Joy Luck club and Cherry Blossom Taiwan

I received a letter from Pam a CMS Mission partner in Japan about her recent visit to Taiwan

The last weekend in February I left Japan to go to Taiwan for a long weekend to visit Catherine, a CMS Mission Partner in Taipei. Osaka and Taiwan are sister dioceses. I had no idea what Catherine was planning for those 4 days but I had the most amazing time and a brief but real introduction to the Taiwanese church. Taiwan was occupied by the Japanese for over 40 years and at the end of the second World War they just left. Anglican Churches had just been for the Japanese and so there was no Anglican Church until the Americans reestablished them and Taiwan became a Missionary Diocese of the Episcopal Church, which it still is. Most of it is younger and more vibrant than the Anglican Church here.

I meet Mama Tan (a relation of Amy Tan - Joy Luck Club) who is now 87. She came to Taiwan at the age of 24 to marry and she never saw her parents again. Her father was imprisoned twice in Communist China for his Taiwan connection. The 2nd time he died there. She showed us a file of some of her father’s papers including the accusations against him that people had been “forced” to write. Her family, three sons and a daughter are all Christians and have a T-shirt Company. Catherine lives on the campus of St John’s University. The Chapel is also the Parish Church and has a full programme for students as well as church people. Mother Tan had shown me the book “Living is Mission” that the house groups (Sunday afternoon one a month) were going to study. They were supposed to read the 1st Chapter, She had already read the whole book. 

Catherine’s group of young people meets every week and usually studies in English. They have some Japanese speakers so I was asked to give my testimony in Japanese and they translated into Chinese. It was great fun. The last morning an older man who is just finishing at Theological College and his wife drove us up into the mountains to see cherry blossom and then in a valley fields of arum lily being grown. Then they drove me to the airport. Many new friends, beautiful scenery. delicious Chinese food. It was a very blessed time and only two and a half hours from Osaka by plane!!!.

 

The Guardian has a beautiful photo article on Cherry Blossom festival in Taiwan 

Yangminshan flower festival (February 20-March 22)

God is rice: Masao Takenaka

GOD IS RICE

I am reading the classic book on Asian Spirituality 'God is Rice:  Asian Culture and Christian Faith' by Masao Takenaka (WCC,1986)

I will share some of his insight over a number of blogs because it covers a range of interests in church, culture, mission, art, spirituality. And it connects very much with the search for indigenous, Asian missiology.     The following is an extract:  

Asia is so big and diverse. It is not easy to identify Asia. What we have in common is the habit of eating rice, the ubiquitous bamboo, and the use of broken English as a necessary evil for inter-Asian communication.

We can trace the Silk Road along which silk was transported by horses and camels. We can trace the ceramic route taken by boats. Both were primarily for the rulers and the rich. But we can also trace the rice road, and that was used by common people all over Asia. To be sure there were varieties of rice; what one ate depended on geography and personal preference. Nevertheless, it remains true that rice has been and is our daily food in Asia.

It is appropriate for us therefore to say ‘God is rice’, rather than ‘God is bread.’  Kim Chi-Ha, the well known Korean Christian poet, who was sent to prison several times in the last 10 years (70/80s), has written

Heaven is rice
As we cannot go to heaven alone
We should share rice with one another
As all share the light of the heavenly stars
We should share and eat rice together
Heaven is rice
When we eat and swallow rice
Heaven dwells in our body
Rice is heaven
Yes rice is the matter
We should all eat together

It certainly reminds us of holy communion, which is the occasion to share our daily food together with all people and a symbol of eternal life. This has a social implication as well as a spiritual meaning. The Chinese character for peace(wa) literally means harmony. It derives from two words: one is rice and the other is mouth. It means that unless we share rice together with all people, we will not have peace. When every mouth in the whole inhabited world is filled with daily food then we can have peace on earth.   (p 17-19)

'Last Supper by' Sadao Watanabe

When he was in his mid teens Sadao Watanabe, a well-known Japanese print artist, fist visited a Christian church, introduced by a neighbour who was a school teacher. He had lost his father when he was ten years old, and tended to live a closed and isolated life. He described his first impression of Christianity as follows

'In the beginning I had a negative reaction to Christianity. The atmosphere was full of "the smell of butter", so foreign to the ordinary Japanese'

(Sadao Watanabe - the man and his work by Masao Tekenaka in biblical Prints by Sadao Watanabe 1986)

Now in his print work he joyfully depicts the celebration of the holy communion with sushi, pickled fish and rice, a typical Japanese dish, served on traditional folk art plates. For him rice is a more natural and a more fitting symbol of daily food than bread which is foreign.    (p6-7)

Osaka Church Baptism

After all the Big Headline news on macro issues, I thought it was nice to hear some micro news from a small church in Japan.  

From Pam in Osaka (Mon 19th Jan) 

We  had a very blessed Communion Service with the Baptism, Confirmation and also Thanksgiving Prayers for the baby you can see in the middle of the picture.

Emiko is next to the Bishop and then her daughter who came to the church
for the 1st time. She was baptised with the name Theresa as she wants to know what is a Mother's love as she feels because of a divorce and 
stroke 14 years ago she could show love to her children. Her words at
lunch as to what God has done for her in the last two and a half months
were a blessing to us all. 

The Bishop has now visited 16 of the churches in the diocese-6 more to go. He started his sermon by saying looking at the congregation we were the youngest church so far. He actually said a big age drop. I am so thankfull that God has blessed Shonai with an age range. The oldest is actually 98 and has only just stopped coming to church after a fall. 

Asia Stories July 2008

  Burmese bishops visit CMS

Anglican bishops from Burma, in Britain for the Lambeth Conference, made a brief morning visit to CMS in Oxford  23 July 08 Read More 

  Plumbing for living water

Coping in a Middle Eastern country without enough access to mains or 'living' water — just two challenges facing these friends of CMS who must remain anonymous.

17 July 08 Read More

  The certainty trap
The upsurge in fundamentalism has its roots in a crisis of confidence in two world faiths, argues Bill Musk.

15th July 08 Read More 

  Tales of ordinary madness
Every culture throws up its own anomalies, psychoses and asocial behaviour. University chaplain Pam highlights a few recent Japanese newspaper items that have stopped her in her tracks     11th July 08  Read More 

  The walking wounded
Courage is far more common than is usually supposed. A CMS contact in Pakistan, who needs to remain anonymous, pays tribute to Christians enduring harassment but showing grace under fire.   3rd July 08  Read More