Calvin Synod Herald, 1974 (74. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1974-01-01 / 1. szám
REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA 7 JAPAN: “MISSIONARIES, DONT GO HOME!” Fred Kaan: I have with me the Rev. Yoichiro Saeki, acting general secretary of the Council on Cooperation of the Kyodan, the United Church of Christ in Japan. Mr. Saeki, all over the world one hears the slogan “Missionaries go home!”, and more recently, at the Bangkok Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, there has been talk of a moratorium. I understand that you do not share this view; could you expand on this? work institutions will financially support personnel from abroad, so that in the future — I am hoping — we can also receive, at our own expense, personnel from parts of the World other than North America. Kaan: How long, do you think, will it take before this reverse flow of funds will be achieved, so that you are in a position to do that? Saeki: Yes, I have been hearing all kinds of reports just as you said. Many churches in different countries have said “Missionaries go home!”, but this is a country where I found out myself, by going through the negotiations with the churches and with almost all the schools where missionaries are sent, that all of them say “we need missionaries, we want to have missionaries.” I think there are two reasons: one is, that in Japan the number of Christians is very small, less than 1% of the total population. So we have ninety-nine sheep astray rather than one sheep astray out of a hundred. Therefore we badly need Christian workers in the Evangelistic, educational or social work areas of the society. And the second reason is that we have faith in the eschatological plan of God, that in the eschatological human community we transcend our national, racial, linguistic barriers and form a community of mankind where, regardless of nationality or language or race, we are accepted as persons and have fellowship together in actual life and work before the face of God. So, in our church life, we aim at this type of living-together and working-together of different Christians from different countries. Kaan: But if I am well informed, the missionaries who at the moment are working with the Kyodan in Japan, all come from the North American area. How do you plan to internationalize the missionary scene, the church scene then, in terms of the eschatological vision you have mentioned? Saeki: At present, I admit that all the missionaries — except a few from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and India — are North Americans. But recently, most of the North American churches have informed us that because of their financial difficulties they have to withdraw a considerable number of missionaries who are in Japan right now. So, after we received this information we discussed it and we came to the conclusion that we shall share the expenses to maintain missionaries, and that no missionaries should be lost because of the financial situation in North America. Thus the churches and the schools and social work institutions have started to share expenses. So this is a turning-point in our former relations with the churches abroad. Until now, we have always received funds and personnel from “the outside world” free, and as long as we don’t share financial expenses, we cannot go any further. So this move of sharing expenses for North American missionaries is one step towards the stage where Japanese churches and schools and social Saeki: I cannot say when this change of the major flow will come about, but at least, we can begin by gradually inviting some personnel from other lands, and I hope it can take place quite soon. Kaan: Mr. Saeki, one final question: in the light of what you have said about the desirability that missionaries should stay, could you give me your definition of what a missionary is, what his task is? Saeki: I have two working definitions for a missionary. One is: missionaries are Christian workers who are sent at least by two churches. Our usual terminology refers to a sending church and a receiving church. Some of the North American churches have sent missionaries, but the Kyodan, once it received them as Kyodan workers, in turn also sent them again to undertake specific work in the society in Japan. Therefore, the Japanese church is also responsible in sending them. Of course, I think that all Christians are missionaries, but most of them are sent only by one church of one nation. But there is a difference when it comes to so-called missionaries in the technical sense of the word: they are sent at least by two churches. The other definition is that missionaries are Christian workers who should work themselves into a job rather than working themselves out of a job. RPS NEWS ITEM “Leslie Kondorossy personally presented his “Kossuth Cantata” to the Kossuth Museum at Monok, Hungary, the birth place of the great Hungarian freedom fighter who fought against the Hapsburgs in 1848. Dr. Stephen Szabó, pastor of the First Hungarian Reformed Church in Clevelaannd, wrote the text. The cantata was produced in the Music Hall in 1952, the 100th anniversary of Kossuth’s visit to the U. S. to ask the American Senate to help his noble cause. The Museum asked Mr. Kondorossy to give them one copy of the cantata.”
