A Culmination of Ou District Churches’ Reconstruction: Dedication Ceremony of Esashi Church, the last church to receive support from the Kyodan East Japan Disaster Relief Projects Headquarters
by Ohara Muneo, moderator Ou District
Nearly six years have p……
by Kato Makoto, Kyodan executive secretary
I. The United States
I visited missionaries sent to the U.S. by the Kyodan, Nov. 19-26, 2016.
1. New York, Nov. 19-22
On Sunday, Nov. 20, I attended a 10:30 a.m. worship service held at Union Japanese Church of Westchester. After the service, I had an interview with Rev. Nishikawa Akimitsu, a missionary. Nishikawa will finish his term of servi……
At the 40th Kyodan General Assembly, a total of 14 guests from both overseas and within Japan were officially introduced to the assembly at 5 pm on Oct. 25. Due to time limitation, those giving greetings were restricted to the chairpersons from overseas churches and Nishihara Renta, a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC). All the salutations were translated and pr……
by Nishikawa Akimitsu, pastor Union Japanese Church of Westchester, New York City
Union Japanese Church of Westchester began a worship service in the Japanese language in September 1989. While receiving support from the Reformed Church in America (RCA) and the United Methodist Church (UMC), it was given a place to hold services at Hitchcock Presbyterian Church, where it has continued to do chur……
Recently, the relative poverty rate for children in Japan is rising, and of the 34 members of OECD (The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Japan ranks 10th, which is higher than the OECD average. The relative rate of poverty among children being raised in single-parent homes is the highest among all members (according to the data for 2014). Poverty and parents working outside t……
The city of Karuizawa is a famous summer resort in Nagano Prefecture where people go to escape the heat. Nowadays, Karuizawa is invaded by shoppers looking for outlet shopping malls and by tourists from overseas. No one can deny that the center of the bustle is Karuizawa Ginza, a street lined with many famous stores. Karuizawa Church is located on that street. Many famous tourist attractions, such……
by Timothy D. Boyle, retired missionary Penney Farms, Florida
As a newly retired missionary and ongoing translator and copyeditor for the Kyodan Newsletter, I have been asked to reflect back on my years in Japan. I first began studying Japanese as a junior in college as part of a program at the East-West Center in Hawaii in 1967. Becoming a missionary and spending most of my adult life in Japan……
From Aug. 13-20, a joint Kyodan and Presbyterian Church in Taiwan Youth Mission event was held under the co-sponsorship of the Kyodan’s Commission on Ecumenical Ministries and Committee on Education. This year, youth from Taiwan came to Japan to explore the theme “Let’s share Jesus Christ together.” Along with Japanese youth, we visited the Tohoku Disaster Relief Center, Emmaus, and participated i……
The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) and the Kyodan held a joint church consultation, Aug. 22-25, in Taiwan. This was the 15th such biennial consultation of the two churches and alternates between the two countries. This time it was held in the city of Guanziling in southern Taiwan. The theme was “Imitating Christ: Becoming Humble Servants of God” (Micah 6:8, I Cor. 11:1).
There we……
The 40th Biennial Kyodan General Assembly was held at the Hotel Metropolitan in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Oct. 25-27. Of the 400 delegates minus the 10 from the Okinawa District who failed to register for the assembly, 366 delegates were registered as present at the beginning of the assembly. As this represented a quorum, the assembly began as scheduled. However, the absence of the Okinawa District delega……
