Dear friends and members of the
Unitarian Fellowship,
I trust your summer
was good despite the terrible heat and humidity for most of the time here in
Tokyo.
Personally I am looking forward
to having a lot more energy in a cooler September.
Please bring a friend or
encourage an acquaintance to come this Fall.
Date: Sunday September 9
International House of Japan
(see their website for bilingual
directions/ free parking available/near Roppongi or Azabu Juban stations)
3:00 to 5:00
(Please join some of us if you
can for a light dinner in the International House cafe to continue the
discussion afterwards)
Our speaker will be Kate Wildman
Nakai, professor emerita long at Jochi/Sophia University, and
specializing in Japanese intellectual history especially of the Edo and
modern periods.
She will focus on the big
confrontation in 1932 between the government and Sophia University over the
Church's prohibition of Catholics participating in shinto events especially at
Yasukuni (Yasukuni sanpai). Her topic grows out of her research on
different stages in the interaction of Catholic institutions (often
in background and agenda unlike that of Protestant missionaries
with Anglophone "progressive" ideas) and the Japanese state and
society after the mid 19th century Meiji restoration. The
evolving catholic response to shinto provides a different perspective on the
nature of "State Shinto" which is usually examined thru
government policy and promulgation imposed from above rather than its reception
and people's response.
Yasukuni shrine is as ever in
the news, recently about politicians non-attendance at ceremonies and the
Heisei Emperor's comments marking the August end of WWII.
Yasukuni should prove stimulating for discussion.
How have people in the recent
past aligned their religious and ethical beliefs to the legal and group demands
of their community? Where do each of us stand on important issues today?
Please join us and spread
the word to others who might be interested.
Peggy Kanada, moderator
PS
As our October 14 UFT
speaker we have invited the Rev. Tet Gallardo, from the only Unitarian church
in the capital Manila of the Philippines. Your moderator met this
young and energetic woman at the International Council of
Unitarians and Universalists conference in Kathmandu in February.
In a
conservative (even repressive) society what happens to Unitarian progressive
ideas? How do Unitarian values offer something to people when the
religious environment was traditionally Catholic but is increasingly
fundamentalist evangelical -- especially values about human dignity and
rights for all, including women and those of different sexual
orientations?
