Your life in the mission house

Do you want to make this dream real?

Good morning, dear readers, on this anniversary day of the publication of the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549. Not, perhaps, an entirely irrelevant day to the project at hand: to bring the apostolic faith encapsulated and inculturated for the English people in the Prayer Book to a new context in Japan.

I have news. Last week, I submitted my paperwork to be incardinated as a priest into the Anglican Church of North America’s Diocese of All Saints in order to start up a new mission, from scratch, here in Japan - though I cannot presuppose the verdict on my application, and the below is strictly my personal vision at this point!

What we need is a mission house to give sound theological and spiritual formation to missionaries in a traditional Anglo-Catholic vein, but incorporating study of Japan’s religious, philosophical and cultural milieu and her traditional arts. We need to emulate the missionary success of the Jesuits of old, taking seriously the beauty and godliness we find here, while proclaiming the Gospel with courage.

Today’s post will give you a flavour of the life I envisage for those who come and join me here, be it for weeks, months, or years. More details will follow as conversations progress, but I’m open to your ideas, your support, your enthusiasm and above all, your prayers. Talk to me and each other, by DM or in the comments below.

The birdsong didn’t wake you, so today you rise to the mattins gong. Hard to believe you are only an hour from Tokyo, in this quiet country air. But the smell of the tatami beneath you warming in the dawning light leaves no doubt that you are in Japan.

It’s an early start, but there could be no better. In the Chapel of Our Lady of Walsingham, more tatami. You adjust your zabuton and settle for the time of silent meditation before the opening verses are chanted. The words are familiar, but you’re still getting used to the Japanese psalm tones. Mass follows mattins, priest and people facing the rising sun which gives Japan its name, that native love of light drawing us to the one whose radiance transfigures daily bread. The shakuhachi flute invokes the Holy Ghost as we receive.

It was Sho’s turn to prepare breakfast today. His day job was in catering, and he’s been running Japanese cookery classes so that you will be able to feed a churchfull when the time comes. Fish, rice, miso, pickles made from what you picked last month: we eat in silence. Then, out for samu, half an hour’s working meditation, where we tend the garden, and it tends our souls.

You’re ready for the morning session – you’d better be, because you are leading it. The Warden has been teaching Dionysius, at your request, and a local expert ran sessions on a key Japanese religious text, but in this House, we all share our knowledge. There are times at seminary when you feel deskilled, even infantilised, as though your life before didn’t matter. Not here. You know the Epistle to the Hebrews better than anyone in the community, so you are teaching it, a few classes over the month you are here. You’ve even roped in your old professor to make a guest appearance online so he can repeat a lecture you think everyone would love. We pool our connections as well as our talents.

Lunch is quick and simple, again prepared by a resident on rotation. The college keeps costs low by getting everyone working. Ora et labora, the old Benedictine motif, keeps access open. That’s how Michael can be here while he waits for housing, a man of faith who worked in IT before he fled his country. We are in Japan, but we are part of a global church, and we care for our brothers and sisters. Residents who can afford to pay more help to keep Michael’s talents working for the mission.

After lunch, you have some time for private prayer and study, maybe a walk into the hills around the House. But later in the afternoon, you get into the Warden’s car to drive the fifteen minutes into Hannō City and our mission church, St Theodore of Tarsus. That is where you go for Sunday mass, too, where you have been joined the serving team. But today, it’s the children’s after-school club, and you have offered to help with the catechism for Confirmation. Your formation goes beyond the classroom. You are learning mission on the job.

You get back in time for Evensong, starting with zazen meditation before the exposed Sacrament. Dinner is communal, followed by a talk by a Shinto priest on controversies over remembrance of the war dead – how do we, as a Western-based church, deal pastorally and theologically with being on the other side?

After the talk, a couple of guests join the Warden at the local Aikido dojo for training, but you decide to have some quiet time, before bathing, compline, and a much needed night’s rest.

Tomorrow, you want to wake in time for the birdsong.

To be continued next week…