July 17 summer gathering details

Dear friends and members of the Fellowship, All (including your guests) are welcome to join our informal summer gathering. July 17 (Monday holiday) 5:00-8:00 Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan 20th Floor Denki Builiding Yurakucho Station (Denki biru is one minute diagonally across from BIC camera.) Also accessible from subway underground (be careful there are two sets of elevators). Please let me know if you will attend to hold seats for you (but last minute attendees are welcome--should be no problem). Pay as you go (very reasonable prices>> at most 4,000yen for full course dinner with drinks(note plural) and dessert/coffee if you choose). Wide variety of food including vegetarian. Snacks and light foods like pizza also available. We will ask for a donation of 500yen towards our FCCJ member sponsor's dinner since our Fellowship member Pauline Reich will not be able to attend. It was Pauline's good suggestion to meet at FCCJ and we are sorry that our initial date of July 9 and also the 17th did not in the end work with her schedule.             Have a good sumer if we do not see you! Next regular meeting at International House on Sept a10 at 3:00. Peggy Kanada, moderator

Summer meeting postponed to July 17

Dear friends and members of the Fellowship,

Unfortunately our member Pauline is still away and my backup sponsor for our gathering at the Foreign Correspondent's Club is unable to come after all on July 9.(We must have a FCC Jmember present to use the dining room).

It is such a convenient location and reasonable price for nice food that we have tentatively rescheduled

for Monday July 17 (a holiday).  

5:00 to 8:00

Please let me know if you are planning to come.

 I will send out a RECONFIRMATION and more detailed directions as soon as we have the OK from the club again.

I had a very busy time in New Orleans with the Unitarian Universalist Association (of N America) annual meeting-- called the General Assembly. I returned June 30th.

 Eliminating the mindset (sometimes unconscious) of white racial supremacy was a main theme.

Among many workshops, music, and services  interesting speakers included legal activist Bryan Stevenson (most recent book is "Just Mercy") and CLF (the newsletter we often use) leader, the Rev Meg Riley "Improvising Faith Off the Binary." 

President Tom Andrews of Unitarian Universalist Service Committee presented the 2017 E.Roosevelt award to Linda Sarsour-- Palestian-American political activist and one of the leaders of the Woman's March on Washington in jan 2017-- who gave another a stirring progressive speech. 

Susan Frederick-Gray was elected the new UUA president. The first woman in the history of the organization.

Looking forward to seeing you on July 17 --or else at our NEXT regular meeting on September 10th.

Peggy Kanada, moderator

Cancel and reschedule for Summer Gathering July 9 >July 17?

Summer gathering 2017 of Unitarian Fellowship on July 9 CANCELED but rescheduling it, (possibly to July 17,Monday.) Dear friends and members of the Fellowship, Unfortunately our member Pauline is still away and my backup sponsor for our gathering at the Foreign Correspondent's Club is unable to come after all on July 9.(We must have a FCCJmember present to use the dining room). It is such a convenient location and reasonable price for nice food that we have tentatively rescheduled for Monday July 17 (a holiday). 5:00 to 8:00 Please let me know if you are planning to come. I will send out a RECONFIRMATION and more detailed directions as soon as we have the OK from the club again. I had a very busy time in New Orleans with the Unitarian Universalist Association (of N America) annual meeting-- called the General Assembly. I returned June 30th. Eliminating the mindset (sometimes unconscious) of white racial supremacy was a main theme. Among many workshops, music, and services interesting speakers included legal activist Bryan Stevenson (most recent book is "Just Mercy") and CLF (the newsletter we often use) leader, the Rev Meg Riley "Improvising Faith Off the Binary." President Tom Andrews of Unitarian Universalist Service Committee presented the 2017 E.Roosevelt award to Linda Sarsour-- Palestian-American political activist and one of the leaders of the Woman's March on Washington in jan 2017-- who gave another a stirring progressive speech. Susan Frederick-Gray was elected the new UUA president. The first woman in the history of the organization. Looking forward to seeing you on July 17 --or else at our NEXT regular meeting on September 10th. Peggy Kanada, moderator

June 11 Jewish Belief and Practices - Rabbi Sudekevich

Dear friends and members of the Fellowship. 

We are holding our usual second Sunday of the month meeting.

Sorry for the late announcement --it was difficult to confirm our speaker.

3:00-5:00 pm

at International House of Japan.

(Near Azabu-Juban or Roppongi stations).

We are fortunate to have Rabbi Mendi Sudakevich who will talk and answer our questions about  the basic principles of Jewish Belief and Practices and will touch upon the history of Jews in Japan.

Please join us for a convivial and undoubtedly interesting discussion.

Rabbi Mendi is a teacher/leader with the Chabad Lubavitch group.

He will not join us for dinner because the Cafe does not provide Kosher food service.

And save Sunday July 9 (5:00 to 8:00pm) for our relaxed summer get-together.

Details to follow soon.

 Note: There are no REGULAR meetings in July and August.

Your moderator

Peggy Kanada

May 14 "Shamanic Tradition in Chinese Poetry" Bonnie McClure and Basque and Japanese similarities Ron Thorton

Dear friends and members of the U Fellowship for Tokyo,
I am sorry for the late notification but we have had problems confirming a speaker.
Sunday, May 14...
Usual time (3:00-5:00) with dinner afterwards if you care to join us.
Place: International House of Japan (国際文化会館)
near Roppongi and Azabu-juban subway stations

Our member (and retired professor) Ron Thornton promises a short but intriguing look at possible linguistic similarities (connections?) between Basque language and Japanese (including Ainu).
As an example, he writes, for you to consider as evidence for some sort of ancient connection between Bq and Jp, not a grammatical one but maybe no less an interesting one. The Japanese expression kitsune no yomeiri 'wedding of foxes, foxes' wedding', means 'sunshower', that is rain falling while the sun is shining at the same time. The Basque equivalent is azari ezkonza (azari, 'fox' ezkonza 'wedding"), that is, "foxes' wedding'), likewise meaning a 'sunshower' (Bq z pronounced more as a "heavy" s).

And for our main speaker, our member Bonnie McClure, Ph.D candidate at Aoyama University, will talk about "The Shamanic Tradition in Chinese Poetry."
Our meeting should prove an interesting one with a culture and language focus.
Please invite a friend.
As Tom Eskildsen talked about at our April meeting, JummaNet is still accepting donations to their account for emergency relief for Rohingya people who have fled across the border into Bangladesh from violent persecution in Burma by certain Buddhist elements and the military.
Your moderator,
Peggy Kanada

April 9 Religion and Virtual Reality" with Zita Wenzel.

April 9th Fellowship meeting: 

Main presentation-- "Religion and Virtual Reality" with Zita Wenzel.

 

Peggy Kanada, moderator

Mar. 12 Magdalena Iwamura: Baroque Style and Design

Unitarian Fellowship of Tokyo March 12, Sunday Meeting

 Dear friends and members of the Fellowship,

Fellowship Meeting March 12:

International House of Japan --near Roppongi and Azabu-Juban stations.
3:00 to 5:00 (and join us for supper afterwards in the cafe)

    As we announced earlier, Magdalena Iwamura will be our main speaker.She will talk about  "Baroque Style and Design in the 17th and 18th centuries>>an early example of Globalization." She will use slides/visuals.

Magdalena trained in sculpture, crafts and art in Dusseldorf and Kassel before a second degree in education in order to teach art in German high schools. She taught three years in Germany and then 10 years at the German School Tokyo,in Yokohama. 

Later she transferred to the architectural firm IWAMURA ATELIER of her husband to do design related work. 

Since 2011 she  has taught "European Art History" and "Historical Context of Design" (Soushoku bunka) at universities in Tokyo. Starting in 2015 she  also enjoys teaching drawing at the Faber Castell Academy within Itoya.

Stan Yukevich (our Fellowship member) will also make a short presentation on March 12 about the art critic,philosopher, poet/novelist, and painter  John Berger (1926--Jan 2017), who is famous for his book and BBC TV series "Ways of Seeing."

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April 9th Fellowship meeting: 

Main presentation-- "Religion and Virtual Reality" with Zita Wenzel.

  Our member Ron Thornton  also plans to talk briefly about  "Possible linguistic connections between two very distant languages: Ainu and Catalonian".

Peggy Kanada, moderator