Vol. XVI #1May, 2004

NSKK NEWSLETTER
日本聖公会管区事務所だより
NIPPON SEI KO KAI Provincial Office

Editor : E. Hajime Suzuki

65 Yarai-cho, Shinjuku-ku,

Tel. +81-3-5228-3171

Tokyo 162-0805 JAPANFax +81-3-5228-3175

PALESTINE TODAY
February 12th, 2004.
At Jerusalem
A statement of the Japanese Anglican visiting team led by the Bishop of TokyoWe, the Bishop of Tokyo and accompanying 11 members, have visited the Episcopal
diocese of Jerusalem for 10 days from 3rd of February, 2004.
The Council of Justice and Peace under the diocese of Tokyo, which has been working on
this visitation program, wanted to make it clear that the primary purpose of this visit
should be an attempt to share the mission and ministries of the Churches and Christians
who have been strongly seeking the justice and peace in this particular region, where theroot causes of major conflicts of the present world seem to lie. Among the people ofTokyo diocese, there are some who have some reservation to send an official visiting
team specifically at this moment, when every mass-media report almost every day violent
clashes between Israelis and Palestinians. The Japanese government also declares theregion as “a dangerous area” where the ordinary tourists should refrain from traveling.
Following this official advise, the Japanese Churches which used to send a number ofpilgrim groups to the Holy Land seem to have stopped sending any in these years.
Nevertheless, or more precisely speaking, for this very reason, we wanted to visit ourbrothers and sisters in Christ when they are really in a difficult situation in Palestine/Israel. We have been hoping, therefore, to see as many Palestinian friends as possible andto learn from them. Here are the points we strongly feel to communicate to the peace
loving people in the rest of the world, after our 10-day visits.
1. The on-going construction of the wall by the Israeli government is in fact ignoring theinternationally agreed border between Israeli territory and the West Bank/Gaza, and itis actually threatening and destroying thousands of lives of Palestinian people.
2. The acts of planting a number of Jewish settlements and building the connecting roads
within the West Bank and Gaza are threatening the very existence of the Palestinian
communities. This illegal acts are considered to be an intentional confiscation of thePalestinian land by the Israeli government, which have been continuously carried out
in various ways since the time of the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
3. While the Palestinians within the state of Israel are recognized as the citizens alongwith the Jewish population, in reality they are much discriminated in terms ofeducation, employment, medical services, possession of land and property, and otheradministrative or juridical procedures. Their social status seems much similar to whatmay be called the “Apartheit” over against the status enjoyed by Jewish citizens.
4. Many Christian Churches in the world, particularly those of the fundamentalistic
tendency are not sensitive at all to turn out to become “Christian Zionists” with asympathetic view on Jewish people and Jewish religion, as a result they become
uncritically collaborative with Israeli policies, ignoring the voices of the Palestinian
Christians.
5. Under the above-mentioned circumstances, many Christians in Palestine/Israel aredriven into the situation, where it is becoming harder and harder for them to see thefuture possibilities of their own personal life or family life. Hence, the immigration of
Christian population out of Palestine/Israel continues to be considerable andunavoidable, which endangers the very existence of the indigenous Churches ofPalestine.
6. Majority of Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians, are naturally against any
violent and armed resistance (for example the suicide bombing) against Israeli
soldiers and citizens. Both ordinary Palestinians and Israeli citizens are no doubt
yarning for peace based on justice.
7. In spite of the hopes and aspirations of peoples of both sides, the Israeli government
continues to rob the land, to destroy the houses and to barricade the roads within
Gaza/the West Bank. These acts of the Israeli government are in fact as inhuman andevil as the act of terrorism.
8. The most urgent plea of the Palestinian Churches and Christians is a recognition by
the international community and Churches around the world that they are in the midstof genuine suffering, and that their voices should be heard.
9. Under this desperate situation the Palestinian Churches and Christians are making
every effort for the improvement of education, medical services and social welfare for
their fellow Palestinians.
10. The diocese of Tokyo should be determined to pursue our efforts in keeping thefriendships and fellowship with the Diocese of Jerusalem, understanding the situationof the Palestinian people
Naturally, we have been most blessed by the opportunity to find ourselves in the BiblicalLand and in the places where Jesus Christ used to live. It was one of the most precious
experiences for us to take a walk around the lake Galilee, and to have been able to join theEucharist at the Church in Nazareth as well as at St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem. It
was a wonderful experience for our Christian faith. At the same time we deeply wish totell and to share the sufferings and hopes of the people who are actually living in thoseplaces.
We are most thankful for the people of the diocese of Jerusalem and the people of theDiocese of Tokyo, who have made this trip possible.
With our prayer that peace and justice may come soon in this part of the world.
(signed)Bishop of Tokyo and 11 accompanying members

Appeal to Korean Christian Church concerning the Unification Church inJapan
In the fall of last year a coalition was formed between Roman Catholic Church, theUnited Church of Christ in Japan, Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Japan Baptist
Convention, The Korean Christian Church in Japan, and the Nippon Sei Ko Kai toaddress the issues of Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity(hereafter referred to as the Unification Church) which is causing a problem due to ﾔ
Spiritual Sales’ and seductive recruitment in Japan.
As a first step we, the “Christian Coalition against the Unification Church”, have
prepared a small booklet entitled “This is the true picture” to save freshmen college
students from seductive recruit by the Unification Church. The booklets have been sent tochurches and schools.
As you may know funds generated by Spiritual Sales and other means are funneled to theHeadquarters of the Unification Church in Korea. According to their teaching Japan is avery guilty country and it is justifiable to raise funds in Japan and send them to Korea
where Moon Sun Myung was born as self proclaimed Messiah. It is fair to say that Japanis a victim as far as the Unification Church issue is concerned.
From January 27 through 30 we, the members of Christian Coalition, visited Korea toappeal to Christian Churches in Korea and inform them of the activities of the Unification
Church and the negative consequence of their presence in Japan.
The Christian Church in Korea is continuously growing and membership of the ProtestantChurch is said to be 12 million people. We visited one of the representative churches, thePresbyterian Church of Korean to discuss this issue with their counterpart organizationand they introduced us a minister who had recently left the Unification Church.
At this meeting we informed them that the amount of damage in Japan caused throughSpiritual Sales is claimed by lawyers to be ¥2.5 billion. Those who attended the meetingwere very surprised and they indicated their willingness to work together to address thisissue.
We also visited with General Secretary of Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea(PROK) which is another influential protestant church. He strongly suggested that sinceJapanese churches are working together interdenominationally the Korean side shouldaddress this issue through an ecumenical organization such as NCC (National Council ofChurches).
This was my first trip to Korea to talk about the issue of the Unification Church. Othermembers who had visited Korea before to address this issue were very impressed with thepositive attitude of the Korean side. The number of Protestant Christians in Korea is said
to be 12 million and membership of the Unification Church is said to be 20,000. Becauseof these statistics Christians in Korea think that the issue of the Unification Church is aminor problem and it is just an issue of heresy. Besides the Unification Church does notconduct illegal acts in Korea such as Spiritual Sales. The growth of Christianity in Korea
is phenomenal and under these circumstances it is unavoidable that there is someconfusion. It is claimed that there are more than 10 self-proclaimed messiahs and that
Moon Sun Myung is but one of them.
After visiting the Protestant Churches we made a visit on the Roman Catholic Church andmet with the General Secretary of Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Korea. They havepublished books criticizing the activities of the Unification Church and some members of
this study group met with us. We explained the level of damage in Japan and they showeda high level of interest wanting to know more about it.
We also visited ACK (Anglican Church in Korea) but it was regrettable that the General
Secretary of Provincial Office was not available to meet with us.
The Unification Church in Korea seems to be in process of changing their name andimage. When we visited one of their gatherings in Seoul the sign was not “ UnificationChurch” but was “Family Federation for Unification and World Peace”. The building wasnamed as “Family Gathering” It is said that they will get into politics by forming apolitical party such as “Family Party”.
In this building there were a number of books written in Japanese. There may be 6,000
Japanese women living in Korea who are married to Koreans through mass marriage.
There may be 20,000 members of Unification Church in Korea, and about one third ofthat total are Japanese women.
I was emotional and confused to know that most of these Japanese women havediscontinued ties with their families and have been maintaining ties among themselves. If
we could work together with our Korean counterparts we could make tremendous
progress in saving them and assist them in rebuilding and re-establishing their family ties.
New Bishops were installed in two Dioceses of Nippon Sei Ko Kai.
On 27th March 2004, Confirmation and Installation of Rev. John Sakae Matsubara as a
Bishop of North Kanto Diocese took place at St. ﾔ Paul’s Chapel of Rikkyo Academy inNiiza City.
On 24th April 2004, Confirmation and Installation of Rev. Andrew Yutaka Nakamura as a
Bishop of Kobe Diocese took place at St. Michael’s Cathedral of Kobe Diocese.
We would like to share with you these graceful and joyful events of the two dioceses.