Dringender Aufruf aus Chejudo

The Jeju Island peace pilgrim called the
Grand March for the Peace of Gangjeong
is from July 30 (Monday) to Aug. 4 (Saturday), 2012

Especially since June, people here have focused on public campaign against the Jeju naval base project throughout the Jeju Island while people in the nationwide have held nationwide events against the project, such as the bicycle pilgrim (June 30 to July 28), relay candle vigil (June 28 to July 27) and SKY ACT (July 9 to14. It is on the solidarity among the Ssangyong workers, K(G)angjeong villagers, and Yongsan tragedy victims)

The Jeju Island peace pilgrim will be a kind of convergent event of those all. It is very important chance for us facing more heating struggles within this year, including the International solidarity action week, Sept. 2 to 9 (upon the 2012 WCC Jeju).

Since it is a reality that many of internationals cannot join the march, 

we would like to request internationals to
please send us short solidarity messages (about 100 words)
no later than July 25 upon the Island peace pilgrim

Your messages will quite encourage people including the Gangjeong villagers who have fought against the Jeju naval base project since 2007. It will also encourage three conscientious prisoners of Dr. Song Kang-Ho, Mr. Kim Bok Chul and Mr. Kim Dong Won who are now imprisoned for their resistance against the naval base project.

You can send solidarity messages to the village international team:
Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein! .

For more on the event, please refer to the link:
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/I51g/395

Thanks, all.
Gangjeong village international team

 

Appeal for September Action, 13.07.2012

Appeal to International Society
We appeal to you to join an International Action Week For No Naval Base
2-9 September 2012

We appeal to the people of the world who are opposing warfare and are concerned with making the world peaceful and sustainable community.

Please take part in an International Solidarity Action (2-9 September 2012) during the World Conservation Congress 2012 which will be held in Jeju Island.

The 2012 World Conservation Congress, which is an environmental conference held every 4 years by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is to take place from 6-15 September in Seogwipo city, Jeju Island. Jeju Island is located in the southern part of South Korea, adjacent to China, Taiwan, and Japan.

However, in Gangjeong village, which is only 7 km far from the congress site, construction to build a massive naval base is being enforced. The total size of the naval base is 490,000 square meters and it will not only harm the environment but also ignite military tensions despite the opposition of a great number of villagers.

Gangjeong village in Jeju blessed with a natural environment should be preserved for the future of mankind.

Gangjeong village is a coastal town with a sacred environment and high value preservation not only in Jeju Island, but also in the world.

The Sea of Gangjeong village is designated as a national cultural treasure (natural memorial No. 442) by the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea and is adjacent to Beom Island, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Gangjeong village is God's blessing natural heritage. The sea of Gangjeong is one of the major habitats of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, one of the species listed by the IUCN. It is estimated that there are only 114 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Korea.

A Forced Eviction in Shibuya: Working with Seikokai, The Anglican-Episcopal Church of Japan

Gewaltsame Vertreibung von Obdachlosen in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

4. Juli 2012

Aus Tokyo erreicht uns heute Vormittag die Bitte um Unterstützung. Unser Freund, Heiwa KATAOKA schreibt: 

Dear friends in Germany,
This is Heiwa writing. How are you all doing?
This time, I inform you about a forced eviction against people in the streets of Shibuya Ward, Tokyo.
Please read the following statement of protest and please add your name on the online petition l made if you can. One of the groups who published this statement is Seikokai, which is The Anglican-Episcopal Church of Japan. I work together with the members every Fridays at a parking area of Shibuya Ward Office.
Thanks! May peace of God be with you always. Heiwa

Please add your name to our statement of protest!

●The Shibuya Free Association for the Subsistence and Well-Being of the Homeless (Nojiren), Seikokai Homeless Persons Support Organization of Shibuya and concerned homeless persons in Tokyo to submit the petition below to Shibuya Ward on July 11th . Anyone who wishes to join us in submitting it should meet with us at noon in front of the clock tower at the Shibuya Government Office Building.

●Shibuya Ward has already begun paperwork for administrative subrogation (a legal procedure for eviction) against tents belonging to people staying in Mitake Park. The administrative subrogation will also apply to Nojiren and its communal kitchen storage space. Shibuya Ward's actions suggest that the government is intent on denying homeless persons access to public spaces and their active networks of support.

Urgent Appeal from Touhoku HELP, Sendai, Japan

Von: Victor Hsu [ Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein! ]

June 28, 2012

"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death......surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23

Dear Ecumenical Friends,
I greet you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Giver of Life and the Hope of our world.

You have recently received an urgent appeal from Rev. Shoko Aminaka, the General Secretary of NCC-Japan to provide emergency assistance to Touhoku HELP.

I join her in appealing for your sustained solidarity with the people of Japan as the country continue to grapple with the immense challenges of recovery and reconstruction from the triple disaster of March 11 last year.  I do so because of your generosity in the immediate aftermath of that terrible day as the tsunami destroyed and killed everything in its path in the Touhoku region leaving in its wake untold suffering among the people of Japan. 

I give thanks to God for you and for your faithfulness because, during this darkest hour in their recent history, you lit a light in the life of the people of Japan.  You walked with them through the valley of death and you comforted them.

Dear brothers and sisters, you are aware of the enormous needs that exist for the nation's relief and reconstruction. Moreover, the churches and the people of Japan struggle for a national consensus about its energy policy.  According to experts, it will take at least two decades to accomplish these monumental tasks.  As you monitor future developments in Japan, please do not forget the survivors and their families. Most survivors have been moved from evacuation centers to temporary housing.  Unfortunately, they have no clear idea from their government officials whether and when they will return to their homes or how they can recover their livelihood.  

Consequently, you will undoubtedly be deeply saddened by an increasing number of suicides among them.  You know that the trauma that they experienced will take years to heal.  However, for many, their existential situation appears bleak and hopeless.  One counselor reminded the humanitarian workers in Japan that "the living may envy the dead."  Indeed, we grieve with them.

Several of the agencies have supported the "Grand House" project of Touhoku HELP in Sendai.  The largest NGO on the ground in Touhoku, it was established by the Sendai Christian Alliance to carry out disaster response.  The Grand House project combined immediate direct material assistance with spiritual care.  It distributed basic needs to the evacuees and initiated innovative spiritual care activities through mobile counseling "cafés," radio programs and special community lectures, all aimed at providing practical assistance and support to the survivors and their families.  You will be interested to learn that the New York based Japan Society has allocated US$ 100,000 to continue the counseling activities through mobile cafés and radio programs.

Several aspects of the Touhoku HELP activities will be of special interest to you.  I want to share these with you to encourage you to provide urgent immediate support because Touhoku HELP will run out of funds at the end of this month.  If Touhoku HELP closes down, it would be a tremendous loss for these reasons:

1.
First and foremost, the survivors and their families would be denied of the many services provided by Touhoku HELP such as food radiation measurement and special assistance to non-Japanese residents.  There will be a huge void in meeting the many needs of the survivors.

Social Media, Information and Political Activism in Japan's 3.11 Crisis

David H. Slater, Nishimura Keiko and Love Kindstrand

What we see here is not only the nearly unprecedented act of appealing to strangers for help, but also the revealing of emotions that rarely if ever is shared in public discourse. Asking for help from strangers is a significant act of trust, maybe even more unusual in Japan than in other societies; offering help is a way to return that trust. In this way, one of the issues that this paper points to is the way that social media as deployed during and after 3.11 has made us rethink the nature and efficacy of the civic sphere in Japan.

Read or download "Social Media ..." as pdf.

Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus

Nach 2-jähriger Suche nach einem Nachfolger für Pfr. Hayashibara konnte endlich am 17. Juni 2012 der neue Seelsorger der Gemeinde in einem feierlichen Gottesdienst eingeführt werden.

 

Leitung des Gottesdienstes: Frau Reiko Müller-Shiba
Organistin: Frau Shoko Shida-Ranta

Die Einführung wurde gemeinsam vorgenommen:
Landespfarrer Markus Schaefer (Landeskrichenamt der Ev. Kirche im Rheinland)
Pfarrerin Ulrike Gebhardt (Bonhoeffer-Gemeinde in Köln-Lindenthal)
Pfarrer Makoto KATO (Exekutivsekretär der Vereinigten Kirche Christi in Japan)

Pfr. SAITO legte seiner Predigt zwei Texte zugrunde: Jesaja 55,1-5 und Epheser 2,17-22
Der Predigt gab er die Überschrift:  Gottes Hausgenossen.

Gottes Hausgenossen

Altes Testament: Jesaja 55, 1-5 (Luther- Übersetzung)

Mitglieder des Freundeskreises, nach der Vollversammlung am 2.6.2012

 

Christoph-Heinrich Foerster schreibt am Dienstag, 5. Juni 2012

Liebe Freunde der Ostasienmission!
Nach dem eindrucksvollen, schönen Gottesdienst, den wir Anfang Mai zusammen mit der Han-In-Gemeinde, der japanischen Gemeinde und der chinesischen Gemeinde in der Kirche am Hohenzollerndamm feiern konnten und dem ökumenischen Gottesdienst an Pfingstmontag vor dem Rathaus Schöneberg, an dem die japanische Gemeinde und eine Schöneberger koreanische Gemeinde beteiligt waren und der Pastor der amerikanischen Gemeinde predigte und unter dem Eindruck des Pfingstgeschehens den personalen Charakter des Glaubens betonte, der von einem Begriff des Privaten – Glaube sei Privatsache – zu unterscheiden sei, der sich aus der Öffentlichkeit und der gesellschaftlichen Verantwortung zurückziehe, haben wir Anfang Juni bereits das nächste für uns im Freundeskreis einschneidendere und weiter reichende Ereignis mitzuteilen.

Am 2. Juni haben sich acht Personen zur Vollversammlung des Freundeskreises im Kapellensaal der Stiftung Lazarus in der Bernauerstraße getroffen, zu der ich im Namen des Vorstandes eingeladen hatte. Ich war dankbar für die schriftlichen und mündlichen Rückmeldungen. Sie drücken das nach wie vor vorhandene Interesse aller Freunde an dem aus, was uns mit den Partnerkirchen in Ostasien verbindet, bin aber ganz sicher, daß wir die notwendigen Entscheidungen zur rechten Zeit vorbereitet und getroffen haben.