by Ishida Shinichiro, executive secretary
The Mission Conference organized by the National Christian Council in Japan (NCCJ) was held at the YMCA’s Asia Youth Center and the Japan Christian Center, July 14-16. In attendance from the Kyodan were General Secretary Akiyama Toru, Executive Secretary Ishida Shinichiro, and Miura Hiroto, a member of Sendai Kita Church. The NCCJ is made up of 30 member and associate-member churches and organizations.
The opening day’s 70th anniversary worship, which recalled the 70th year celebration of its founding in 2018, was followed by a panel discussion on the theme “The Past, Present, and Future of the Ecumenical Movement.” On the second day, there were reports from each section and committee, and separate sessions were held on the themes of mission, service, witness, and prayer and worship. The discussion topic of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee on East Asia, in which I participated, was “Japan’s Colonial Rule and North Korean Schools in Japan.” The People with Disabilities and the Church Committee’s topic was “People with Disabilities and Peace.” The Peace and Nuclear Issues Committee focused on the topics of “Aid for the Children of Chernobyl,” “The Issue of Nuclear Power Plants,” and “The Nuclear Weapon Problem.”
In the session on service that I attended, the meaning of service (diakonia) in the New Testament was affirmed, and participants talked about what they themselves are doing, such as the Kids’ Diner, feeding the homeless, volunteering after the 2015 flooding in Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture, and creating an ecumenical network to prepare for the major earthquake expected to hit the Tokyo area. It was stimulating to come into contact with the variety of ways Christians are living lives of service, starting with worship and extending to service to their neighbors.
On the third day, the NCCJ Mission Declaration 2019 was adopted. “The groaning of youth isolated in this ‘law of the jungle’ society,” “the cries for peace of an Okinawa that has been sacrificed,” “the cries of those exposed to nuclear threat,” “the cries of the women made into ‘comfort women’”—listening to all these and asking ourselves whether we have been able to be a neighbor to these women and men, the declaration states, “We declare here that we will be ‘the fellowship, the community (koinonia) of the Lord’, working for ‘God’s mission’.’’ (Tr. RB)
National Christian Council in Japan(NCC)主催・宣教会議報告
7月14日（日）～16日（火）に、「NCC（日本キリスト教協議会）主催・宣教会議」が在日本韓国YMCAと日本キリスト教会館で行われた。教団より秋山徹総幹事、石田真一郎宣教幹事、三浦洋人氏（仙台北教会員）が出席した。NCCは、30の正加盟と準加盟の教会（教団）・団体で構成される。
昨年の創立70周年を思い、初日に70周年記念礼拝を献げ、「エキュメニカル運動の過去、現在、未来」のテーマでパネルディスカッションを行った。二日目は、各部・委員会の報告会、そして「宣教」、「奉仕」、「証し」、「祈り・礼拝」のテーマ別分科会が行われた。筆者が参加した「東アジアの和解と平和」委員会では、「日本の植民地支配と朝鮮学校」の発題がなされ、「『障がい者』と教会問題」委員会では、「障がい者と平和」で発題があった。「平和・核問題」委員会では、「チェルノブイリの子どもたち支援」や「原発問題」「核兵器問題」の発題があった。
筆者が参加した「奉仕」の分科会では、新約聖書における奉仕（ディアコニア）の意味が確認され、参加者が取り組みを述べた。子ども食堂、野宿者支援給食、常総水害のボランティア、首都直下地震に備える超教派の防災ネットワーク作り等について語られた。礼拝から出発して、隣人への奉仕に生きる様々なキリスト者の生き方に触れ、刺激を受けた。
三日目に「ＮＣＣ宣教宣言2019」が採択された。「弱肉強食社会で、孤立させられる青年たちのうめき」、「犠牲にされてきた沖縄の平和の叫び」、「核の脅威に晒される人々の叫び」、「『慰安婦』とされた女性たちの叫び。」これらを聴き取り、彼／彼女たちの隣人となり得ているかを自らに問い、「神の宣教」のために働く「『主にある交わり、共同体（コイノニア）』となることを、ここに宣言します」と述べている。（石田真一郎）
