The annual Kyodan Missionary Conference was held July 14-16 at Shidodaira Hot Springs Hotel near the city of Hanamaki in southern Iwate Prefecture in the Tohoku (northeastern) region of Japan. Traditionally held in late March, the conference this year was held over a three-day weekend in July to see if the timing was better for participants. Being only about 16 months after the Great East Japan Ea……
by Robert K. Fujimura, coordinator from the U.S.
Ishinomaki was the city most severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the Kyodan Emmaus Support Center in Sendai established a center in Ishinomaki to assist survivors of the disaster. I was hired by the Kyodan, through the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), to work at Ishinomaki Center for four months, around……
The 6th Executive Council meeting of the 2011-12 General Assembly biennium was held at the Kyodan headquarters, July 9-10, and was attended by 27 of the 30 members. The opening worship service, led by Furuya Haruo, was followed by the report of General Secretary Naito Tomeyuki. He explained that the initial hearing of the law suit filed by Kitamura Jiro against the Kyodan was held on April 26, wit……
Within Kyodan churches, there is a strong trend in age
distribution towards the elderly, and so within this context,
the issue of “passing on the faith” becomes even more
important. If the present trend continues at the same pace,
within ten years the membership will decline by about half,
and the ability of the church to be in mission will radically
decrease. So what is the solution to this……
The people of Matsuyama call her
“ Judson Sensei (teacher),” with affection.
Cornelia Judson was born in Stratford, Connecticut, on
Oct. 20, 1860. The following year, she was baptized at the
First Congregational Church of Stratford. She was brought
up in a pious Christian home and later became the first
missionary sent by that church.
Judson experienced a turning point in her life at the ag……
I worked as a single woman pastor in Japan and then as a
missionary in Cambodia until I met a Filipino evangelist
there. After we got married, we moved to the Philippines
and started a ministry together as evangelists for the Bohol
Gospel Saturation Project (BGSP). BGSP is a churchplanting
movement, started by my husband’s parents, that
aims to plant house churches all over the Bohol Provinc……
For five-and-a-half months, from Feb. 15 to July 28,
2011, I experienced life in Germany as a participant in a
volunteer program of the Das Evanglische Missionwerk in
Sudwestdeutschland (Southwestern German Evangelical
Church). The purpose of this program was to enable
Christian young people from countries where Christianity
is a minority religion to learn about other religious cultures
whi……
At present, within the 18 nations mining uranium, 75%
of the extraction takes place within or close to an area
inhabited by indigenous people, and as a result these
people are suffering from lung cancers and other illness,
according to Toyosaki Hiromitsu of the Shukan Kinyobi
(issue 862), a weekly magazine.
As of the year 2007, of the yearly supply of nuclear fuel
uranium for Japanese react……
"Heartful Tono UCCJ" is a ministry of the Kyodan (UCCJ)
itself that is designed to help disaster survivors by providing
mental health care. Every week an average of 60 participants
gather at three temporary shelters in Kamaishi City, about
50 kilometers from Tono. Through these gatherings, a
relationship of trust has developed in an atmosphere of
friendship and harmony. As a result, in the m……
Oe Hiroshi, Secretary General of Japan Overseas Christian Medical Cooperative Service
JOCS has cooperated with health-medical activities in the
developing countries for a half century. Immediately after
the Eastern Japan Great Earthquake, we started support
activities for the survivors. In March, we cooperated with
Emmaus, Tohoku Disaster Relief Center of the Kyodan; in
April, our major acti……
