Message from Toshimasa Yamamoto

2008 March 29

Rev. Toshimasa Yamomoto sends this message as he leaves his post as general secretary of the National Christian Council in Japan (NCCJ). The NCCJ, under the able leadership of Rev. Yamamoto, has been supportive of the undertakings of Peace for Life since the early years of its formation. PfL participated in the recently concluded NCCJ-led Asia Inter-religious Conference on Article 9 of the Japanese Peace Constitution. Rev. Yamamoto continues to be involved in various peace-related initiatives, among them the Inter-Religious Peace Network in Japan of which he is coordinator.

Dear ecumenical colleagues and friends:

Greetings from Tokyo!

As some of you might have already heard either indirectly or from me, I am leaving NCC Japan by the end of this month. After a frantic pace these past years, it is time for me to say good-bye and move on.

For those of you who are already aware of this, this letter is an opportunity to thank you for the many words of kindness and appreciation which you have already offered me, and for those who are not yet aware, this will serve as a much needed communication from me to you.

For the past 15 years, I have been working at NCCJ being in charge of International Affairs for the first 10 years and have been responsible for overseeing the overall administration of NCCJ operations in the area of finance and international / domestic church relations as General Secretary for the last 5 years. As NCCJ is always short of staff, I have been a staff for Humanitarian Aid to DPRK (North Korea), the Commission on Faith and Order, and for the Department of Theology and Mission. I also serve on a number of boards and ecumenical agencies. Overall, I have had very rich experiences of working with many committed people in Asia and the world on number of issues such as the campaign against landmines, Jubilee 2000, peace and reunification in Korea, emergency aid through ACT, people’s security and peace in North East Asia, etc. I had the chance to travel to many places and to attend various ecumenical meetings, different NCC’s gatherings and the general assembly of CCA and WCC. There have been success stories, mistakes, and omissions. Many, many thanks for bearing with me. You have made me feel proud and privileged to be a part of the ecumenical family. Thank you for the 15 years.

As much I like working at NCCJ, I have decided to move on to Kobe (3 hours from Tokyo) to take up the position as a professor and a chaplain at a Kwansei Gakuin University. (Kwasnei Gakuen is a Methodist related university. For those interested, here is the website: www.kwansei.ac.jp/english/index.jsp.) My new position will start on April 1, 2008 since the Japanese school year always begins in April. It is a new beginning and I feel called to take this new challenge. However, I do not plan to draw a curtain on my ecumenical involvement and I will continue to do ecumenical work and be involved with peace and justice issues under a different capacity.

As we were not able to find a new, longer term successor, Rev. Isamu Koshiishi, a moderator of NCCJ and Rev. Kenichi Otsu, a former General Secretary of NCCJ, will kindly agree to serve for one year as interim and acting general secretaries. Please get in touch with Rev. Otsu <otsuncc-j.org> for further NCCJ related communication.

Although I am leaving NCCJ, I do hope that our paths will continue to cross in one way or another. I will stay involved with some of the NCCJ related projects after moving and hopefully stay in touch with many of you. Please drop me a line if you have a chance to come to Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto area in Japan. I will be delighted to see you again. Again, my profound and deep thanks to all of you for what you have done for me during my term in NCCJ.

My email address remains the same, although I will have an additional email address once I am at the university.

May the “peace of God that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:7) keep you as we go forth on parallel paths, until they again converge.

Peace and Grace,

Toshi Yamamoto (Rev.)

NCC Japan