Dear
members and friends of the Unitarian Fellowship,
At the April meeting, our member Chuck Olson
(unfortunately Stan Yukevich could not come at the last minute but Chuck used
Stan’s notes along with his own) made some interesting points and led a lively
discussion about the economic unfairness in our societies. Among the data/graphs
he presented the steep rise since the mid 1970’s in income disparity has stuck
in my mind.
Miriam Levering extended, along with the
moderator, our apologies for miscommunication about the planned meeting on
March 4 with Rev. Peter Morales, president of the Unitarian Universalist
Association (North America), which is our fellowship umbrella organization. We
will try to update our email/phone numbers especially for emergency contacts.
In the end, the
fellowship could not have a private lunch with Morales, but Levering and
Donovan and the Murata family were able to attend the Sunday service at Dojin Kuristo Kyokai (Japanese
Universalist Church) and spoke with him there. UUA is gearing up for the
General Assembly this summer in Arizona—and Morales has taken on (as a priority
for UU’s) the issues of immigration and racial/cultural discrimination,
especially relating to Hispanics in the USA.
For our fellowship
these issues are relevant in our own experiences too. We can relate Morales’ concerns to how we
think about human rights and nationality/ legal issues here in Japan. Join us
for the May meeting with Tristam Ivory who will talk about one group of ex-pat/short
and long term residents.
Unitarian Fellowship
NEXT MEETING: May 13
3:00 at International House
Stanford University
researcher, Tristam Ivory, will discuss "Migrant Human and Social
Capital Investments: The Case of Sub-Sahara Africans in Japan" which will also
include something about religious support networks.
Also we are pleased to announce JUNE 10 Fellowship Meeting with Vivek
Pinto-- Rabindranath Tagore and Japan: 'The Poet of a Defeated
Nation.’
Our June speaker (Vivek Pinto)'s essay can be found on the
Sophia University website
Step 1: Please access the
following URL (Uniform Resource Locator): http://repository.cc.sophia.ac.jp/dspace/handle/123456789/4943 --then
type in "29" as the title for "search".
TELL (Tokyo English
Life Line-- phone and counseling support in English) has sent us the info about
their big annual fundraiser—the TELL Run/Walk (your moderator always walks!)
around the Imperial Palace.
9:00 Saturday May 5th (meet along moat in front of British Embassy)
Registration
(donation 4,500) gets you a T-shirt. See their website.
