Vol.XIV #2August, 2002

NSKK NEWSLETTER
日本聖公会管区事務所だよりNIPPONSEIKOKAI

Provincial Office

Editor : E. Hajime Suzuki

65 Yarai-cho, Shinjuku-ku,

Tel. +81-3-5228-3171

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

Elected as the Primate of NSKK： The Rt. Rev. James Toru Uno
Dear Sisters and Brothers united in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
At the 53rd Regular General Synod of Nippon Sei Ko Kai, I was elected as the Primate.
I honestly was and am still very much embarrassed by the result of the election. Evenwhen I was elected as the Bishop of Northern Kanto Diocese of NSKK, I was quite
puzzled and had a doubt about why such an incompetent like me should have been
elected. And again, thinking of the heavy responsibility of the Primate, I recollected thesame feeling as I had before.
But at the same time, it reminded me of the passages of the Calling to Moses from God
related in Exodus. “Come, now; I will send you to Pharaoh and you shall bring mypeople Israel out of Egypt.” God ordered Moses to rescue the Israelites who had beenbrutally treated by the Egyptians and had been crying out for help to be rescued.
To this order of God, Moses answered Him, “But who am I that I should go to Pharaoh,
and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Moses thought he had to rescue theIsraelites on his own responsibility and he expressed himself as a powerless person andsaid, “Who am I?”
For his reply God spoke to Moses, “I am with you. This shall be proof that it is I who
have sent you.” Certainly, God tried to persuade Moses firmly to participate in His
work.
Through the passages of the Calling from God to Moses, I noticed that the mission
given to me as the Primate mean me to participate in God’s work. I would like to listen
humbly to God’s will and words and to serve people. I believe God will guide me
always and make me fulfill my responsibility as the Primate from now on. I sincerely
would like to ask all the sisters and brothers in Christ in every diocese throughout Japanto support me in carrying out my work given by God.
J.T.U.

From new general secretary

Rev. Laurence Yutaka Minabe
When I was young, I had experience of the seafarers’ mission and as a college chaplain,
and I can say I was an active young priest. But in these past twenty years, forgetting
English and not reading difficult theological books, I have been enjoying a nice andquiet parish work. Of course, there have been striking experiences of seeing God
working in us. But taken as a whole, my life ranged within a rather limited number
people and area. Having been appointed to the staff of the provincial office, for the firsttime in my life I bought a season ticket and started to travel by rail between home andthe office. It is nice for me to ride on the train without buying a ticket! The train is fullof passengers, each bearing a heavy life. Some may be thinking of the World Cup orbaseball, but others may be thinking of their loving family or worried about them;others may be working hard and tired. Among them, there may be our parish treasurer
who is donating his pocket money to cover the shortfall of the parish budget. Although
their lives may not be glamorous, they are living with all their might. Work at theprovincial office seems very busy and hard. We have many meetings. We have a lot ofcorrespondence from overseas. When we think of the work of the Church, we have to beconcerned about political and economical problems. I feel as if I have been thrown into
the very wide world. I am recalling my experience working among seafarers.
Discrimination, exploitation, danger, human relationships within the closed community
on board ship, and life isolated from the family. We can find the same problems in every
hidden corner of our society. The Church, all together, has to pray and work. I think that
Provincial Office exists to serve this work of the Church. The work here is not only deskwork. I am thinking of the sick, the aged, the children of the parish whom I left withouta chance to say good-bye. I sincerely wish to represent their prayer and concerns. I am
starting a completely new job now, and I have to learn many things from the very
beginning. I hope and trust that you will help me in many ways, this simple parish
priest.

Discussions and Resolutions at the 53rd General Synod of NSKKThe 53rd General Synod of NSKK was held at the NSKK Center (St. Barnabas’ Churchin Tokyo) for 3 days from 28th to 30th May 2002. The Regular General Synod is held
every 2 years and is the highest legislative body of NSKK, consisting of 11 Bishops and44 clergy and lay delegates from the 11 dioceses. The Synod was chaired by Bishop
Jun’ichiro Furumoto, the Primate of NSKK, co-chaired by Bishop Mutsuji Muto, and,Rev. Nobuaki Suzuki (North Kanto Diocese) played the role of chief secretary.
In the Opening speech, Bishop Furumoto pointed out several important issues to be
discussed during the Synod such as reform of NSKK’s provincial structure, the trialversion of the revised hymn book, the fund for development co-operation in heavily
indebted countries, and the resolutions raised at the House of Bishops. At the same timehe expressed his appreciation to Rev. Isamu Koshiishi (North Kanto Diocese) who
served in the NSKK Provincial Office for five years as General Secretary of NSKK.
The Synod received reports from the House of Bishops (reporter: The Rt. Rev. M.
Uematsu, Secretary of the House of Bishops), the Executive Committee (reporter: Mr.
M. Yamada, Secretary of the Executive Committee), General Secretary of NSKK (Rev. I.
Koshiishi, General Secretary of the Provincial Office), the Ecumenism Committee(Bishop Jintaro Ueda), Central Committee on Theological Education (Bishop ShojiTani), the Secretary of the Missionary Committee (Rev. Naoki Kimura and others), andthe Study Group on problems concerning Human Rights. Following the reports,
presentations were made by 14 committees on various problems involving review on
the current Prayer Book, the system of document storage, the general audit, theologyand doctrine, worship, laws and regulations of NSKK, pensions, the fund forconstruction loans, and ordination of female priests; action reports on the revision ofhymns, the educational fund for children of deceased priests, the executive committee
on the post-Hanshin Awaji earthquake reconstruction fund, profitable businesses, andthe Bishop Williams Memorial Fund.
On the 2nd and 3rd days of the Synod, various proposals were deliberated. Among the43 proposals, major topics were as follows: The common Anglican-Roman Catholic
Lord’s Prayer, which has already been given a trial, was confirmed; the Table of Daily
Lessons according to the divisions by chapters and paragraphs of The Common Bible
Translation was drafted and passed; and a proposal for collaborative work between
Nihon Sei Ko Kai and the Japanese Lutheran Church was approved.
With the proposed reorganization of the current NSKK structure, several committees
were carefully deliberated as to whether they should be maintained, revised or abolished.
As a result of the deliberation, it was decided that some committees were to beabolished and some were considered for revision. A new conception was the agreement
to establish a Justice and Peace Committee and a Youth Committee.
“Partial change in the election procedure for the delegates of NSKK General Synod forthe period of 4 years only” (Resolution No.13) was rejected. The objective of thisresolution was to change the current voting procedure for delegates in order to include
one each of male and female lay delegates for the General Synod so that more femaledelegates will be able to participate in the General Synod. However, a motion relating tothis resolution, “ Female participation in the decision-making body is to be deliberated
and every effort should be made to attain this objective” was proposed and approved.
This resolution recommends that each diocese of NSKK consider appropriate measures
to include more women as members of vestry committees, lay delegates for eachdiocese, Executive Committee members, and lay delegates for the General Synod, andaccordingly put these measures into practice. Each diocese should report the outcome of
their effort at the next General Synod.

Other resolutions which have passed the Synod were: the resolution to oppose theEmergency and Contingency Registration bill, and the resolution to protest the visit tothe Yasukuni Shrine for worship officially made by the Japanese Prime MinisterKoizumi.
In the present General Synod, The Rt. Rev. Toru Uno, Bishop of North Kanto Diocese,
was elected and installed as Primate of NSKK and Rev. Yutaka Minabe, (YokohamaDiocese) was appointed as General Secretary. In addition, the Rt. Rev. Jintaro Ueda
(Bishop of Tokyo Diocese), the Rt. Rev. Toshiaki Mori (Bishop of Chubu Diocese), Rev.
Masakatsu Seki (Tokyo Diocese), Rev. Masayuki Ohtomo (Hokkaido Diocese), Rev.
Koichi Uraji (Kyoto Diocese), Mr. Masuo Yamada (Tokyo Diocese), Mr. Kei Ikezumi(Chubu Diocese), and Mr. Noboru Kuraishi (Yokohama Diocese) were appointed asmembers of the Executive Committee. The next General synod will be held in 2004.
Hajime Suzuki, Editor-in-Chief

Anglican Women Breaking the Silence in South Africa
─ Attending the Anglican Women’s Conference of South Africa ─The general secretary of NSKK received a letter dated Feb 7th 2002, from the Most Rev.
N.W.H. Ndungane of Cape Town, requesting financial support to hold the above
conference. Accepting the request, NSKK sent ¥1,000,000 from the fund for heavy
debtor nations. In addition to the financial support, Ms. Etsuko Maruyama, the liaison
director of NSKK and myself were sent to the conference to deepen inter-personnel
exchange. For me it was a timely opportunity to learn a lot, for I have been assigned asa member of the Justice and Peace Committee of NSKK since this year to cope withgender issues, which is a new subject for our church.
The women’s conference was held after three years preparation as the first step inbuilding a supporting network among the women in the Church of the Province ofSouthern Africa (CPSA). It is also called the “Archbishop’s Baby” because in 1997, it
started from the fact that the Archbishop of CPSA invited the leaders of women’sgroups for discussion, to look into the possibility of holding the conference.
African women are really vulnerable in circumstances where their dignity can easily beharmed because of poverty. Half of the church members are women, who are at thesame time often victims of rape, domestic violence, and discrimination at the work
place. CPSA, as a church in pilgrimage seeking unity, had recognized that womenshould make a chance to break their silence, and thus the conference was being held.
They thought that the most productive and efficient measure was to listen to the voicesof women and encourage their full growth for the reformation of the church and society.
Along with the conference, the tenth anniversary service for the ordination of women tothe priesthood. was celebrated The preparation and administration for the conference
was carried out by the executive committee consisting of many women clergy and laity.
The aims of the conference were:1)
To share women’s experience: experiences of limited possibility and spirituality.
2)
To clarify women’s identity.
3)
To cultivate the power to understand social problems and issues, so that women
could cope with them.
4)
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of ordination of women to the priesthood inCPSA.
The conference took place at a Lutheran institution, Kempton Park Center, close toJohannesburg International Airport, from May 12th to 16th. 140 participants came from
7 nations out of 19 provinces of CPSA, consisting of black, white and so called‘colored’ people. English was the basic language but 14 languages were used andparticipants’ ages ranged from the twenties to the eighties. The conference had abundantdiversity. The delegates of the province were basically 6 women, elected from theMother’s Union, the African Women’s Federation, women clergy, women students,
young women’s groups, and community leaders. They were encouraged to respect thedifferences of each other’s culture, situation, language, and opinion. The worship anddiscussion were carefully devised and some women priests worked as counselors during
the conference.
All sorts of programs were carried out under the theme of “Making progress toempower women in CPSA and build solidarity, changing society and the church torealize equality between men and women”. At night we enjoyed songs, dances anddramas that each province provided with pride. It was a joyous occasion for fellowship.
In South Africa, rape against women and children has been increasing drastically inrecent years which has caused serious problems of HIV/AIDS (an estimated 8% of thepopulation are infected). That was why the participants argued so earnestly for breaking
their silence and raising their voices as women in church, so as to change the situation.
It was resolved that each diocese set up a gender desk to involve with the issues
positively and continuously in closer co-operation in the province. On the 16th, thetenth anniversary service for the ordination of women to the priesthood was celebrated.
This conference was brought about by the advice and endorsement of a male clergyman,
the Archbishop. It was a form of support for women that was done by the church with a
precise vision. I would very much expect this kind of thing to happen in NSKK. The
gender issue is a subject concerning men and women, and I believe men’s
understanding and support for women is essential. In the future, considering women’ssituation in Japanese society and the church, I would like to have a women’s conferencein NSKK, and build a network to empower women.
Mei Miki, Justice and Peace Committee member