March 12th meeting - Members will talk of Unitarian experiences

Dear members and friends of the fellowship,

 

   Reminder --Fellowship Meeting: May 12th 3:00 International House Several members will share their experiences (ten minute presentations).

The topics are completely open, but we hope that there will be a a focus on  what  the fellowship and the teachings and traditions of Unitarians have given us  in our lives.

Please come and join in the discussion and sharing!

April 14 - Socially Responsible Investment - Mizue Tsukushi

SRI (Socially Responsible Investment) will be discussed by Mizue Tsukushi, CEO of The Good Bankers at our Sunday, April 14th meeting at the International House of Roppongi at 3 p.m.  Everyone is welcome.

Part of the thrust in recent years has been the development of information infrastructure to provide investors with the information to compare the social responsiblity of corporations, in terms of their responsiblity to the environment, for corporate governance and development of human capital.

 Established in 1998, the Good Bankers is an independent investment-advisory company devoted to social investment research in Japan. The company is a pioneer in implementing the first SRI product "Eco-fund" into the Japanese market.   The objective of the Good Bankers is to contribute to making our society a better and more sustainable one by using financial tools such as socially responsible investment (SRI).

Tsukushi-san is founder of the company. She is a former Deputy General Manager of the Institutional Marketing Department, UBS Trust & Banking Co., Ltd. in Tokyo. She has been awarded first prize of “Women of the year 2000: Women Entrepreneur Section” for her successful launch of Eco-fund.

 

March 10 - From Martin Luther King to the Buddha

Not many people can say they were invited by Martin Luther King to run a church in Atlanta in the middle of the Civil Rights movement, but tall New Englander Gene Reeves told us about those times and other fascinating aspects of his amazing life at our March meeting. 

Gene is well know not our members for his activities as the former head of the International Buddhist Council in Tokyo and his many presentations to us over the years, but we always find him a delight to listen to.  He spoke with us of his life as a Unitarian and a Buddhist.  A tall white New Englander with a vigorous beard, he told us of the fun of integrating restaurants, filling up the back of buses with whites, complaining to management that the "colored water fountain" did not have colored water, and helping to bring about integration in Atlanta in the space of two years by pressure on businessmen.

He had met King at Boston University where he was studying at the semenary learning how religion was being taught in America, part of his plan to spend a life teaching religion.  After Atlanta, he taught at Tufts and then at Wilberforce in Ohio, the first predominantly African-American private university in the nation, and was active in anti-war and other social issues as head of a church in Dayton.  Then he lead the Meadville Lombard Seminary while drawing on the rich religious library and resources at the University of Chicago.  There he became involved in the International Association of Religious Freedom, which led to him meeting  Nikkyo Niwano, co-founder of the Rissho Koseikai, and a lifelong interest in Japan, China and the Lotus Sutra.  He has published several books on the Lotus Sutra including a translation.  

For those who missed his talk to our little group, you can find videos of his presentations on Youtube, such as at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY8xaGXPYVo

We very much appreciate his ongoing support of our group.

Feb. 10 - John Amari on Intellectual Property and Community Idenity Rights

February 10 (2013) --John Amari, who works within an intellectual property organization. He will talk about’ “Intellectual Property and the Right to Community Identity.  Should the terms "Parmigiano" and "Champagne" be used exclusively by people who live in those regions or also by similar producers who use the same processes and ingredients?  Originally a fight between old Europe and North America, as intellectual property laws and values spread, the issue will become more important in Asia, Africa, and South America.   As usual it is at the International House in Roppoingi at 3 p.m. on Sunday.   Everyone is welcome to

 

March 10 (although many will be away--please invite a friend!)  The Rev.Gene Reeves, tentative topic-- "A Unitarian in East Asia: Autobiographical Reflections on Liberal Religion."

April 14 Mizue Tsukushi, president of Good Bankers Co.Ltd., "Ethical Investment--potential for growth in Japan"  participate in the meeting.

Jan 13 meeting summary -

A Requiem is a musical piece composed for the consolation of the dead and those left behind.  Steven G. Morgan, well known conductor of the British Embassy Choir, took us through the process of his writing of “In pace: A Requiem of Peace” for the Rikkyo (St. Paul) University’s All Souls Day traditional concert.  With agreement by the school and alumni, he reached beyond the traditional Christian themes.  In addition to music adopted to parts of The Book of Common Prayer and the Compline Responsory, he included fascinating texts from Rabindranath Tagore’s Gintanjali, Thich Nhat Hanh’s Call Me by My True Names, and Black Elk’s The Sacred Pipe, and John Henry Newman.

In our room on the fourth floor above the wonderfully sunlit gardens of the International House, he played for us some of the pieces as song and played at Rikkyo by a mixed chorus, baritone and orchestra.  The Requiem has also been performed in Denver by a larger group with a CD coming out soon. 

From the second part, Because I Love this Life (words by Tagore)

“I was not aware of the moment when I first crossed the threshold of this life.  What was the power that made me open out into this vast mystery like a bud in the forest at midnight! 

When in the morning I looked upon the light I felt in a moment that I was no stranger in this world, that the inscrutable without name and form had taken me in its arms in the form of my own mother.

Even so, in death the same unknown will appear as ever known to me.  And because I love this life, I know I shall love death as well.

The child cries out when from the right breast the mother takes it away, in the very next moment to find in the left one its consolation.”

Ten of us heard the presentation; five joined the speaker for dinner for further exploration.  Anyone interested is always welcome at our little discussion group at the International House in Roppongi, usually at 3 p.m. second Sunday of the month.

Jan 13 Meeting - Steven Morgan on his Requiem of Peace

Dear Friends and members of the Unitarian Fellowship of Tokyo,

     A  Happy New Year to you and all you love! May the year bring health and peace.

 

 January 13

3:00 International House

      A presentation with musical excerpts by Steven Morgan, who has spoken to the fellowship before. He has become well-known in Tokyo for his teaching and work  with chorus groups and church choirs (as well as musical composing). He will talk about his recently completed Requiem. 

This is a work for baritone soloist, chorus and orchestra that he  composed for Rikkyo University last year entitled "In pace: A Requiem of Peace." 

  February 10 (2013) --John Amari, who works within an intellectual property organization. He will talk about’ “Intellectual Property and the Right to Community Identity. Should the terms "Parmigiano" and "Champagne" be used exclusively by people who live in those regions or also by similar producers who use the same processes and ingredients??Originally a fight between old Europe and North America, as intellectual property laws and values spread, the issue will become more important in Asia, Africa, and South America.

 

Dec. 9 Dr. Linda Semlitz, dir of Tokyo English Life Line

Greetings on the first Sunday in Advent (for those practicing a Christian faith and looking towards Christmas). Along with light-filled greetings on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, and finally best wishes for a happy holidays and the satisfactory completion of the Year’s unfinished business and housecleaning (literal and spiritual) especially for all you humanists, Buddhists and Scots among the friends and members of the Unitarian Fellowship of Tokyo.

from the moderator, Peggy Kanada

 

Next Meeting December 9 (2012)

3:00 International House  

   We welcome Dr. Linda Semlitz, director of TELL, who will talk about Tokyo English Life Line and its suicide prevention and counseling work, and a little about her personal journey as a psychiatrist and NGO administrator. Mary Donovan will lead us in songs for Christmas and the holiday season before the talk.

 

January 13, speaker not confirmed

 And we have confirmed for February 10 (2013) --John Amari, who works within an intellectual property organization. He will talk about’ “Intellectual Property and the Right to Community Identity.  Should the terms "Parmigiano" and "Champagne" be used exclusively by people who live in those regions or also by similar producers who use the same processes and ingredients??Originally a  fight between old Europe and North America, as intellectual property laws and values spread, the issue will become more important in Asia, Africa, and South America.

Nov. 10 Charles McJilton of Second Harvest

While possibly a third of food in Japan is thrown away because it is not perfect, pristine and presentable - or because of industry standards of disposing of food long before its expiration date, many in Japan, the elderly, children of single mothers, out-of-work immigrants and, yes, also, the homeless, do not get enough healthy and safe food to eat.

That was the message of Charles McJilton who spoke with us on November 10th.   And the organization he leads, Second Harvest, is trying to do something about it.  Already more than 250 food companies pass goods to his organization to be redistributed through the hot meal, emergency food package and food bank programs that has been set up by Second Harvest.

Charles told us how he got a look up close at Japan's poverty by living in a "blue sheet" cardboard shack along the Sumida River for 18 months, getting to know first hand about the pride, the honesty and the life style of those who make there homes out of cardboard and plastic and live invisibly in plain sight.   And how he decided that although he was not responsible for them being in that situation, he could decide to respond to it, and how with others built Japan's first food bank.

He also told stories of his efforts to get food to the areas in need during the Tohoku disaster, and how one of the problems of helping those in need get the food they need is not finding the food, but finding the needy and the organizations that can (and are willing) to deliver the food to them.

As always, his talk was enjoyable and inspiring.   http://www.2hj.org/

Comment by Chuck Olson