Saturday, May 14, 2011

June speaker - Prof. Norman Havens, Shinto Expert

Dear members and friends of the fellowship,


Next Meeting June12th 3:00

International House Roppongi, Tokyo


At last i have confirmed our speaker Prof. Norman Havens, Kokugakuin Univ., and expert in the field of Shinto and Japanese religion. He will talk about some interesting aspects of Shinto.

He has been the longtime editor of the massive project ---Encyclopedia of Shinto, to be found on line under that title, as well as on the site of Digital Museum Kokugakuin.

You might want to check out some of the info on the site.

The meeting is open to anyone who is interested in the topic, or just some fellowship.
On May 8th we had an interesting talk by Doreen Simmons who it turned out had spoken to the fellowship nine times in the past.


She talked about of a couple of experiences of finding "the sacred"

incuding at Delphi in Greece and of shugendo training (mountain asceticism based in esoteric Buddhism). Among many things she said that she was always open to other experiences and respectful of others beliefs and practices, while never implying to others that she would give up her own Anglican faith from which she has not wavered since age 20 or 21.

A bit of sad news: i have just learned that our member Ella Rutledge decided (too suddenly in April for us to say farwell) to retire from college teaching and move back to the states. She is now in Maine, at least for the moment with her son's family. Please ask me for her address/email if you would like to contact her. We will miss her quiet comments and Unitarian oriented advice, for example about summer retreats at Star Island (New Hampshire).


peggy kanada, moderator



Remember-- no meetings in July and Aug at International House.

July 10 Pot-luck Open House at Peggy Kanada's in Iidabashi

(Kagurazaka) anytime from 3:00.

Please contact me for detailed directions or to let me know what

you can bring. Or just bring yourself and make a Yen contribution to

drinks.

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