Anglican Church in Japan

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Nippon Sei Ko Kai
Holy Bible
TheologyAnglican doctrine
PolityEpiscopal
PrimateLuke Kenichi Muto, Bishop of Kyushu
Headquarters65 Yaraicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
TerritoryJapan
Members32,000[1]
Official websitewww.nskk.org
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The Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Japanese: 日本聖公会, romanized: Nippon Seikōkai, lit. 'Japanese Holy Catholic Church'), abbreviated as NSKK, sometimes referred to in English as the Anglican Episcopal Church in Japan, is the national Christian church representing the Province of Japan (日本管区, Nippon Kanku) within the Anglican Communion.

As a member of the Anglican Communion the Nippon Sei Ko Kai shares many of the historic doctrinal and liturgical practices of the Church of England, but is a fully autonomous national church governed by its own synod and led by its own primate. The Nippon Sei Ko Kai, in common with other churches in the Anglican Communion, considers itself to be a part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and to be both Catholic and Reformed.

With an estimated 80 million members worldwide, the Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Nippon Sei Ko Kai has approximately 32,000 members organised into eleven dioceses and found in local church congregations throughout Japan.[1]

History

Background (1549–1846)

Depiction of the Nagasaki Martyrs (16th century)

Roman Catholic Church, the Nippon Sei Ko Kai commemorates the Martyrs of Japan
every February 5 for their life and witness.

All foreigners were subsequently expelled in 1640 as Japan began two centuries of self-imposed isolation and Christian communities were driven into hiding. When foreigners were eventually allowed back into the main islands of Japan in the 1850s, they found thousands of Christians who had maintained their Christian faith and identity through centuries of persecution.

Early mission church (1846–1900)

Anglican church mission work in Japan started with the British

Episcopal Church, John Liggins and Channing Moore Williams, arrived in the treaty port of Nagasaki in May and June 1859.[5][6] After the opening of the port of Yokohama in June 1859, Anglicans in the foreign community gathered for worship services in the British consul's residence. A British consular chaplain, Michael Buckworth Bailey, arrived in August 1862 and after a successful fundraising campaign Christ Church, Yokohama, was dedicated on 18 October 1863.[7]

Due to government restrictions on the teaching of Christianity and a significant language barrier, the religious duties of clergy were initially limited to serving as ministers to the American and British residents of the foreign settlements. The first recorded baptism by Williams of a Japanese convert, a Kumamoto samurai named Shōmura Sukeuemon, was not until 1866.[8]: 37 [9]: 73 

Liggins and Williams were followed to Nagasaki in January 1869 by George Ensor, a priest representing the

Hokkaido.[10][11][12][13] H. Maundrell joined the Japan mission in 1875 and served at Nagasaki.[14] John Batchelor was a missionary priest to the Ainu people
of Hokkaido from 1877 to 1941.

Nippon Sei Ko Kai Clergy (c.1888)

After the

Society for Propagation of the Gospel. Williams, appointed Episcopal Bishop of China and Japan in 1866, moved first to reside in Osaka in 1869, then subsequently relocated to Tokyo in December 1873.[15]

By 1879, through cooperative work between the various Anglican missions, the largest part of the Book of Common Prayer had been translated and published in Japanese. A full version of the text being completed by 1882.[16] On Palm Sunday 1883, Nobori Kanai and Masakazu Tai, graduates of the Tokyo theological school were ordained by Bishop Williams as the first Japanese deacons in the church.[17] In 1888, the Anglican Church of Canada also began missionary work in Japan, later mainly focusing on Nagoya and Central Japan.[18]

John Toshimichi Imai

In addition to the work of ordained church ministers, much of the positive public profile enjoyed by Anglican Church in Japan during this early mission period was due to the work of lay missionaries working to establish schools, universities and medical facilities. Significant among this group were missionary women such as Ellen G. Eddy at St. Agnes' School in Osaka, Alice Hoar at St. Hilda's School and Florence Pitman at St. Margaret's School, both located in Tokyo.

Mary Cornwall-Legh who ran a similar facility in Kusatsu, Gunma, were both honored by the Japanese Government for their work.[19]

The first synod of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai met in Osaka in February 1887. At this meeting, instigated by Bishop Edward Bickersteth and presided over by Bishop Williams, it was agreed to unite the various Anglican missionary efforts in Japan into one autonomous national church; the Nippon Sei Ko Kai. The 17 European and American participants at the first Synod were outnumbered by 14 other clergy and 50 Japanese lay delegates.[20]

Total Nippon Sei Ko Kai church membership in 1887 was estimated to be 1,300.[21] John Toshimichi Imai, ordained deacon in 1888 and raised to the priesthood by Bishop Bickersteth in 1889, was the first Japanese to become an ordained Anglican priest.[22]

In 1890,

Obuse, Nagano funded by donations from Anglicans in Canada.[25]

Continued growth and wartime challenges (1900–1945)

Plaque in Ely cathedral commemorating Gordon John Walsh, Bishop of Hokkaido

By 1906 the Nippon Sei Ko Kai was reported to have grown to 13,000 members, of whom 6,880 were communicants with a Japanese led ordained ministry of 42 priests and 22 deacons.[26] Henry St. George Tucker, President of St. Paul's College and in 1913 appointed Bishop of Kyoto, was one of the foremost missionary leaders of the period who advocated that an independent, Japanese-led and self-supporting church was the only way in which Christianity could be carried to the wider population of Japan. Initiatives were put in place to help grow the financial self-sufficiency of church congregations and the first Japanese bishops, John Yasutaro Naide, Bishop of Osaka and Joseph Sakunoshin Motoda, Bishop of Tokyo, were consecrated in 1923.[27]

During the 1930s, as overseas funding and the number of foreign Anglican missionaries in Japan declined, new challenges arose for Nippon Sei Ko Kai church leadership and laity from the increasing focus on Shinto as a state prescribed religion and the growing influence of militarism in domestic and foreign policy. Christianity was portrayed by many nationalist politicians at the time as incompatible with the loyalty of Japanese subjects. In response the Nippon Sei Ko Kai issued periodic statements in support of the Imperial Army.[28] And the first half of the 20th century saw NSKK's overseas expansion. Taiwan Sheng Kung Hui was established, several Japanese-language churches, such as Dalian Sheng Kung Hui Church, were built in Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui's Northern China Diocese in Manchuria, and the Anglican Church of Korea was absorbed by the NSKK.

A more active period of government persecution began in 1937, particularly for Christian denominations such as the

Archbishop Lang's condemnation in October of Imperial Japanese Army actions in China, provoked hostile scrutiny of the NSKK and caused some in the church leadership to publicly disassociate themselves from links with the wider Anglican Communion.[30]

St. Andrew's Cathedral, Diocese of Tokyo

During

Protestant churches in Japan were forcibly brought together by the Japanese wartime government to form the United Church of Christ in Japan, or Kyodan. Reflecting the distinctive doctrinal character of the Anglican Communion, many individual Nippon Sei Ko Kai congregations refused to join. The cost of resistance to and non-cooperation with the government's religious policies was harassment by the military police and periods of imprisonment for church leaders such as Bishops Samuel Heaslett, Hinsuke Yashiro and Todomu Sugai, as well as Primate Paul Shinji Sasaki.[31]

Anglican identity to the war's end in 1945. However, like many urban Nippon Sei Ko Kai churches, medical and educational facilities, St. Andrew's buildings were lost in the 1945 Allied incendiary bombing
.

Post-war period (1945–)

The pressure of an extended war caused damage to both internal church unity and the physical infrastructure of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai. Seventy-one out of a total of 246 churches had been destroyed. Others were in bad repair due to neglect, requisition by the military, or vandalism.[32]

Through individual and larger communal acts of reconciliation, and with the support of an Anglican Commission sent out by the Church of England's Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher in 1946, the Nippon Sei Ko Kai was organizationally reordered in 1947, with a leadership consisting of Japanese bishops at the head of each diocese.

Attending the 1948

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.[33]

The Nippon Sei Ko Kai became a financially self-supporting Province of the Anglican Communion in 1972.[34]

Adopting a formal Statement of War Responsibility at the General Synod in 1996, and reflecting on the Japanese occupation of China and Korea prior to the

Second World War, the NSKK has been active in multi-year projects promoting peace, reconciliation, and youth exchange programs between East Asian nations.[35]

Two decades after becoming the first woman deacon, Margaret Ryoko Shibukawa was ordained the first woman priest in the Nippon Sei Ko Kai in December 1998.[36]

The Nippon Sei Ko Kai celebrated the 150th anniversary of continuous Anglican Christian witness in Japan in 2009. The occasion was marked with a series of church and community events and visits by both the then-Archbishop of Canterbury,

Episcopal Church in the United States of America at the time, Katharine Jefferts Schori.[37]

In 2013 the NSKK co-hosted with the

Okinawa.[38]

The NSKK is a member of the National Christian Council in Japan.

Nathaniel Makoto Uematsu, Bishop of Hokkaido was the primate of the Anglican Church in Japan from 23 May 2006 until November 2020.[39]

Present

Luke Kenichi Muto, Bishop of Kyushu, was installed as the current Primate of Nippon Sei Ko Kai on 5 November 2020.[40]

Today the Nippon Sei Ko Kai continues its traditions of ministry and Christian witness in Japan through church congregational life, hospitals, schools, social advocacy, and support for non-profit organizations.

The church, at both a national and local level, works to support disadvantaged, marginalized, or discriminated against communities in Japan,

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear generating plant.[43]

The NSKK also engages in field-based mission work overseas, such as in the Philippines.

Eight of the NSKK's dioceses ordain women to the diaconate and priesthood. The NSKK has ordained women to the priesthood since 1998.[44] Women have been ordained to the diaconate since 1978, and the first woman to be ordained a deacon and, later, as a priest was Margaret Shibukawa Ryoko.[45] In 2021, the Diocese of Hokkaido elected Grace Trazu Sasamori as bishop, making her the first woman to be elected bishop in the church.[46]

Worship

The inner cover of Ki Tō Sho, the Japanese Book of Common Prayer (1990)
The cover of Sei Ka Shū, the NSKK Hymnal (2006)

The Book of Common Prayer used in worship is the Ki Tō Sho (

Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK) and the Catholic Church in Japan
.

The Bible reading at the church is now mostly from the Japan Bible Society Interconfessional Version (2018), replacing the Japanese New Interconfessional Translation Bible (1987).

The Japanese Hymns Ancient and Modern has been replaced by Sei Ka Shū, the NSKK Hymnal (日本聖公会聖歌集, 2006).

Dioceses and notable churches

There are currently eleven dioceses in the Nippon Sei Ko Kai and over three hundred church and chapel congregations spread across the country. Notable churches in each diocese from north to south include:

St. John's Church, Hakodate
Christ Church, Yokohama
St. Andrew's Church, Kiyosato, Yamanashi

Hokkaido

The Anglican mission to Hokkaido was pioneered since 1874 by the Rev. Walter Dening and the Rev. John Batchelor, who contributed to the welfare and education of the Ainu people. More than 130 years since then, the Anglicans in the Diocese of Hokkaido, with its diocesan cathedral at Christ Church Cathedral, Sapporo, have made unique contributions in various fields, establishing 24 churches, 5 kindergartens and 4 nursery schools.[47]

The bishop is Maria Grace Tazu Sasamori (笹森田鶴) since 2022, NSKK's first female bishop.[48]

Tohoku

The first Anglican-Episcopal mission to the

Northeast Japan, of Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata and Fukushima Prefectures started in 1891 when the missionary team was sent to Fukushima by Bishop John McKim of the Diocese of North Tokyo (now the Diocese of Kitakanto). In 1894, the Rev. H.J. Jefferies was sent to Sendai, the largest city of the Region, his missionary activities including the church meetings, sewing schools, kindergartens, and Sunday schools. The church building in Sendai was completed in 1905, at which time Bishop N. S. Binstead of the Episcopal Church USA arrived as the bishop of the Diocese of Tohoku. [49]

Just before and during Pacific War, foreighn missionaries were forced to leave and the NSKK was dissolved. However, it rose from the difficult war-time and postwar period, and developed into a self-sufficiet diocese. The building of the Christ Chuch in Sendai was burned down in the 1945 Bombing of Sendai, was rebuilt in 1965, and was rebuilt again in 2014.

Kitakanto

The first Anglican-Episcopal mission in the Diocese of North Tokyo (now the Diocese of Kitakanto, with St. Mattias' Cathedral in

Saitama Prefectures[50]) was to Kawagoe in 1878. From Kawagoe, the mission spread to other cities. In 1893, the first bishop of the diocese, John McKim, was installed. [51]

In 1901, the first kindergaten in Saitama Prefecture opened as the NSKK church-affiliated kindergarten in Kawagoe. In 1916,

medical care unit of leprosy patients in Kusatsu, Gunma. The facility of the Society of St John the Evangelist
was transferred to the diocese and used as the Koyama House of Prayer since 2004.

The current Bishop of the Diocese of Kitakanto is Francis Xavier Hiroyuki Takahashi (髙橋宏幸) interim bishop (管理主教).

Tokyo

The Diocese of Tokyo was established in its modern form in May 1923. There are 33 churches and 9 chapels in the Diocese, many having been first established in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Yokohama

Chubu

St. Matthew's Cathedral in Nagoya, Japan
Nagano Holy Saviour Church, Nagano

The Diocese of Chubu, with its diocesan cathedral at St. Matthew's Church Cathedral, Nagoya, covers the parishes and other facilities in the four prefectures of the Chubu Region (meaning "Central Japan"): Aichi, Gifu, Nagano, and Niigata. For historical reasons, the parishes in Fukui, Ishikawa and Toyama Prefectures of Japan's Chubu Region belong to the Diocese of Kyoto, and those in Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures, to the Diocese of Yokohama.

The diocese of Chubu was established with the help of Anglican Church of Canada. The Nagano Holy Saviour Church, Nagano, nationally Registered Important Tangible Cultural Property from 2006,[24] was built by J. G. Waller, a Canadian missionary. The origin of St. Mary's College, Nagoya goes back to the Child care workers' school established by Margaret Young (1855 - 1940), another missionary from Anglican Church of Canada.

The bishop of the diocese is the Rt. Rev'd Dr. Renta Nishihara (西原廉太), ordained in October 2020 as the tenth bishop.[52]

Kyoto

St Agnes Cathedral, Kyoto

Osaka

Kobe

Kyushu

Okinawa

Related facilities

Rikkyo University, Tokyo
St. Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo

Nippon Sei Ko Kai affiliated educational, medical and social welfare institutions in Japan number over two hundred. Comprehensive lists of affiliated institutions are available on the official NSKK website.

Seminaries

Religious orders

  • Community of the Epiphany
    .

Universities and colleges

Hospitals

Notable people

Early mission church (1859–1900)

Continued growth and wartime challenges (1900–1945)

References

  1. ^ a b "About Nippon Sei Ko Kai". nskk.org. August 21, 2018.
  2. ISBN 978-0804820875
    .
  3. ISBN 978-0-7864-3796-2
    .
  4. ^ Cary, Otis (1909). A History of Christianity in Japan. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. p. 32.
  5. ^ Arnold, Alfreda (1905). Church Work in Japan. Harvard College Library: Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
  6. ^ Arnold 1905, p. 5.
  7. ISBN 1-873410-93-X
    .
  8. ISBN 0-88920-218-4
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-7748-1647-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  10. ^ "The Church Missionary Gleaner, September 1874". C.M.S. Missionaries in Japan. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  11. ^ "The Church Missionary Gleaner, December 1874". Our Missionaries in Japan. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  12. ^ "The Church Missionary Gleaner, May 1877". The Ainos of Japan. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  13. ^ "The Church Missionary Atlas (Japan)". Adam Matthew Digital. 1896. pp. 205–2009. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  14. ^ "The Church Missionary Gleaner, January 1875". Appointment of Rev. H. Maundrell to Japan. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  15. ^ Arnold 1905, p. 8.
  16. ^ Arnold 1905, p. 12.
  17. ^ Hobart, Margaret (1912). Japan Mission of the American Church. New York: The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. p. Part II: Training Schools.
  18. ^ The History of the Chubu Diocese of the Anglican/Episcopal Church of Japan Archived 2002-06-24 at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese)
  19. ^ Arnold 1905, p. 126.
  20. ^ Bickersteth, M. H. (1908). Handbooks of English Church Expansion, Japan. Oxford: A. R. Mowbray & Co. Ltd. p. 56.
  21. ^ Ion 1993.
  22. ^ Ion 1993, p. 73.
  23. ^ "ジョン・ゲージ・ウォーラー". Modern Building. Modern Building. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  24. ^ a b "長野聖救主教会創立者「ウォーラー司祭 その生涯と家庭」". Nagano's Holy Saviour Church. Nagano's Holy Saviour Church. Archived from the original on 2015-08-25. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  25. ^ "沿革・歴史". 新生病院. 新生病院. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  26. ^ Bickersteth 1908, p. 58.
  27. ISBN 0-521-39143-1
    .
  28. ISBN 0-521-39143-1
    .
  29. ISBN 0-88920-218-4
    .
  30. ^ Ion 1999, p. 245.
  31. ^ Ion 1993, p. 254.
  32. ^ Hemphill, Elizabeth (1969). The Road to KEEP (First ed.). New York and Tokyo: John Weatherhill Inc. p. 108.
  33. ISBN 978-1-4094-4748-1
    .
  34. ^ "About the NSKK". NSKK Overview. Provincial Office of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  35. ^ "NSKK General Synod Resolution, 23 May 1996" (PDF). Statement of War Responsibility. Nippon Sei Ko Kai. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  36. ^ "Online News Report". First Woman Priest Ordained by Japan Anglican Church. UCA News. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  37. ^ "Pastoral Letter" (PDF). 150th Anniversary of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai. NSKK House of Bishops. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  38. ^ "Conference Communique and Media Coverage". Anglicans call for Peace in Asia and Pacific. Anglican Communion News Service. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  39. ^ "NSKK Newsletter" (PDF). Inauguration of New Primate of the NSKK. NSKK Provincial Office. September 2006. Retrieved 10 May 2014.
  40. ^ "New Primates for Japan and Korea". 13 November 2020.
  41. ^ "NSKK Newsletter" (PDF). Inauguration of New Primate of the NSKK. NSKK Provincial Office. September 2006. Retrieved 10 May 2014.
  42. ^ "Anglican Kani Mission". Program for Migrants. NSKK Chubu Diocese. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2014.
  43. ^ "Remember the Survivors". Tohoku Mission. ACNS Anglican Communion News Service. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  44. ^ "Two decades of women's ordination celebrated in the Nippon Sei Ko Kai". www.anglicannews.org. Retrieved 2021-09-26.
  45. ^ "first woman priest ordained by japan anglican church". ucanews.com. Retrieved 2021-09-26.
  46. ^ Conger, George (2021-12-04). "First woman bishop for Japan". Anglican Ink © 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  47. ^ Churches and other facilities (Diocese of Hokkaido) (in Japanese)
  48. ^ Bishop Maria Grace Tazu Sasamori (Anglican Community News Service, 2022)
  49. ^ The History of the Christ Church Cathedral (NSKK) (in Japanese)
  50. ^ Churches and Other Facililies (NSKK Diocese of Kitakanto) (in Japanese)
  51. ^ The History of the Diocese (NSKK Diocese of Kitakanto) (in Japanese)
  52. ^ About our Bishop (The Diocese of Chubu)
  53. ISBN 978-0-7748-2022-6
    . Retrieved 15 July 2019.

Relevant literatue

  • Tucker, Henry St. George. The History of the Episcopal Church in Japan. New York: Charles Scribners' Sons, 1938.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anglican_Church_in_Japan&oldid=1217632006"