Leaders’ Workshop and Public Lecture Held in Hawaii
Study Includes Man’s Coexistence with Nature
The Hawaii Missionary Area’s Leaders’ Workshop was held on November 5 of last year at the Seicho-No-Ie Jisso Center on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, U.S.A. On the following day (November 6) a public lecture was held at the Ala Moana Hotel in Honolulu. A total of 179 people attended these events: 29 at the Leaders’ Workshop and 150 at the public lecture.
The lecturers at the Workshop and the lecture included Rev. Yoshiko Teshigawara (Ordained Minister, Bishop of Seicho-No-Ie United States Missionary Headquarters, Chief of Hawaii Missionary Area), Rev. Tomio Otsuka (Ordained Minister, United States Missionary Headquarters), and Rev. Hideharu Sugiuchi (Ordained Minister, Vice Chief of Hawaii Missionary Area). At the Leaders’ Workshop there were four lectures, including “The Connection Among God, Nature and Man,” which was based on last year’s Seicho-No-Ie Special Conference for World Peace held in Germany.
Rev. Teshigawara gave two lectures: “Why Go to the Forest?,” and “Let’s Carry Forward the Humanity Enlightenment Movement and the International Peace by Faith Movement.” She explained the significance and the purpose of the International Headquarters’ move to the forest, as well as the expansion of the Movement aiming at man’s coexistence with nature.
The public lecture was held under the theme, “Everything Starts from Your Mind.” Rev. Teshigawara lectured on the same theme and talked, in an easy-to-understand manner, about the teachings: “we live laughing merrily” and “reconciliation with everything in the whole universe,” while mixing actual examples. Rev. Otsuka lectured on “Seicho-No-Ie Is Wonderful” and stressed that man is a child of God and that life is eternal. In his lecture entitled “What Is Seicho-No-Ie?” Rev. Sugiuchi explained the three pillars of the Seicho-No-Ie teaching and also talked about a life that is in harmony with nature based on his own experience.
Comments received from the attendees of the public lecture included: “The lectures were easy to understand for first-timers and wonderful.”
Remarks by Rev. Yoshiko Teshigawara, Bishop of Seicho-No-Ie United States Missionary Headquarters
“Both the Leaders’ Workshop and the public lecture produced fruitful results. At the Leaders’ Workshop, many people commented, “I understood well why the International Headquarters is moving to the forest.” I appreciated their comments. To the followers who worked hard to promote the event, it was a source of hope and courage for their propagation activities in the future. The attendees left with nice smiles on their faces.”