October 2023

Among the visitors who came to Shinmeizan during this last month of October, We wish to mention in a special way The group of eight volunteers from the Churches of Tetori and Musashigaoka that came, on October 11, to help us repair and clean the road leading up to Shinmeizan;

also: 

• Rev. Dr. Hans Ucko, former General Secretary of the Office for Interreligious Dialog of the Ecumenical Council of Churches (Geneva, Switzerland), now residing in France, who stayed with us for two weeks, from October 20 to November 2;　 
• The 15 participants in the retreat held at Shinmeizan every second Thursday of each month held (October 12;
• The group of four people originally from the Philippines who came on October 29 for a day of recollection;
• Ven. Inoue Hirokata, Head of the Koenji Temple (Pure land Buddhism) of Kitakyushu, who visited us on October 31.

Among the various activities in the field of interreligious dialog we wish to mention in a special way:

• on October 3, the visit to Shinmeizan of Ven. Oshiro Senpo of the Soto Zen Buddhist School, with a group of six other friends from Perù and Argentina, who presently are attending a zazen sesshin at the Buddhist monastery of Shogoji (Kikuchi-shi);

• On October 22, the visit to the Kumamoto Headquarters of Tenrikyo (the oldest of Japan`s so called `new religions`), leading the `Group of interreligious dialog of Kumamoto` in its 98th interreligious event,

Sr. Maria De Giorgi,
after taking part in the Interreligious International Meeting of Prayer for Peace of the Representatives of World Religions, called by the Community of Saint Egidio (Berlin, September 10-12), travelled to Italy for some other commitments, such as:

• A visit to the Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialog, on October 2nd,
• An interview with the Vatican radio, on October 3,
• Another interview at the `Fides Press Office` (the Information Center of the Pontifical Missionary Works), on Oct. 4,
• A lecture on `Interreligious Dialog` at the Faculty of Missiology of the Gregorian Pontifical University, on Oct. 6;

• After returning to Japan, Sr. Maria, on October 30, took part (via ZOOM) in the periodic meeting of the “Women Network”, an initiative of the Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialog.