Can anyone tell if this is the Dojin (Universalist) Christian Church, in Tokyo? There’s been so little contact between this one-time foreign mission — long independent — and Universalists in the United States, with a language barrier (and I bet a theological barrier) long in evidence.
The known church address is 3-10-9 Mejirodai, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 166-0012. I don’t read any Japanese and would appreciate the help of anyone who can, or — better still — from someone who has visited the church.
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If you can send the Google Map shot to John Clifford, who is the Executive Secretary of the ICUU, he may have an answer or redirect this to the relevant person(s).
We had a representative from the Japanese church at a ICUU meeting in Hungary, but it is very difficult to keep contact (partly because of language barriers but also due to the size and age of these congregations).
Hey Scott,
I know that James Kubal-Komoto at the Saltwater Church outside of Seattle has visited the Universalist Church in Tokyo and would be able to tell you if that is the right church or not. He did tell me that you would be very comfortable with their theology. Here’s the link to his church.
http://www.saltwaterchurch.org/
I visited the church in the summer of 2000 and had dinner with the minister there. It looks like the church, but I don’t remember the bell structure. However, I could have easily missed that since I was in a hurry trying to get to the service in time.
I have a book, in Japanese, on the history of the church in my office, but am away from there for a while. I’ll try to remember to take a look.
I am moderator of the english speaking Unitarian Fellowship of Tokyo and we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary in Tokyo.
Over the years (especially when Rev. Chiosaki was alive) we had real contact with the Sekiguchi Dojin Universalist Church and in fact we met there in their building for our meetings when the International House was being renovated in the early 2000’s–but we too have lost direct interaction. They have a congregation of at least 100 (many elderly) members as well as a church choir and sunday school and they were running a kindergarten.