Leaders’ Workshop and Public Lecture held in Hawaii
Study of the Joy of Faith and Religious Practice
On November 6 of last year, a Leaders’ Workshop was held at the Seicho-No-Ie Jisso Center on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. On the following day (November 7), Public Lecture was held at the Ala Moana Hotel in Honolulu. Both events were held in English. The number of attendees totaled 143. The number of attendees was 35 for the Leaders’ Workshop and 108 for the Public Lecture.
Both events were guided by Rev. Yoshiko Teshigawara (Ordained Minister, Bishop of the United States Missionary Headquarters, Chief of Hawaii Missionary Area), Rev. Hideharu Sugiuchi (Ordained Minister, Vice Chief of Hawaii Missionary Area), and others. There were four lectures at the Leaders’ Workshop, including “Learning from the Natural World View of the Major Traditional World Religions,” which was based on the content of the 2009 Seicho-No-Ie Special Conference for World Peace and 2010 Seicho-No-Ie Special Conference held in Japan, and “The Joy of Faith and Religious Practice.”
Rev. Teshigawara guided a group workshop entitled “Important Points in Individual Counseling.” She also gave a lecture, “Awareness as a Leader—Joy, Gratitude and Responsibility.” During the workshop, after Rev. Teshigawara’s lecture and explanation on the principle and method of individual counseling, the attendees separated into groups and actually practiced individual counseling by playing the roles of counselor and counselee on the theme which each group chose. At the end of the session, all groups went in front of the others and played out the content of their study.
The public lecture meeting was held on the theme, “Let’s Turn Around Adversity into Joy.” Rev. Teshigawara gave a lecture on the same theme. Mixing actual examples, she said that when one practices the Truth in his day-to-day life, adversity changes into joy and he is led to happiness. Rev. Sugicuhi lectured on “What Is Seicho-No-Ie?” He talked about “the awareness of a child of God” and “the power of words,” including his own experiences. Comments from the attendees included: “I realized that living for the sake of other people helps to create a wonderful world.”
Remarks by Rev. Yoshiko Teshigawara, Bishop of Seicho-No-Ie United States Missionary Headquarters
“At the Leaders’ Workshop there were attendees from islands other than Oahu. They were pleased to study the teachings deeply and know the current status of the ‘Movement that Grows with Nature,’ which is being promoted all over the world. The Public Lecture was filled with a bright and friendly atmosphere, and the newcomers enjoyed it as well. I was able to achieve the objective by introducing the Sundial Way of Life and so forth.”