The Beginnings
Oomoto’s experience in joint worship began on March 12, 1975, with the ceremony performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, followed by a ceremony at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on November 16, 1975. These were the first times in history that Shinto services had been conducted inside a Christian Cathe-dral.
The Kiss of Peace
On February 3, 1977, Dean Morton of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine came to Oomoto and performed an Episcopal service, the Kiss of Peace. Later that year, Dean Rodgers of Grace Cathedral held another Episcopal service at Kameoka. Guests to these events included leaders of Japan’s religious world, as well as scholars, writers, and prominent members of the media.
|
“A sacred Adventure” Dr. Hachiro Yuasa, President Emeritus of International Christian University, commenting on the Kiss of Peace, February 1977. |
Joint Worship as a Central Feature of the Japanese Inter-Religious Movement
The effect on the Japanese religious world was electrifying. The impact showed itself in the later activities of Abbot Shocho Hagami, who convinced President Sadat to sponsor an Islamic-Christian-Jewish ceremony at Mt. Sinai. Joint Worship has since been taken up by most major Japanese Buddhist and Shinto groups and has become so important that it is now one of the defining features of the Japanese inter-religious movement.
In the twenty years after those first ceremonies at Ayabe and Kameoka, Japanese religious groups have sponsored dozens of joint worship services all over the world, usually with the presence of Oomoto. Some of these events have drawn religious leaders from around the world, such as the Mt. Hiei Summit of 1987, and the Prayer and Forum at Ayabe in 1993.
The Iwashimizu Prayer Gathering of Indigenous Religions, April 18, 1993
Shinto being Japan’s indigenous religion, Oomoto and other Shintoists have valued relations with indigenous religions. At the time of the Kyoto Global Forum in April 1993, Iwashimizu Shrine, south of Kyoto, sponsored a Prayer Gathering of Indigenous Religions, attended by Phil Lane Jr., of the Standing Rock Lakota Tribe from South Dakota, USA, Nana Apadeu from Africa, representatives from the Philippines, and others.
