AFTER CHRISTMAS REMEMBERING SAINT NICHOLAS IN JAPAN
.
Well I am sure good St Nick, Santa Claus, visits Japan as
lovingly as he does America or Europe,,, but now I am
thinking of Saint Nicholas or Nikolai Kasatkin(1836-1912)
who ,sent to Japan as a young priest to serve Russian
seamen, learned Japanese and built a national Japanese
church which to this day has its presence in all parts of the
country...
The occasion of remembering the great work of St Nicholas
in his 50 years in Japan, was the proposal of meeting at
dinner by Archbishop Michael of New York of the Orthodox
Church in America with me and Deacon John Dotterer and
his wife Rumi Anastasia Dotterer now of Syracuse New York
though Deacon John who has a company in the translation
field lived in Japan 5 years, and his wife was born there in
Akita which is at the north of the main island and was within
my diocese years ago.
So we spoke of Japan, of the heritage of our Saint Nicholas,
but also of the future and of how the churches here and there
and the cultures too might grow and interact in new ways...
sharing then this picture representing that time...
NOTE
left to right myself, Archbishop Michael,Deacon John and
Rumi Anastasia... on table a copy of a new historical
translation I have
referred to by Fr John Bartholomew of documents from this
church's history in Japan in the time of Nikolai.
.
Well I am sure good St Nick, Santa Claus, visits Japan as
lovingly as he does America or Europe,,, but now I am
thinking of Saint Nicholas or Nikolai Kasatkin(1836-1912)
who ,sent to Japan as a young priest to serve Russian
seamen, learned Japanese and built a national Japanese
church which to this day has its presence in all parts of the
country...
The occasion of remembering the great work of St Nicholas
in his 50 years in Japan, was the proposal of meeting at
dinner by Archbishop Michael of New York of the Orthodox
Church in America with me and Deacon John Dotterer and
his wife Rumi Anastasia Dotterer now of Syracuse New York
though Deacon John who has a company in the translation
field lived in Japan 5 years, and his wife was born there in
Akita which is at the north of the main island and was within
my diocese years ago.
So we spoke of Japan, of the heritage of our Saint Nicholas,
but also of the future and of how the churches here and there
and the cultures too might grow and interact in new ways...
sharing then this picture representing that time...
NOTE
left to right myself, Archbishop Michael,Deacon John and
Rumi Anastasia... on table a copy of a new historical
translation I have
referred to by Fr John Bartholomew of documents from this
church's history in Japan in the time of Nikolai.
.