One of the first things I tried to find in Hita right after arriving was a church where I could join services, Bible studies or etc. As other areas in Japan, finding a church is not as easy as in South Korea. In Anjung(안중) where I lived more than ten years back in South Korea has more than 10 churches whose names I remember, small or big. There may be more, I guess. I was not even curious about which kind of denomination of the church in Hita would be. I had just thought it would be better than having no church around.
Luckily, It was not that hard to find. A Lutheran church with a big preschool behind was located right across McDonald where I would be craving for Big Mac and French fries after getting bored with Japanese or Korean food. The existence of the Lutheran church got me a bit of joy and surprise because back in South Korea there are few Lutheran churches (in my life, I saw only one Lutheran church back in South Korea in Hannam-dong(한남동) in Seoul where there is a quite big German community around. I thought joining a denomination I was not used to or involved in could be a great opportunity to broaden and deepen my perspectives towards Christianity in East Asia( One of the reasons I had decided to move to Japan was figuring out how Christianity has taken roots in Korea, Japan, and China each.
Whenever I went grocery shopping after work which was typically late in the evening, I checked out whether there was a service being done on a regular basis or someone doing something there. Actually I wanted to know if there are Bible studies or something during weekdays because my day-off is just on Fridays, some times Thursdays, not Sundays. After a few trials, I managed to find someone working in the church. He was not a pastor. There was no Bible studies. There used to be, he said. I asked him whether there are any services or activities during weekdays. He answered 'no.' He said there are two services just on Sundays. Moreover, there was no pastor fully in charge of the church. Pastors of Lutheran churches in Oita Prefecture keep taking turns of having services in Hita. Even though I didn't get any specific statistics over religious life of people here in Hita, I could clearly presume that Christianity is not flourishing as actively as South Korea.
Another day I happened to find a quite Catholic Cathedral like building. At first I thought it was a real Cathedral building. In Kyushu there has been a long history of Catholic churches starting from Francis Xavier in spite of a long lasting persecutions by Dokugawa Bakuhu(徳川幕府) in the middle. Relatively Catholic Churches are more spread and visible than Protestant Churches as far as I had experienced.
Over Francis Xavier click down here!
It was not a church. It was a wedding hall. There was no cross at the top of the roof of the building. Of course, back in South Korea, there are many wedding halls, but they don't look like church buildings. Many of them adopt Greco-Roman styles. Possibly, Christianity is treated not as a religion but as a culture from the West by the majority of Japanese. For example, watching Japanese animations and dramas, there are lots of scenes where couples are having a wedding in a church or church-like building with a pastor officiating. But, it is just a type of wedding and doesn't have any religious meanings related to Christianity.
Having failed to find an opportunity to do something social in the only church I had found, I started to read the Bible before going to bed or just right after waking up in the morning. And it became my habit to check out the bulletin board in front of the church after shopping, which is almost all the time empty.
No comments:
Post a Comment