THE THIRD LONDON SEMINAR ATTENDED BY A RECORD 89 PEOPLE
The Third London Seminar was held from August 24 to 26 at the Sunbury Court International Conference Centre in the outskirts of London. The number of participants was a record 89 people.
Recorded numbers of participants gathered
at London Seminar
This Seminar has been held once a year since 2005 in Portuguese with English interpretation. This year it was held under the theme, “Love’s Mission.”
Rev. Yuji Otsuka (Resident Ordained Minister stationed in Europe), attributed the reasons for the increase in the number of participants to such factors as a Readers’ Meeting held in a Christian church in London for 16 years, and the start of Portuguese and English Readers’ Meetings outside of London and Scotland, where promotional flyers were prepared to promote participation. It was also advertised in the Seicho-No-Ie England’s website (http://www.sniuk.org)/.
The Seminar was guided by Rev. Otsuka, and Mr. Ariovaldo Adriano Ribera (Regional Lecturer, Enlightenment Leaders Section, Brazil Missionary Headquarters) who was dispatched from the Brazil Missionary Headquarters, and two Regional Lecturers.
Using as his text Seimei no Jisso (Truth of Life), Vol. 1 by Dr. Masaharu Taniguchi, Rev. Otsuka lectured under the title, “Thoughts and Words Create One’s Fate.” Based on an interpretation of the Genesis of the Old Testaments, he explained Seicho-No-Ie’s vertical and horizontal truth in a way that even first-timers can understand. Mr. Libeiro used as his texts the Portuguese translation of Shinko ni yoru Heiwa no Michi (Realizing Peace by Faith) by Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi and Shinri (Truth), Vol. 9 by Dr. Masaharu Taniguchi and talked about the significance of Seicho-No-Ie’s environmental protection activity and joy of living love.
Comments from the participants included: “The lecturers gave us great spiritual upliftment and helped arouse awareness of our inner Reality.”
Rev. Otsuka remarked, “I am grateful to the Brazil Missionary Headquarters for dispatching a lecturer. Also it is thanks to the great efforts of leaders that we had people from Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. There is a plan to hold a one-day truth realization seminar in English in London in the future. So propagation in English is expected to become more active.”