July 2024

Also during the hot days of July Shinmeizan continued to welcome guests and to carry on activities of interreligious dialog, besides holding the usual monthly retreat (on July 11).

Among the former we wish to mention in a special way the visit of Maeda Kiara, daughter of the Ven. Maeda Nobutake, Head of the Chigenji Temple (Pure Land Buddhism) of Osaka, a longtime friend of Shinmeizan, who also helps every year in the course on the meaning and value of life held at Shinmeizan for Students of the Kitakyushu University of Industrial Medicine. Kiara stayed with us from July 25 to July 30. 

Among the activities of interreligious dialog, the most significant one has been the visit, with the Kumamoto Group for Interreligious Dialog to the Kumamoto Headquarters of the Risshokoseikai, a recent and very active Buddhist new religious organization. During the friendly meeting, to which about fifty people participated, the President of the local branch of Risshokoseikai, Watanabe Emiko, gave a very clear and appealing presentation of the Association, well Maria De Giorgi, of Shinmeizan, in charge on interreligious Dialog for the Catholic Diocese of Fukuoka, recalled the main events of the now 35 years long story of friendly relations between Shinmeizan and Risshokoseikai.