In Japan, Presiding Bishop joins 150th anniversary celebrations of Nippon Sei Ko Kai
Episcopal News Service. September 24, 2009 [092409-01]
Matthew Davies
The birth of Anglicanism in Japan was the cause for celebrations this week as hundreds of guests -- national, international, ecumenical and interfaith -- traveled to Tokyo to join the local church in marking the 150th anniversary of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK).
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams were among those who participated in the church's sesquicentennial anniversary celebrations September 22-23.
The NSKK is one of the 38 provinces in the Anglican Communion. It traces its formal origins to June 1859 when the Rev. Channing Moore Williams, missionary priest and later missionary bishop of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, landed at Nagasaki in southwestern Japan and joined the Rev. John Liggins, who had docked one month earlier. Some years later, other missionaries from England, the U.S. and Canada arrived and began working in Japan.
"We're here tonight to give thanks to God for 150 years of an Anglican presence in Japan," said Jefferts Schori during her sermon at Evening Prayer on September 22. "We are here as well to give thanks for the earliest province of the Anglican Communion which had not been part of the British Empire. I will begin by acknowledging, however, that the Nippon Sei Ko Kai owes its roots to American imperialism instead. Commodore [Matthew C.] Perry's insistence on a trade agreement in 1853-4 was soon followed by the entry of American missionaries who had been serving in China. God continues to work good out of things which did not begin in peace and holiness."
The anniversary celebrations -- themed "Set Out into the Deep," taken from Luke 5:4 -- kicked off with various events and presentations on September 22, including a photo display of the history of NSKK, a symposium for peace in East Asia, and a lunchtime concert given by the Anglican Church of Korea choir.
A three-hour-long celebration of Holy Eucharist on September 23 was attended by more than 2,000 people. The Most Rev. Nathaniel Makoto Uematsu, NSKK primate, presided and Williams preached at the service held in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary, Tokyo.
"[A]fter one hundred and fifty years of Anglican presence in Japan, we are asked today, as we give joyful thanks for this heritage, to think about how we now approach this nation, this society, with the good news," said Williams in his sermon that was simultaneously translated into Japanese. "Simplicity comes first ... Risk and solidarity come next ... And reverence comes third. If we can continue in this 'barefoot' mission, we shall be opening ourselves up to the simplicity of Jesus himself and so to the transforming grace and beauty of his own mission.
"God has blessed Christians in Japan, not least Anglican Christians, with great courage, great endurance and great willingness to 'walk lightly,'" Williams continued. "May God walk with us and speak through us as we seek to present to his beloved children in this country the possibilities of freedom and peace and hope, of meaningful and reconciled life, which the Good News of Jesus Christ offers to all."
Jefferts Schori, who along with Bishop David Lai of Taiwan represented the Episcopal Church during the celebrations, said the music at the Eucharist was "stately, with a number of fairly recent Japanese compositions as well as Western classics. The closing piece was a Korean hymn led by children."
All 11 Japanese diocesan bishops participated, including several who are long-retired. Also present were Anglican bishops from Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Myanmar, and the Philippines. The Church Mission Society and USPG-Anglicans in Mission were also represented.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was accompanied by Bishop Tim Stevens of the Church of England's Diocese of Leicester.
Earlier in the week, Williams met with the church's youth and on September 21 received an honorary degree from Rikkyo Gakuin University, an Anglican university in Tokyo where he also delivered a lecture to students and academics. Williams will stay in Japan to visit Anglican schools in Tokyo and Osaka and travel to Nagasaki in Kyushu Island, where the first Anglican mission was established. (Nagasaki is also one of two places where the United States dropped an atomic bomb during the Second World War.)
Jefferts Schori told ENS that the NSKK faces challenges similar to those of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church: "an aging population, difficulty in evangelizing to a largely non-Christian population, as well as the changing demographics of the nation. Racism and xenophobia are significant issues in Japanese culture as they are in the U.S., and the NSKK has been a leader in seeking to change attitudes as well as legal realities."
Jefferts Schori met for three hours with members of the National Council of Churches in Japan (NCCJ). "The questions they asked were provocative," she said. "It is abundantly clear that not only leaders here, but the average citizen, know a great deal more about United States government policy than most Americans. They were most interested in how [the Obama] administration has changed in its relationships with the faith community."
The NCCJ, Jefferts Schori said, also raised an issue of deep concern to the Japanese -- "the status of Okinawa as a largely fortified United States military base, and the plans to build a new and larger base atop a major environmental sanctuary in Okinawa."
According to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, Okinawa accounts for less than one percent of Japan's land, but hosts about two-thirds of the 40,000 American forces in the country.
"This is an issue largely unknown in the United States, but the NSKK has asked our help in seeking relief from our own government," said Jefferts Schori.
Finally, Jefferts Schori told ENS that she gives thanks "for the friendship and mission partnerships we have in the NSKK and in so many regions of Asia. We have much to learn and receive from the church in this part of the world."