Church of San Francisco)
Date 2: Friday, Oct 22 – Saturday, Oct 23
Location: TBA
Konkokyo believers in New York hold these gatherings. They invite ministers in North America. The gatherings include a prayer service, fellowship and meaningful faith-based discussions on various topics. Sacred Mediation is available. Please make an appointment.
We will update this information. Please join us!
For more information, please contact Ms. Saomi Okamoto:
KonkoFaithNYC@gmail.com (English & Japanese)
Konko Faith NYC has a website:
http://sites.google.com/site/konkofaithnyc/home
The believers gather once a month to study Konko Daijin’s teachings. Website has some archives of the study meeting…
Konko Church of North America (KCNA) and Konko Mission in Hawaii (KMH) Hold Joint Conference in Hawaii
From August 13 (Friday) to 15（Sunday）, 2010, the 7th KCNA-KMH Joint Conference was held at the YMCA Camp H.R. Erdman in Waialua on Oahu, Hawaii. 122 people gathered from continental U.S.A., Canada, Hawaii, and Japan. The goals of the conference were creating an opportunity for Konko Faith to be conveyed in English to younger and future generations, and providing an opportunity for believers of churches scattered throughout the region to meet and share religious experiences. The theme of the 2010 Conference was “Spiritual Investment.” The participants were helped “to understand ‘Spiritual Investment’ during this conference,” and “to assess how each participant has been practicing faith and moving forward with his/her own faith.”
Updated English Prayer Book Now Available
The original English Prayer Book was first published in 1989, but many Japanese prayers were translated and added over the past two decades. Lately, there were discussions about the sentiment of the prayers being lost in translation as well as the number of loose inserts put into the book.
In response to these concerns, a committee was formed in 2007 to revise and update the English Prayer Book and now their task is complete.
The main changes are:
• New translations of Konkokyo keywords were adopted.
• “Refreshed” Tenchi Kakitsuke, In Praise of Konko Daijin, Heaven and Earth Prayer, Newly Departed Soul Prayer, Before & After Meal Prayers, and Peace Prayer were added.
• Three songs – “A Shining, Shimmering Light,” “A World of Prayer,” and “A New Life, A New Beginning” – were added along with translations and scores.
For more information, please contact KIC.
KIC Welcomes New Intern!
The fifth year of KIC’s internship program began on May 10. Reverend Kiwa Nakamura (Konko Church of Wakkanai in Hokkaido, Japan) is now training at KIC.
Reverend Shinji Yamada, KIC Director, stated in his welcome address to the new intern during the welcoming ceremony, “World outreach is not successful if outreach activities are done in isolation, in each area, because for complete world outreach, it is necessary for the various bodies to be able to naturally work together. You are going to engage in various tasks to serve Kami Sama for world outreach through the internship program and at times you may feel it is futile. But please be aware that within large world outreach activities, there are essential tasks when serving Kami-Sama, therefore try to embrace them. Developing your skills through this internship program is not only for yourself but also to become a useful person for Kami-Sama in the future. Therefore, I would like you to not spare any effort in your training.”
Upon receiving these words, Reverend Nakamura said of her aspirations, “I don’t think I can do anything big, but I will do my very best. I will try to learn as much as possible during my six-month term.”
Based on the curriculum, Reverend Nakamura will learn principles of world outreach and KIC’s daily operations. She will also try to pick up language skills, participate in Konkokyo activities and various kinds of volunteer activities in the metro area.
Ms. Pauline Chakmakjian, Board Member of the Japan Society in UK, Visits Konko Churches.
On May 31, KIC staff members met with Ms. Pauline Chakmakjian during her visit to Japan. Ms. Chakmakjian is a researcher of Freemason, Japanese Culture, and Japanese New Religions. She has a strong interest in Konkokyo and participated in the Pan-European Konkokyo Conference this past February.
She spoke with KIC staff about Konkokyo activities, its current state of affairs, and its future activities in London. Afterwards, she and KIC staff visited Konko Church of Shiba (Minato-Ward, Tokyo), and met with Head Minister Reverend Akemi Utsugi. With deep fascination, Ms. Chakmakjian asked Reverend Utsugi about the structure of the worship hall and altar, Sacred Mediation, and church activities.
Ms. Chakmakjian also visited Konko Church of Karasuma (Chuo-Ward, Kyoto) on May 24. She spoke with Reverend Yoshiteru Takahashi, the head minister, and toured the church facilities.
After meeting us, she left by saying that since she was coming to Japan again next year, she would love to come meet the members of Konkokyo again!